North Carolina Gov. Cooper vetoes legislation seeking to change oversight of deaf & blind schools
The News Observer in North Carolina reported that North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, vetoed a bill that would have changed the board oversight of two state schools for the deaf and a school for the blind.
The two deaf schools are the North Carolina School for the Deaf in Morganton and the Eastern North Carolina School for the Deaf in Wilson. The third school is the Governor Morehead School for the Blind in Raleigh.
The article explained that the bill would have set up three “newly created boards of trustees” to oversee each school and end the current system of having the North Carolina State Board, a single entity, oversee all three schools. The three new boards would have five members with four being appointed by the state legislature and one being appointed by the governor.
The bill unanimously passed the House and out of Senate on a 40-4 vote, but it was stonewalled by Gov. Cooper’s veto on Monday.
The article said state Superintendent Catherine Truitt, a Republican, sent a letter to legislators asking them to override the veto when they return to the state capitol this month.
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Gov. Cooper said in his veto message that he believes the legislature, which is controlled by Republicans, is trying to give more control of education to Boards of Trustees made up of partisan political appointees. Cooper said the newly created board(s) would have “80% of the trustees, who may or may not know how to run these schools, appointed by the legislature. The students at the schools deserve steady, knowledgeable leadership…”
The News and Observer said the “state board currently has a Democratic majority due to the appointments Cooper has made during his tenure.”
The article said State Superintendent Truitt said in her letter to legislators that the governor is not acting in the best interests of the students and is only taking a political stand in the fight over political appointments. Truitt said the “schools deserve round-the-clock attention and on-the-ground support” instead of working with a state agency that is hours away from the schools.
The North Carolina legislature will return to the capitol on July 26.
I read that there have been many political conflicts between the GOP legislature and the Democratic governor with multiple vetoes and overridden vetoes over the past several years.
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article263365418.html
https://webservices.ncleg.gov/ViewBillDocument/2021/55335/0/S593-BILL-NBC-9599