The forum was a collaboration between the New Hanover County Chapter of the NAACP and the New Hanover County Association of Educators (NHCAE), aimed at giving members of the community a chance to hear from educators and voice their concerns to county leadership over the dismantling of the Department of Education and other orders from the federal government that pose a challenge for local school systems.
NAACP President LeRon T. Montgomery opened the meeting with a message of unity before discussing what many in attendance would describe as dire circumstances: “The challenges we face in education are real, but so is our commitment, so is our power, and so is our belief that every student, regardless of race, background, zip code or income, deserves access to a quality education that nurtures their full potential.”
Federal DOE Overview
Last month, President Donald Trump signed an executive order calling for the dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE), while preserving some critical functions like Title I funding for low-income schools, Pell grants, and funding for children with disabilities.
Before the executive order came down, significant cuts to DOE staff were already being made.
Bianca Vázquez Toness, a reporter with the Associated Press, laid out the overarching skepticism of the executive order in a recent article.
“Less clear is what could happen with a more lofty part of [the department’s] mission — promoting equal access for students in an American education system that is fundamentally unequal,” Toness said.
Kemeka Sidbury, the education chair of the local branch of the NAACP, gave an overview of the federal programs that could be affected by Trump’s executive order, highlighting how they benefit all students, not just those who are financially disadvantaged.
DOE also offers programs that provide research funding for UNC System schools, handles civil rights complaints, and provides grants and special education services for preschoolers.
As an example, Sidbury explained how students with cognitive or developmental disabilities could lose out on vital programs, like Coastal Horizons Center’s Lake Forest Academy Day Treatment Program, which relies in part on funding from Medicaid to help students build social and problem-solving skills.
“Based on my opinion and based on my experience, we think of poor people, but poor people don't always receive those benefits,” Sidbury said. “There are a lot of rich people that receive those benefits also. And so these are governmental services that are benefiting a lot of people. And so we just want to clear some of these things up so that we're making the public aware.”
State and local funding
Sidbury shared a breakdown of New Hanover County School’s budget from the federal to county level, and it showed that 60% of the budget came from the state and 30% came from the county in the 2024-2025 fiscal year.
About 8% of funds were from the federal government, which translates to over $27 million. About $14 million of that went to programs that support the needs of students including:
- $150 thousand allotted to uphold the provisions of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act
- About $6 million for programs that assist schools with a significant population of students from low-income families
- Over $5 million is allocated for IDEA Title VI-B to ensure access to free public education for exceptional children
For fiscal year 2025-2026, those budgetary needs are expected to increase slightly, but the county will have to find a way to fund those programs if they do not receive federal grants as expected.
About $700,000 is being proposed to replace current year Title I one-time funding for staffing in the new budget, which includes three teacher positions, three teacher’s assistants, and 1 pre-k parent liaison.
The breakdown also suggested that about $1.8 million would be needed to replace one-time funding sourced through Medicaid. These services include: one-on-one private duty nurses, language services, vocational rehabilitation, and visually impaired services.
Sidbury finished off with NHCS Superintendent Dr. Christopher Barnes' budget priorities:
Leandro vs. North Carolina
Local advocate Rebecca Trammel gave a presentation on Leandro vs. the State of North Carolina, a case dating back to 1994 which involved five North Carolina school districts who sued the state because their schools did not have enough money to give every student an equal opportunity at a quality education, despite their residents paying higher tax rates.
To this day, the state has yet to release those funds.
Trammel said this has resulted in “a 31-year failure on the part of the state to ensure that we and our constitutional obligation of getting a sound basic education to every child.”
According to data from NHCAE, North Carolina ranked 11th in GDP and 31st in GDP per capita amongst other states, but is ranked 49th out of 50 in per-pupil spending in the country.
“Sadly, I wish it would be one thing if we didn't have the money, but that's not the case. We actually do,” Trammel said. “We have a robust and very much growing economy, but 69% of our children grade three through eight are not reading at a sufficient proficiency to be considered on track for college or career.”
Trammel said she wants the community to continue advocating to make this a voting issue until the Leandro plan is fully funded, and shared a toolkit that explains the case in more detail and provides action steps for advocates.
“One of the things that we really want to do is cultivate and curate an interdisciplinary conversation about the problem of Leandro,” Trammel said. “We want to hear from social workers and public health officials. We want to hear from politicians. We want to hear from lawyers and educators. We want to hear from parents and even students.”
Forum
Superintendent Barnes, all members of the New Hanover County school board and county commissioners, state senators Michael Lee and Bill Rabon, state representatives Deb Butler, Ted Davis, and Charlie Miller, and Congressman David Rouzer were invited to participate in the forum.
Barnes was not in attendance due to personal reasons, but state officials were visibly absent and organizers said they did not respond to the request, though Lee, Butler, and Davis spoke with the Wilmington City Council last month.
County commissioners Rob Zapple and Stephanie Walker participated in the forum, along with school board member Dr. Tim Merrick.
The public submitted questions for the county officials to answer and some of the more concerns discussed were funding for school infrastructure and equipment, creating an education tax, similar to a sales tax; Walker said she would support a small tax at the county level.
Merrick addressed the topic of end-of-grade test score performance, and he surmised that there is more to a student’s school performance than test scores alone.
“When we talk about children with ACEs, adverse childhood experiences, it's going to be harder for them to pay attention, it's going to be harder for them to have normal behavior,” Merrick said. “Literally, when your fight or flight mechanism is turned on and because of your childhood experiences.”
“We don't have social workers. We don't have enough child psychologists. We don't have enough guidance counselors. These are really critical if going to take care of our children and increase performance,” Merrick added.
The forum ended without any conclusive solutions to the area's education challenges, but NHCAE President Jacqui Dalessio said this was the first of a handful of forums to come in the next few months. Dalessio also said that the forum is more of a learning opportunity for the public on what the most pressing needs are in our education system, and a chance to speak with officials face-to-face.
“Just to give some context to people, I learned things tonight that I didn't even know, and I am living and breathing this every day,” Dalessio said. “And so that's our mission, is to get that out. And we also want our elected officials to join us. We're not trying to be divisive. We just want people at the table to speak to us and be transparent and have an avenue to explain themselves in a polite fashion.”