We have to make the invisible erosion

in education funding

visible to our nation’s citizens.

North Carolina is a case in point.

Almost all of the public education systems in America receive an overwhelming majority of funding from their own state legislatures.

It may surprise you to learn that North Carolina now holds the shameful national ranking of 48th in America for state legislative funding for public primary and secondary schools.¹ This stingy amount comprises only 61 percent of total funding for NC’s K-12 students, supplemented by local school districts (22 percent) and the federal government (17 percent).²

A lot of our state income used to come from taxing corporations’ income.  In 2003, the income tax rate on the profits of North Carolina corporations was 6.9%.  This has been reduced over the past 21 years to 2.5%.   As harmful as that was to funding our state’s educational system, the news gets worse.   In the latest North Carolina tax reduction law, which was passed November 21st of 2021, corporate income tax is scheduled drop to zero in 5 years!

Meanwhile, your personal income tax rate remains at 4.5%.

If our state legislature continues to decrease allocated dollars, it will have a devastating impact on your kids’ and grandkids' futures.

The NC General Assembly recently expanded a special program called “School Vouchers.” This program enables part of a public school district’s budget to follow district students to whatever school—public or private—they prefer. In school year 2023-24, instead of increasing public school funding, $185 million of NC K-12 school funding was spent on the voucher program. For NC’s 2024-25 school year, the part of state public school expenditures allocated to the voucher program has increased to $463.5 million.³

Some argue in favor of the freedom to use state taxpayer dollars to allow a student to attend a non-regulated and not-financially-audited private school. But most students receiving a voucher were already attending private schools! Additionally, according to District 115 State Representative Lindsey Prather, more than half of all students with vouchers came from households that earned more than $115,000 per year.⁴ Additional facts cast further doubt on whether vouchers actually expand school choice. As NC Governor Josh Stein said:

“Recent research from the Public School Forum of North Carolina found that among the 200 private schools that received the most funding from the [voucher] program during the 2023-24 school, 89% of them had some form of discrimination in the admissions process. More than one-third of the schools (38%) excluded students with disabilities, and more than two-thirds (68%) had a religious requirement to attend the school. Nine out of every 10 of these private schools has a religious affiliation and less than half (42%) were accredited.” ⁵

NC’s recent voucher law effectively diverts $463.5 million dollars that could have been used to increase funding for the 48th lowest funded public school network in the country and gives the majority of it to high-income families.

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What Goes Around (Finally) Comes Around?

Acknowledging the Unusual Rise in Childhood Chronic Disease in America—and Its Causes

One month ago, a special Presidential Action directed the establishment of the Make America Healthy Again Commission, to be chaired by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary and comprised of other cabinet-level leaders, commissioners, and directors from Education, Agriculture, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institutes of Health, among others. The initiative supports growing sentiment among health care professionals that “[s]omething is poisoning the American people.”

Dated February 13, 2025, the Executive Order states that the Commission’s purpose is to "study the scope of the childhood chronic disease crisis and any potential contributing causes, including the American diet, absorption of toxic material, … environmental factors, … food production techniques, electromagnetic radiation, and corporate influence or cronyism."

The EO highlights the following reasons for the Commission:

• An estimated 40.7 percent of children have at least one health condition, such as allergies, asthma, or an autoimmune disease;
• Close to 30 percent of adolescents are prediabetic;
• More than 40 percent of adolescents are overweight or obese,
• Globally, the U.S. has the highest age-standardized incidence of cancer, nearly double the next-highest rate, and
• From 1990-2021, the United States experienced an 88 percent increase in cancer, the largest percentage increase of any country evaluated.

In August 2025, "using transparent and clear facts," the federal Commission will identify contributors to the childhood chronic disease crisis and propose Government-wide policies to address them.

We’ll be around, and know you will be, too. For more information about the potential impact of the Commission’s work, please go to Key Objectives and Timelines of MAHA.

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A Simple Step to Increase Learning:

Borrow Indoor Air Monitors Without Charge

The Pollution Detectives, Inc. has the expertise and the equipment to help you manage indoor air quality in your organization.

The 501(c)3 nonprofit provides indoor air monitors and technical assistance without charge to schools, fitness centers and healthcare clinics throughout North Carolina. Out of more than 850 sampled locations, it found that 40% possess indoor air conditions that lower learning by at least one letter grade.

The monitors lent by TPD survey for particulate matter, volatile organic compounds, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and temperature and humidity. Regulating these components of the indoor environment is critical to the performance of teachers, administrators and staff, and to the concentration and academic achievement of students.

If you are interested in borrowing monitors and/or in understanding more about the benefits for your school, visit the website or contact Dr. Francis P. Koster at fkoster@thepollutiondetectives.org.

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References for Making the Invisible Visible

1. North Carolina schools rank near bottom nationally in funding levels, study finds.

2. School Finance in North Carolina - Public School Forum.

3. What House Bill 10 means for immigration enforcement in North Carolina | WUNC.

4. North Carolina's expanded school voucher program could transform education choices.

5. Private School Vouchers in North Carolina: The Math Doesn’t Add Up | NC Governor.