Author: R. Alan Harrop, Ph.D.
The North Carolina General Assembly recently completed the state budget which usually signals the end of the session. Let’s take a brief look at what was accomplished from a conservative’s viewpoint.
First of all, we must recognize that the Republican party had a very slim (one vote) veto proof majority. Although that fact allowed the over-ride of several of Governor Cooper’s vetoes, it did not put them in a very strong position to advance the most conservative of propositions. Hopefully, if the 2024 elections produce a Republican Governor and continue and hopefully increase their majority, the Republican members should be able to do even more to reverse the leftist policies implemented by the Cooper regime. Elections do have consequences!
It is amazing that a total of 487 bills were passed by the General Assembly this year. If you do not think that our elected officials work hard, think again. You can access these bills on the internet by searching for bills passed in 2023. While the impact of some of these bills varied considerably, some of the positive accomplishments this session include the following: The Parent’s Bill of Rights was passed over the veto of Governor Cooper and provides parents with expanded and well defined rights of access to their child’s academic as well as any health related information retained by a public school. It also allows parents to opt out their child from sex education. Importantly, it also requires the school to notify parents before changing the pronoun used for their child. It also prohibits instructing children about transgender issues and sexual activity from kindergarten through the fourth grade. This bill is a significant step towards reaffirming that parents control what is taught to their children–not teachers or school administrators.
Another bill of consequence, also passed over the veto of Governor Cooper, prohibits gender transition procedures (such as hormone blockers and surgery) for anyone under age 18 except in unusual circumstances and only with the consent of the parent(s). It reinforces the importance of maintaining a person’s sexual identity as established at birth. This bill should protect children from irreversible changes medically done to their bodies before they are able to understand all of the potential ramifications. Medical professionals need to stop promoting the idea of gender fluidity and reinforce the idea that everyone is best served by adapting to their biological birth gender.
In a related area, the General Assembly passed a bill, again over Governor Cooper’s veto, that requires participants in public school and university sports to do so based on their biological gender at birth. This controversy was started by the Left and had an extreme adverse impact on not only the achievement of women in the sport activity, but the demeaning exposure to males in female locker rooms. How anyone with any sense of justice and moral conscience could have supported this aberration is indicative of how far the Left will take our society if we let them.
Parental school choice was also addressed when a bill to expand the existing school scholarship program was passed, again over the Governor’s veto. Income requirements were removed, and specific amounts for vouchers were added to the existing program, allowing funds to be used for private and charter schools. This greatly expanded the availability of funds for parents. This again was passed over the veto of the governor.
These bills represent just some of the advances of the conservative principles that should be guiding the state of North Carolina. There were many other bills including an end to local pistol purchasing requirements. Background checks will still be required.
There were some disappointments, primarily the expansion of Medicaid which was contrary to conservative principles and furthered the socialist agenda of making people dependent on big government. Hopefully, in the next session adding homeschools to the parental choice bill and returning to single day voting in person will be addressed. There are more homeschoolers (162,000) than private school students (128,000) yet they get no support. There is too much reliance on absentee voting which continues to be subject to fraud.