Saving North Carolina’s Public Education System
How to Stop Those Who Would Betray the State’s Children and Future
As part of its work on public education in America, Civic Way is taking a closer look at one state—North Carolina. This is the 11th essay in Civic Way’s series on North Carolina’s primary and secondary education system (see the last essay). The author, Bob Melville, is the founder of Civic Way, a nonprofit dedicated to good government, and a management consultant with over 45 years of experience improving public agencies.
Achieving true, systemic education reform is a process. – Jim Hunt
Strategies for Reforming North Carolina’s Public Education System
Sometimes we understand a problem as soon as we encounter it. Other times, we have to dig deeper before we come to grips with it, before we can see past the distractions. Defining a problem is a prerequisite to its solution but solving the problem is where the hardest work begins.
In prior essays, we have outlined the major deficiencies of North Carolina’s K-12 public education system and the most critical threats to its long-term viability. To craft potential strategies for fixing those problems and averting those threats, we have built on the work of many others. In this essay and those that follow, we have presented an agenda with several public education reform strategies for the consideration of North Carolinians.
To ensure a sound education for all—the state’s constitutional duty—North Carolinians must work together. Not one party, but both. Not just state, but local leaders. Not just metro areas, but small rural towns and counties. Not just the rich but working families. A diverse state with divergent views must overcome its differences to build a public education system for everyone.
1. Revive Bipartisan Education Reform.
There are few causes more noble—or contentious—than reforming a vast K-12 public educational system. Given the stakes of this cause—North Carolina’s children and future—citizens must answer this call as one people. They must bring to bear their diverse views and aspirations to forge a unified plan for preserving and enriching their public education system.
Attaining this goal will require more than the usual highbrow state task force. It will require a well-grounded bipartisan network for public education reform. One that fully reflects local and statewide interests. One that informs any statewide reform plan with local input. This will be a tall order, but the state’s geographical, demographic and political diversity demand it.
This network should be organized from the ground up. Local councils comprising leaders, advocates and activists to represent every region (if not county) and constituency. A bipartisan statewide education reform task force to lead the process and synthesize local concerns and ideas into one cohesive plan. And to present the final plan to state leaders[i] and seek public support for the reform agenda.
The NCGA should enact, and Governor should sign, a bill empowering the educational reform effort for a two-year period. The bill should specify process guidelines, state task force and local council roles, funding parameters and public hearing rules. It should specify the scope and elements of the task force report. It should set a deadline by which the state task force will submit the final plan for hearings and an up-or-down vote by the NCGA.
And where should this vital work begin? With a clear statement of the plan’s goal (e.g., to produce a great workforce for economy of the future and great citizens for a dynamic self-governing society. It should proceed with an objective analysis of the 2019 Leandro settlement agreement[ii], a document that could serve as a departure point (or framework) for the task force’s final reform plan. And reliable estimates of funding requirements for any recommended reforms[iii].
2. Restructure and Depoliticize Public Education.
Reforming public education will require bipartisanship and good government. To that end, we must restructure our state and local education institutions, restore effective checks and balances between the executive and legislative branches and minimize political interference with public education.
At the state level, we should consider the following measures:
Transfer the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) to the Governor (i.e., make DPI an executive branch agency reporting directly to the Governor)
Make the Superintendent of Public Instruction a gubernatorially-appointed cabinet position
Strengthen the SBE’s authority as an independent educational policy board, reinforce its charter school authority and modify the appointment process to ensure balanced representation (e.g., appointed by Governor and confirmed by Senate) and fund it accordingly
Eliminate duplicative statutory boards like the Charter Review Board and transfer all staff to DPI
Strengthen civic service protection for state education employees (State Board and DPI)
Promote nonpartisan elections for independently elected education officials
DPI, the state’s primary education agency, should be structured to provide responsive technical service to LEAs. This should include sufficient resources—staff and contract—to promptly assist low-performing or distressed LEAs in rural and disadvantaged counties. This assistance should include marketing, joint ventures for increasing LEA cost-effectiveness, and turnaround services for troubled schools. Where appropriate, DPI should identify opportunities for providing regional contract resources, transferring support positions to regional offices, and co-locating with federal technical assistance centers.
Ultimately, the state should consider a new organizational model for education that will facilitate the coordination and integration of all educational programs—childcare, early childhood, elementary and secondary education, community colleges, universities, workforce training, and adult learning.
To improve local education administration, we should consider the following measures:
Identify and eliminate outdated legal and organizational barriers between institutions with similar missions or overlapping clients in each county
Fund DPI and incentivize LEAs to establish cost-effective joint ventures with adjoining LEAs to streamline management and operations, noninstructional support and instructional programs and, as deemed necessary, explore LEA consolidation opportunities
Fund counties to play a stronger role in the financing and oversight of public-school facilities
Eliminate partisan elections for local education officials
Strengthen laws protecting LEA employees from external interference (e.g., only LEA boards can dismiss superintendents and only superintendents or their subordinates can dismiss LEA employees)
Mergers can be formidable—and may yield limited short-term benefits—but we must take reasonable steps to ensure that all LEAs have the long-term fiscal capacity to weather the coming storm. Helping LEAs consolidate their operations, or at least initiate more joint ventures with other LEAs, will strengthen their ability to deliver quality education to their communities.
This essay recommends a structured, bipartisan approach to education reform and some restructuring of public education agencies. In the next several essays, we will offer other potential public education reform strategies that could be part of a broad reform initiative.