Durham school board prepares legislative advocacy agenda

The Durham school board, still recovering from a major financial mistake that led to staff walkouts and a superintendent’s resignation, met on Thursday for its monthly work session.

The board discussed a number of in-process projects, including the upcoming budget and its legislative priority list.

The most worldview-laden item was indeed that legislative priority list, copied below. The board of education and state legislators from Durham meet every year before the start of the legislative session, and that meeting is Wednesday, April 17.

Want to compare legislative agendas? While Wake County’s document is already more or less finalized/refined, check out the distinct lack of progressive worldview-laden language on the Wake document.

Board member Natalie Beyer has led a team of board members in getting what was described as a very rough draft started.

“Our top priority is our diversity, equity, and inclusion in public schools,” board member Millicent Rogers said.  

Legislative priority documents are often more or less pure virtue-signaling, though noteworthy conversation and discussion points can be highlighted.

Discussion among board members illustrated the tension between the desire for pure virtue-signaling and the need to be specific enough to give their legislators something specific to work with. 

Quoted in full below, the board wants legislators to “defend against culture wars” and “increase support for anti-racist curriculum and for LGBTQIA…” The board also wants to have Durham charter schools placed under its control.

The document is in process, but the board’s values remain clear: LGBT and critical race theory must be in the curriculum.

Board members made clear in the fall semester that recent parents’ rights bills remain unacceptable. And on Wednesday, when it meets with the state delegation from Durham, the board will maintain it must be able to drive secret wedges between students and their parents on LGBT issues.

“This all just feels really powerful,” board member Jessica Carda-Auten said of the draft list.

See the video (start at 3:10:00)

Draft Legislative Priorities Bullet Points

• Support diversity, equity and inclusion in public schools
  • Defend against culture wars and protect freedom of speech for students and staff
  • Reduce the interference of politicians in curriculum and empower local educators to teach an inclusive and representative curriculum
  • Increase support for anti-racist curriculum and for LGBTQIA students, staff and families
  • Support needs of multilingual students, immigrants and their families
• ● Increase Funding for Certified & Classified Staff
  • Improve compensation for all staff from beginning of career through veterans to above national averages
  • Restore Master’s Pay for educators in relevant fields
  • Fund professional development and beginning and mentoring supports for alternative licensure educators
  • Compensate teachers for additional duties and workload
  • Restore Funding for 1:1 Instructional Assistants in grades K-3
  • Fund living wages to match employees of Durham County
• ● Support Student Outcomes by Investing in the Whole Child
  • Fund Universal Pre-K for NC’s 3 & 4 year olds
  • Provide supports for english language learners and remove arbitrary 10.6% cap
  • Provide full funding for students with disabilities based on service level and remove the arbitrary 13% cap
  • Provide full funding for Academically and Intellectually Gifted Students and remove the arbitrary 4% cap
  • Fund mental health including counselors, social workers, nurses and psychologists to meet nationally recommended staff to student ratios
• ● Stop Privatization that Undermines NC’s Public Schools
  • Implement a moratorium on vouchers for Private Schools
  • Restore State and County Caps on Charter Schools (204 NC charter schools includes 14 in Durham and 2 statewide virtual)
  • Support a local bill to enable existing charter schools to be governed by the Durham Board of Education for greater transparency and accountability
• ● Implement a Funding Plan to Support Growing Together
  • Support a statewide capital bond
  • Support funding for facilities and staff to support class size reductions
  • Increase funding for programmatic equity and accessibility including EC and Pre-K
  • Fully fund IT staff, instructional technology, broadband infrastructure and connectivity
  • Encourage more diverse inclusion in our community schools