N.C. Superintendent Mo Green announces policy initiatives for education

At a North Carolina State Board of Education meeting earlier this month, North Carolina Public Schools Superintendent Mo Green announced the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction's policy priorities for the 2025-26 fiscal year. 

During the meeting, the SBE adopted the NCDPI's policy agenda, which was the first time in several years that both the SBE and the NCDPI shared an agenda. 

“Superintendent Green has laid out a vision for our public schools that he has termed ‘achieving educational excellence,’” Geoff Coltrane, senior director of government affairs and strategy at the NCDPI, said.

Green's priorities are derived from a combination of issues that were brought forward by members of his staff, as well as teachers, parents and principals, Coltrane said.

He said Green's initiative includes six primary pillars, which are to prepare each student for their next phase of life, fully fund public education, support public school educators, enhance parent and community support, ensure safe learning environments and recognize the good in public education. 

Specific priorities in Green's policy agenda aim to strengthen public schools include supporting students in western North Carolina, raising teacher pay to be the highest in the Southeast, reforming the principal pay plan and addressing the $13 billion in school construction needs.

“Public schools are really the heart of a lot of communities,” Heather Koons, the communications and research director of Public Schools First NC, said. “And that really came out in the hurricane response, because in some western [North] Carolina counties, teachers were the ones out there helping emergency staff find families because they knew the community really well. So helping to support the public schools helps the whole community.” 

Koons said she's doubtful that North Carolina could raise teacher salaries to be the highest in the Southeast because of how far behind the state is compared to others in the region. She said last year, teacher salaries increased by $820 for teachers in their 15th through 24th year.

“That's it for the whole year,” Koons said. “You know, and when you think about inflation and everything, that's a slap in the face.”

Green also included multiple budgetary requests in his agenda, including providing breakfast and lunch at no costs to students, increasing funding for academic support and coaching, increasing the number of school psychologists and social workers and replacing devices for each North Carolina student. 

Coltrane said many North Carolina public schools purchased computer devices for students using federal funds during the pandemic, which led to every student owning a device. However, school districts need $150 million to be able to replace devices every three to four years.

Hannah Vinueza McClellan, a senior reporter at EducationNC, said research consistently shows that students are able to attend school and learn better in the classroom when they have access to food, and that universal school meals prevent stigma.

Green's policy agenda is important, as it adequately addresses gaps in the current educational environment and respects public school teachers, Koons said. She said the best way to support schools is to share information about them, contact your local legislators and elect officials who support public schools.

“If you look at all of the requests that the State Board of Education and DPI submitted, there are a lot of them,” Vinueza McClellan said. “I think that reflects the reality that there are just a ton of things that our public schools do to support students, which means, in turn, there's a ton of things that our state needs to do to support our public schools.”

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