By Grace Vitaglione
Updated 6:46 p.m. Nov. 20
The N.C. Senate passed the bill Nov. 20. Members of the public in the gallery watching the proceedings hissed as Sen. Ralph Hise (R-Spruce Pine) read out provisions of the bill and applauded Democratic speakers, which prompted rebukes from legislative leadership.
Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who presided over the Senate, eventually ordered everyone in the gallery to leave. Protesters yelled statements like, “You’re overturning the will of the people,” as they were being led out by General Assembly police and sergeants at arms. Some lawmakers milled around the floor of the chamber and chatted while others took photos of the protesters.
Now the bill goes to Gov. Roy Cooper, who is expected to veto the measure. The legislature could override the governor’s veto with a supermajority vote, but with three House Republicans having voted against the bill, that override is not fully certain.
The three House Republicans who voted against the bill — Reps. Mike Clampitt (R-Bryson City), Karl Gillespie (R-Franklin) and Mark Pless (R-Canton) — all come from western North Carolina.
“I understand from House leadership that they feel confident that an override would be taken if the governor vetoes the bill,” Senate leader Phil Berger (R-Eden) told reporters Nov. 20.
The N.C. House of Representatives passed a bill late Nov. 19 that includes a measure to allocate more than $33 million in funding to extend grants for child care centers to help them stay afloat as previous state funding runs out.
Senate Bill 382 now goes to the Senate, where it’s expected to pass the Republican-dominated chamber easily.
If Gov. Roy Cooper were to sign the bill, that child care funding would fund centers for just a few more months.
Rep. Donny Lambeth (R-Winston Salem) said the amount is intended to keep centers afloat until March, when the legislature will be back full-time for the long legislative work session that takes place in the wake of elections.
Lawmakers have been working with the industry and looking at creative models in the time away from the General Assembly in Raleigh, he said.
Sen. Jim Burgin (R-Angier) said the health chairs will gather during the early part of the 2025 legislative session to come up with a long-term plan to support child care centers.
Lawmakers originally planned to allocate $22 million to the child care centers, Burgin said, but ended up going with the higher number to keep the centers afloat longer while lawmakers come up with a solution.
“We can’t keep just putting money into it, so we’re gonna come up with a solution,” he said.
Wide-ranging bill
Lawmakers used a six-page bill that originally addressed dentistry laws, but the content was deleted and replaced with new legislative language. Now the bill — which also includes measures intended to provide $227 million in relief funding for the aftermath of Helene — stretches to 131 pages.
Most of the bill is a cornucopia of non-storm related measures, including $5 million to remediate Poe Hall on the campus of N.C. State University, which has been found to be contaminated with chemical mixtures linked to cancer, and over $5.8 million in earmarks for districts represented by Republican lawmakers.
The bill also shortens the time period for voters to “cure” their provisional ballots and shortens the timeline for voters to request absentee ballots by a week, and it contains language to overhaul governance of the State Highway Patrol.
SB 382 would also trim the powers of the incoming governor, attorney general and state superintendent of public instruction. Those three offices were all won by Democrats in the early November election.
If the bill passes both chambers, it will put Cooper in a position of choosing between measures that would weaken the powers of elected government officials and desperately needed storm relief dollars.
Democratic lawmakers decried the bill during an evening session on the floor of the state House of Representatives Nov. 19, saying that Helene relief should not be tied to partisan moves. Democratic representatives also said they only received the 131-page bill for review hours before.
“None of this has gone through any committee, had any open public hearing; we heard from no agency officials, and this is now rammed down our throat within hours of coming out,” Rep. Marcia Morey (D-Durham) said.
Staying afloat
With the end of pandemic-era federal supports for child care centers earlier this year, many centers across North Carolina faced a steep dropoff in funding. State lawmakers extended funding in June, but those funds are expected to dry up in late winter. In the summer, House Speaker Tim Moore (R-Kings Mountain) said funding for another six months would come through in January.
Even if the $33 million in the bill is passed, centers could still run up to another cliff in March if no more money is appropriated, said Janet Singerman, president and CEO of Child Care Resources Inc., a child care resource and referral agency based in Charlotte.
“The situation is not better than it was in June,” she said.
Nearly 30 percent of North Carolina child care centers expect to close if the dollars sunset, and 88 percent say they expect to increase parent fees, according to a report released by the North Carolina Child Care Resource and Referral Council.
Child care advocates are encouraging lawmakers to pass funding that would support centers for another six months, said Singerman. State funding for child care has been flat for the better part of a decade.
The funding is particularly important for western North Carolina, where two child care centers had to close because of extensive damage from Helene, said Lori Jones-Ruff, interim director of the Southwestern Child Development Commission, a nonprofit that focuses primarily on seven western North Carolina counties.
Another five or six centers in the disaster area won’t be able to resume operations before the end of the year, she said. Some had to relocate due to damage from the storm.
Appealing to lawmakers
As winter has approached, some providers worried lawmakers wouldn’t pass more funding and that they may have to lose teachers or close classrooms.
Child care advocates and providers organized town halls on Oct. 23 and 26 to raise awareness about the need for more funding. The first was in Eden, Rockingham County — the hometown of Republican Senate Leader Phil Berger.
The location was no accident, said Yisel Pomier Maren of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, who helped organize the event. Advocates said Berger told them he couldn’t attend because the legislature was meeting the next day to pass relief funding for Helene.
Instead, advocates brought a blown-up photo of Berger’s face, which sat at a table during the event. Providers and advocates ate barbecue and discussed how the stabilization grants had helped their centers and what would happen if that money were to disappear.
Triangle-area child care providers Lucy Rodriguez and Marby Blanco both said the federal pandemic-relief stabilization funds allowed them to hire a part-time teacher.
Carol’s Care Child Development Center in Reidsville, near Eden, used pandemic-era money to offer discounted rates for parents and increase teacher wages, as well as starting an outdoor learning environment in their playground, according to Donna White, the center’s administrator.
“If we lose the funds for the stabilization grants, unfortunately, we’re gonna have to be really creative in keeping the wages for our staff,” White said.
Supporting the workforce
Whitney Ward teaches 4- and 5-year-olds at Carol’s Care Child Development Center. She became interested in early childhood education in high school when she took a class on child development.
“I’ll never forget the teacher — she was just really cool, and she got me interested in it,” Ward said.
Offering more early child care courses in high school can help recruit early childhood teachers such as Ward, according to a statewide survey of child care professionals conducted by Early Years, formerly Child Care Services Association, a child care advocacy organization.
While increasing compensation and improving benefits are important, child care providers said a better recruitment and retention system is also needed to support people like Ward who find an early interest in the field.
Nearly 40 percent of full-time teachers left their job at a child care center in 2023, the Early Years survey found, and more than one in five teachers are planning to leave within the next three years.
The median starting salary for an early childhood teacher in 2023 was $14 per hour, the study found.
Survey participants also suggested grants for recruiting staff and targeting community colleges.
Lawmakers and providers agree there needs to be a long-term, sustainable solution to the issue of funding child care, but the dollars and solutions have been elusive.
“What we’re not going to do is let the General Assembly wait until the last minute again,” said Zaborah Roane of the National Domestic Workers Alliance at the town hall Oct. 23.
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