House, Senate budget deal would save teaching assistants

By GARY D. ROBERTSON
Associated Press

RALEIGH, NC (AP) — The chief budget-writer in the North Carolina House says a potential deal to finalize a budget with the Senate would preserve funding for teaching assistant positions in the public schools.

Rep. Harold Brubaker of Asheboro said Friday there’s a plan afoot to set aside as much as $290 million more for K-12 education than the House spending plan offered earlier this month. He said the idea would be for the Senate to make changes to its proposed $19 billion spending plan scheduled for a floor vote next week.
Then the House would vote for the Senate plan and send it to Gov. Bev Perdue.

Perdue has threatened a veto unless public education is protected.

The Insider newsletter first reported the rough dollar amount of the proposed education changes.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)