On Tuesday, February 13, the NC House passed the bill passed by the Senate last week to address the class size mandate. This legislation delays K-3 class size reductions, which will phase in beginning in the 2019-2020 school year and will be complete by the 2021-2022 school year. The legislation also appropriates $61,359,225 million to a dedicated recurring funding stream this fall to hire enhancement teachers (i.e., physical education, art, and music teachers, and others as determined by SBE). It provides a separate allotment for funding classroom teachers. While the bill restricts transferring allotments, it does allow for local flexibility to transfer funds from the program enhancement allotment to the classroom teacher allotment, but not vice versa. The bill language can be found here.

Governor Cooper has stated that he will let the bill become law despite the fact that the bill also includes changes to a fund related to the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and to the state elections board. 

NCAAHPERD-SM and partners have been following the class size issue because of the importance of funding Healthful Living K-12 teachers. While this legislation is a step in the right direction, it is one important aspect of building effective HPE programs. North Carolina needs to do more to fully fund our health and physical education positions across the state and address assessment and reporting so that schools have the opportunity to show how they invest in the health of their students. NCAAHPERD-SM will continue to work with Partners, state and local decision-makers to invest in HPE teachers and strong HPE programs.  

Meanwhile, we are also fighting at the federal level to fully fund Title II and IV after they were zeroed out in the president’s budget. Please help us focus here now for funding to NC for Health and Physical Education.  It’s easy - click HERE and send your letter of support to your National Congress members.