|
|
Friend, Welcome to the Friday Five! Every Friday we share our top five
articles, stories, and quotes for you to read and share with your
friends and church families.
We would be very grateful if you could make a donation of $100, $50, $25, or $10 today towards our work producing these Friday Fives and fighting for your values on the public square! 1. WRAL: Cooper will let $30-billion NC budget become law following Senate approval"North Carolina's $30-billion budget, stuffed with Republican priorities but also containing a long-sought Democratic victory on Medicaid expansion, will become law without Gov. Roy Cooper's signature, he announced shortly after the GOP-held Senate gave final legislative approval Friday morning. The budget, delayed by Republican disputes over expanded gambling in the state, comes months after the July 1 start of the fiscal year.” There are a number of things in the budget that we are especially excited about, such as funding for universal school vouchers and pregnancy care centers. All without including predatory gambling! The General Assembly approved $17.15 million to help pregnant women in crisis, including $12.5 million for the Carolina Pregnancy Care Fellowship (CPCF), an organization which provides support to 75 pregnancy care centers in North Carolina. Pregnancy care centers are a vital resource supporting pregnant women and their babies. Seventy-six percent of women who had abortions say they would have chosen life if their situations were different, and this funding totaling $6.8 million per year will help women choose life. North Carolina’s newly approved budget also expands Opportunity Scholarships to all families in NC, empowering parents to choose the school which best fits their children. Education funding will now allow every child to break away from our current one-size-fits-all approach to education, regardless of household income. To learn more, check out our related press releases here and here.
2. NEWS & OBSERVER: NC Republicans reach budget deal after agreeing to drop major casino expansion"GOP leaders of the North Carolina General Assembly announced Tuesday night they had reached a deal on the long-delayed state budget. The compromise budget will not include casino legislation, the subject of a monthslong controversy between the chambers that appeared to derail negotiations last week and continued to be a sticking point up until Tuesday afternoon." Read more: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article279536429.html For more, check out our
response.
3. NEWS & OBSERVER: GOP budget backs universal private school vouchers, delays Parents' Bill of Rights"North Carolina is poised to join a small but growing number of states that are offering universal private school vouchers The budget calls for increasing funding for the voucher program to $520.5 million by the 2032-33 fiscal year. That’s compared to the $176.5 million spent this fiscal year. The increase in state funding would come with new rules that say any family could apply for a voucher to get taxpayer funding to attend a K-12 private school. This change would eliminate income eligibility rules that restricted wealthy families from getting a voucher." “‘We feel they could easily implement without delay parts of the bill such as notifying parents when their child is socially transitioning at school and protecting K-4th graders from books on gender ideology and sexuality,’ Laura Macklem, a spokesperson for the N.C. Values Coalition, said in an email Tuesday. ‘Parents should not have to wait any longer to have their rights restored.’” Read more at: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article279511364.html For more, check out our press release.
|
|
