North Carolina House unlikely to proceed with education overhaul, speaker says

A sweeping education proposal that would take away power from North Carolina superintendents and the State Board of Education, placing it in the hands of public school parents, is unlikely to advance this session, the House speaker said Thursday.

The 26-page bill, introduced last week but pulled from a committee agenda, would require parental permission for children to access libraries, extracurricular activities and mental health services. Parents would have more opportunities to review and challenge books or other instructional materials and would have full access to their child's library records.

House Speaker Tim Moore, a Cleveland County Republican, told reporters that there has been "some pushback within the caucus about some provisions concerning librarians or books." Budget negotiations, he said, are his party's primary focus.

Librarians and school personnel could be prosecuted under the bill for allowing children to access certain materials deemed harmful. No books containing descriptions of sexual acts would be permitted in libraries.

"I don't know that that bill is going to move this session," Moore said. "There needs to be a lot more discussion in our caucus, and we'll have to see where the caucus comes down on it. Right now, I don't know that the votes are there for it."

While Republicans hold a narrow supermajority in both of the state's legislative chambers, disagreements between the party's moderate and conservative members can table legislation late in the session.

House Democrats had raised alarms about several provisions, including one that would allow local school boards to fire superintendents or automatically dock their pay if parents present five affidavits demonstrating that a superintendent violated their right to direct the upbringing and education of their children.

Teachers would also be required under the bill to alert parents if their child self-identifies as a gender different from their sex assigned at birth. A nearly identical provision appears in another education bill vetoed by Gov. Roy Cooper, which Republicans could soon enact over his opposition.

Some transgender students testified earlier this year that such a policy would jeopardize their emotional well-being and physical safety by outing them to parents who could be unsupportive or abusive.