Neighbors on Call’s NC ELECTION and Policy Update for 11/14/22

ELECTION UPDATE

In Tuesday’s elections,
Republicans in the North Carolina General Assembly fell one seat short of a veto-proof supermajority. While they gained exactly the number of seats needed for a supermajority in the NC Senate, their projected gains in the NC House (with not all elections officially called) give them 71 seats – one less than a supermajority. The extremely narrow margin by which vetoes from Governor Cooper must now be sustained means that Republicans in the NCGA may try to push for previously out-of-reach movement on controversial issues such as restricting abortion rights.
NoC-supported candidates Sen. Sydney Batch (Wake) and Rep. Terence Everitt (Wake) retained their seats and Mary Wills Bode flipped a state Senate seat (Wake). However, Rep. Ricky Hurtado lost his bid for reelection in Alamance County by 658 votes.
Republicans gained two seats in the North Carolina Supreme Court, giving them a 5-2 majority. With the 4-3 majority Democrats held previously, they were able to block partisan gerrymanders and order education funding to fulfill the Leandro plan, but the new Republican majority puts these issues – along with many others – in question.
Beyond the NC Supreme Court races, Republicans also won all four statewide Court of Appeals races on the ballot.

Education

On Thursday the Professional Educator Preparation and Standards Commission (PEPSC) voted 9-7 to support a plan to change teacher compensation in North Carolina to a performance-based, rather than experience-based, model. This represents an initial step in a recommendation process for eventual changes in law that would be implemented by the NCGA and State Board of Education. The vote was controversial, with critics expressing concerns that the new model would place too much emphasis on standardized tests and devalue experienced teachers’ expertise.

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