NC House Speaker To Push For $1.9 Billion Education Bond

North Carolina House Speaker Tim Moore is calling for a nearly $2 billion dollar school bond package to go before voters in 2020. The move comes after GOP leaders failed to put a similar bond on this year's ballot.

Moore says the measure would provide $1.3 billion for K-12 school construction, and $300 million each for UNC system schools and for the state's community colleges.

He says he'll push for the plan in the General Assembly next year to have it placed on the ballot in 2020.

A similar initiative last year had bipartisan support. But Republican leaders declined to put it on the ballot for this year's election, a move that drew criticism from Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat.

Voters approved a $2 billion debt package in 2016, and part of the money went to UNC system schools.

Still, North Carolina voters haven't seen a statewide bond measure just for schools since the mid-90s. That $1.8 billion bond passed easily with 72 percent of the vote.