Cooper vetoes North Carolina school reopening bill, paving way for possible override

(The Center Square) – Republican legislation that requires North Carolina public schools to offer in-person learning was vetoed Friday by Gov. Roy Cooper.

Senate Bill 37 mandates all public K-12 schools to resume in-person learning for students with special needs without social distancing and all other K-12 classrooms to operate based on school districts’ discretion.

Cooper, however, said putting middle-school and high-school students back in the classrooms without social distancing goes against public health guidance. The governor had told lawmakers he was willing to sign a bill that reopened schools but one that followed public health guidance.

“As written, the bill threatens public health just as North Carolina strives to emerge from the pandemic,” Cooper said in a statement Friday. “Therefore, I veto the bill.”

The North Carolina Association of Educators (NCAE), the state’s largest education advocacy organization for public school employees, also opposed the measure, calling it “the opposite of a safe return to in-person instruction.”

“By attempting to pre-empt the decision-making authority of local school boards and ignoring the latest scientific guidance, this bill would have needlessly endangered the health and safety of educators and students,” NCAE President Tamika Walker Kelly said Friday in a statement. “The best action all legislators can take right now is to encourage their communities to comply with the safety protocols and to encourage the vaccination of all school employees.”

Sen. Deanna Ballard, R-Watauga, one of the bill’s sponsors, said Republicans would push for an override of the governor’s veto. It would take a three-fifths majority vote in both chambers of the General Assembly to reverse the veto.

“With teacher vaccinations in full swing, there is no legitimate excuse for Gov. Cooper and the far-left NCAE to oppose the broad reopening flexibility this bill grants to school districts,” Ballard said. “The far-left NCAE owns the governor’s mansion. Thankfully, Senate Bill 37 passed with enough bipartisan support to override Gov. Cooper’s veto, and we expect to bring it up for an override vote.”

Democrats also have filed two similar measures that follow public health guidance and would not require middle- and high-school students to return in-person classrooms with minimum social distancing.

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