By Amy Cockerham
Public Ed Works

EDEN (February 5, 2026) – North Carolina’s public schools are grappling with underfunding and uncertainty because state legislators haven’t passed a budget for the current year.

Dr. John Stover is in his fourth year as superintendent of Rockingham County Schools, previously working for the Washington, D.C. public school system. The county, on the Virginia line north of Greensboro, serves approximately 11,000 students.

Budget proposals from both the state House and Senate propose teacher pay raises, but exactly how much teachers will see and when is yet to be determined.

“If the salary (increase) is above 3%, which is what we targeted, then we’re going to have to find money other places,” Stover said. “The uncertainty makes it difficult.”

Stover said his schools already don’t have enough funds to properly support students.

“Currently, we have about 19.2% of our students qualify for special education services,” Stover said. “The state currently … as the budget works, funds 13%. So, we have this gap of 6.2% of our students, the money that the state provides.”

Stover is part of a group of superintendents trying to see if school funding could be shifted to a weighted student formula model, giving schools more money depending on an individual student’s needs.

“We really need to look at it because it’s not meeting the modern needs,” Stover said. “It’s not offering flexibility that a lot of districts have.”

“We are 49th in funding and 50th in effort in the nation, and at some point you get what you pay for,” Stover said. “I think it’s something that we need to look at.”

Meanwhile funding for school vouchers, taxpayer money for private school education, is at an all-time high in North Carolina. Rockingham County is home to 13 private schools, according to the N.C. Department of Administration’s latest report.

“I have no problem with people having choice,” Stover said. “But if it’s a good policy decision to have no accountability and very loose oversight of how a school spends money, then let’s make that a thing for all of our schools.”