Top 6 in 2026! Legislative Agenda

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Public Schools First NC champions one unified, equitable, inclusive, innovative and accountable public education system that nurtures and prepares each child for success in school and life. We believe legislators should fulfill their constitutional obligation to provide every child with a sound, basic education. With this constitutional mandate in mind, and with the goal of ensuring high-quality educational opportunities for every child, we present our TOP 6 2026 legislative priorities.

1. Fully fund public schools to the national average or better using the Leandro Comprehensive Remedial Plan as a guide. Because legislative leaders have resisted funding public schools at the levels required by Leandro and have consistently underfunded public education, North Carolina now ranks a dismal 50th for funding level and 50th for funding effort. Continued advocacy is essential to ensure the requirements set out in the Comprehensive Remedial Plan are carried forward, inflation-adjusted, and fully funded. Seven key areas are identified:

• • Teacher development & recruitment to ensure each classroom is staffed with a high-quality teacher. 
  • A system of principal development & recruitment to ensure each school has a high-quality principal. 
  • A finance system that provides adequate, equitable, and predictable funding to school districts and adequate resources to address the needs of all schools and students. This includes increasing funding for special education students and removing the cap on the number of students. 
  • A reliable assessment & accountability process that uses multiple student performance measures.
  • An assistance/turnaround function that provides beneficial support to low-performing schools.
  • A system of early education that provides access to high-quality prekindergarten.
  • An alignment of high school to postsecondary and career expectations as well as the provision of early postsecondary and workforce learning opportunities. 

2. Stop the harmful diversion of public tax dollars from traditional public schools to voucher and charter schools; apply the same policies & regulations to all schools that receive public tax dollars. Recent budgets have increased funding for voucher programs by hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars each year. Eligibility requirements were removed, so now the wealthiest families and those who have never attended public schools are receiving vouchers. Other legislation eased restrictions on charter school growth while minimizing review processes. These changes will further damage North Carolina’s public schools and must be stopped before they cause irreparable harm.

• • Use public tax dollars exclusively for public schools.
  • Place a moratorium on funding school voucher programs.
  • Restore a cap on the number of charter schools.  
  • Require private schools receiving voucher funds to administer the NC EOG and EOC tests and report student results following the same guidelines as public schools.
  • Increase accountability and financial transparency for charter & voucher schools using public funds.
  • Allow local school boards the same flexibility as charter schools (e.g., calendar flexibility).

3. Repair the teacher pipeline by increasing teacher base pay and restoring and bolstering essential classroom, teacher, and student supports. Increase pay for all other school personnel. Teachers are the most important element of a high quality education for students. North Carolina currently has lower salaries than all of its neighbors and ranks as one of the lowest in the Southeast. Reversing this trend to the bottom is essential to securing a quality education for our children.

• • Increase teacher salaries to the national average; reinstate supplements for advanced degrees.
  • Increase per-pupil funding to the national average.
  • Significantly expand the Teaching Fellows Program and recruit more teachers of color.
  • Increase supplements and/or pay for high-vacancy positions.
  • Pay livable wages and full benefits to all school support personnel.
  • Restore full-time teacher assistants for each K-3 classroom.
  • Fully fund the class size mandates for grades K-3 and restore class size caps for grades 4-5.
  • Respect curriculum integrity and teachers’ professionalism and decision-making authority. 
  • Increase mentoring support and professional development, especially for new teachers.

4. Promote student well-being and safety by creating safe and supportive learning environments for all students and teachers. Students who don’t feel safe or supported at school are less likely to attend. Student mental health needs continue to grow and require more trained staff to support both students and teachers.  

• • Increase funding to hire more professionals (school psychologists, social workers, counselors and nurses) to nationally recommended levels.
  • Provide better mental health services and access for all children and families. 
  • Provide trauma-informed training for all school staff with an emphasis on social & emotional learning.
  • Support policies that ensure safe, secure, inviting, and respectful schools for students and educators.
  • Implement positive approaches to discipline such as restorative justice programs.
  • Keep guns off school grounds.
  • Implement required violence prevention and threat-reporting programs at all schools.

5. Provide a healthy start for all children by ensuring access to universal free pre-K and school meals for every student. Enrollment in high quality pre-K programs such as North Carolina’s NC Pre-K program has been shown through extensive research to boost academic performance and improve educational environments for students and staff. 

• • Implement universal pre-K for all eligible children; eliminate the 21K backlog of children eligible for NC Pre-K but not yet enrolled.
  • Invest in the early childhood educator pipeline by increasing state supplements for salaries.
  • Implement a universal school meal program to improve child health and reduce food insecurity by giving every child access to breakfast & lunch at school at no cost. 

6. Reverse policies that unfairly and inequitably target public schools. Bipartisan efforts have identified severe problems with and remedies for the current grading system. The current system provides a false evaluation of school quality that poorly serves the public and policymakers. It also fails to include private schools that receive hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars each year. 

• • Revise the current A-F grading system and replace it with a more valid and reliable way to evaluate school effectiveness; apply the same system to voucher schools.
  • Reverse policies tying principal pay to school performance grades or apply the same policy to charter schools and private schools receiving voucher funds. 

We monitor the NC General Assembly for actions that impact public education. To ensure that you receive up-to-date information about legislative actions during the 2026 Short Legislative Session, please sign up for our newsletter and check our website where we post legislative updates: Week in Review. Use our County Profile Database to find key educational information about your county. 

Join us in advocating for our children! By large margins, North Carolinians support fully and fairly funding our public schools. We need public education advocates from EVERY county to join our statewide Public Education Network (NC PEN) to help us share local information and keep us informed about emerging local issues that impact public schools. Please volunteer to join the network and be one of our great PEN pals! Email us to sign up at [email protected].