Have you ever thought about the difference between paying rent and owning a home? When you rent, your monthly payment helps cover the cost of living there, but it usually doesn't build anything for your future. Home ownership is different. Each payment you make on a home may help build equity, which is the value you own in the property over time. As that equity grows, it can become a financial asset that may support your long-term goals.
Owning a home can also provide stability. You have a place that's yours where you can build memories, establish roots, and truly make the space your own. And the good news is that many people are surprised to learn there are programs designed to help first-time homebuyers get started, including grants and assistance programs that may help with down payments or closing costs. Learning about your options is the first step toward making an informed decision about your future. Visit ToolsForHomeOwnership.com.
It's 5:05, and welcome in to a Wednesday edition of the Carolina Journal News Hour on Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM, WBT, I'm Nick Craig. Good morning to you.
Well, earlier this week, a very important meeting happening in North Carolina as a U.S. House Judiciary Subcommittee. was in the uh Queens City on Monday to examine why American health care costs so much and why so much of the money flowing through Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act that is the ACA exchanges never reach a patient. The field hearing of the Subcommittee on the Administrative State Regulatory Reform and Antitrust put North Carolina at the center of the debate, with members and witnesses spending much of the about hour and 45-minute meeting on North Carolina's certificate of need laws and the cost share formula in which the federal government picks up 90% of ACA Medicaid expansion enrollees. There were plenty of North Carolina representatives on hand.
Representative Mark Harris, the Republican out of North Carolina's 8th congressional district, Tim Moore, the Republican out of North Carolina's 14th congressional district, and I believe for the first time since he was censured by the United States House, Representative Chuck Edwards, the Republican out of North Carolina's 11th congressional district, all spoke at the meeting. They were joined alongside with members from South Carolina, Missouri, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. Representative Scott Fitzgerald, a Republican from Wisconsin, who chaired. The hearing noted that no House Democrats were in attendance regardless of their invites, and they did not invite any witnesses to testify. There were three witnesses who testified, Dr.
Brian Blaise, who is the president of the Paragon Health Institute, Dr. Brian Miller, a Johns Hopkins physician who also serves as the vice chairman of the North Carolina State Health Plan, and Catherine Martin, who is the vice president of health affairs for the University of North Carolina system. Congressman Tim Moore was pretty blunt in his opening remarks during the hearing, saying, despite decades of increased federal spending and regulation, we still see that health care remains too expensive and too difficult to access, not only here in North Carolina, but in other states as well. We'll start off with the discussion that probably took up the most of the meeting dealing with the 9010 federal split. Dr.
Blaise told the subcommittee that the government health program combines enormous subsidies with weak verification and incentives to maximize federal payments. His entity, Paragon Health Institute, estimates 14.3 million people were improperly enrolled in ACA exchanges or Medicaid expansion in 2024, which rolls out to about one-third of total enrollments in the program at a federal cost of roughly $65 billion a year. He said during the hearing, for the Obamacare expansion population, the federal government contributes $9 for every state dollar or a 9010 split. Thus, Washington contributes roughly seven times more for an expansion enrollee than it does for a traditional enrollee. That creates a terrible incentive.
If a state makes an eligibility mistake for an expansion enrollee, federal taxpayers bear at least 90% of the cost. Congressman Mark Harris told the Carolina Journal after the meeting: Medicaid should prioritize the Americans who need it most, children, seniors, and individuals with disabilities. Congress should reduce the enhanced federal match for able-bodied adults in the Medicaid expansion population so states do not receive a higher reimbursement rate for that population than they do for regular Medicaid recipients. The Tar Heels State was among one of the last states to expand Medicaid, starting coverage on December 1st, 2023, after then Governor Roy Cooper signed a law that covered adults up to 138% of the federal poverty level and pays the state's 10% share with hospital assessments. The state law that passed back in 2023 requires the program to end if the share ever has to come from the general fund or if the federal match falls below 90%.
Congressman Tim Moore said, when I'm out talking to folks, I hear about affordability. It's a real issue. And since the passage of the Affordable Care Act, by all the data that I have reviewed, it's done anything but make health care more affordable. Paragon estimates 9.2 million people on Medicaid expansion in 2024 were likely ineligible. That is 46% of the expansion population.
The group also estimates that Medicaid improperly, Medicaid improper payments topped nearly $1 trillion over the past decade. One of the other topics of conversation during the hearing in Charlotte earlier this week dealt with verifications and enrollment, with Dr. Blaise saying the same weak verification plagues ACA exchanges after Congress temporarily boosted subsidies during the COVID-19 era. Zero premium plans allow brokers to enroll people who pay nothing for the coverage and, in many cases, didn't even know that they were enrolled in the ACA exchange or in Medicaid.
Meanwhile, insurers continue collecting the full federal subsidy while brokers receive monthly commissions. Paragon estimates that 5.1 million improper exchange enrollees in 2024, rising to 6.5 million in 2025. The share of exchange enrollees who never used their plan tripled from 2021 to 2024. Listen to this. 35% of all exchange enrollees and 40% of fully subsidized enrollees did not use their health care plan a single time.
Taxpayers, however, likely sent insurers more than $35 billion for people that not a single time used their coverage. They relied on self-attestants, said Blaze, in exchange with U.S. Representative Russell Fry, the South Carolina Republican. They didn't have proper income verifications. And if you get subsidies in one year and you don't file a tax return because they're administered through the tax code and you need to file a tax return, if that's the case, you will get the subsidy the following year.
The Biden administration allowed people not to file tax returns for multiple years and remained covered by the program.
So once you were on, you were on. Hamburg told the Carolina Journal Congress started to address this problem last year, saying in part, during consideration of the working family tax cuts, I supported stronger eligibility requirements and reforms to the federal Medicaid match to protect taxpayer dollars and prevent resources from the vulnerable Americans Medicaid was designed to serve. The current system gives states too little incentive to verify eligibility and leaves the program vulnerable to waste, fraud, and abuse. The discussion then turned to what is going on in North Carolina, specifically some discussion over certificate of need. We have talked about that in great detail here on the Carolina Journal News Hour.
The North Carolina Certificate of Need Statute has been a running fight in Raleigh for years, with the North Carolina Healthcare Association warning that repealing it would raise costs, not lower them.
However, Dr. Miller rejected that claim, saying in part, we have 25 years. years of solid economic research that shows that certificate of need when in place raises costs restricts access and reduces quality And I would say that recently we have made a positive step where there was a repeal of certificate of need for inpatient rehabilitation facilities for acute rehab after hospital stays.
So that's a positive step in the right direction. And there's no reason for you to have to seek the state's permission to build a healthcare facility. Just on the face of it, it defies common sense. North Carolina, a con state, has long ranked among the states with some of the most expensive health care in the nation, many attributing that expensive cost to certificate of need. We now transition over to the third individual who spoke, that is Catherine Martin, the Vice President of Health Affairs for the University of North Carolina System, who said and focused on North Carolina's mismatch, where clinicians train versus where patients actually live.
One in three residents live in rural mountain or farming communities, with her saying, but fewer than 3% of the state's physicians actually practice there. The SHEP Center projects a shortage of 12,500 registered nurses over the next decade, with doctors two to five times more likely to practice where they train, yet fewer graduates match into rural residences, and federal training dollars still flow mainly through large urban systems. The General Assembly has tried to close the gap with flexible state money, $91 million for rural training through the UNC System Healthcare Access Fund, and $40 million to expand nursing programs. Martin said that 12 UNC nursing schools are on pace for a 60% increase in net new nurses by the 29-2030 fiscal year above the legislature's 50% target. It was also brought up that state rules also define rural more loosely than CMS, which helped Western Carolina University open a nurse-led clinic this fall, last fall, I should say, in Haywood County.
Regardless, there was a lot of discussion of this topic of expensive health care, some of it dealing with the federal government and discussions over Medicare and ACA, other topics dealing with North Carolina regulations like certificate of need. We've got a full rundown of this meeting on Monday in Charlotte as the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Administrative State Regulatory Reform and Antitrust took a meeting on the road to Charlotte. Those details this morning over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. Look for the story with the headline: U.S. House Healthcare Hearing in Charlotte covers Medicaid fraud, CON.
Have you ever thought about the difference between paying rent and owning a home? When you rent, your monthly payment helps cover the cost of living there, but it usually doesn't build anything for your future. Home ownership is different. Each payment you make on a home may help build equity, which is the value you own in the property over time. As that equity grows, it can become a financial asset that may support your long-term goals.
Owning a home can also provide stability. You have a place that's yours where you can build memories, establish roots, and truly make the space your own. And the good news is that many people are surprised to learn there are programs designed to help first-time homebuyers get started, including grants and assistance programs that may help with down payments or closing costs. Learning about your options is the first step toward making an informed decision about your future. Visit ToolsForHomeownership.com.
It's 522. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk 107.9 FM, WBTA, a busy couple of days here in North Carolina as President Donald Trump will be visiting Gastonia tonight as he will be campaigning for Republican U.S. Senate candidate Michael Watley. We'll be covering that and have full details on that coming up for you tomorrow morning here on the Carolina Journal News Hour. And yesterday, it was First Lady Melania Trump who visited western North Carolina nearly two years after Hurricane Helene, praising Ashe County's resilience while highlighting artificial intelligence and STEM education as part of the region's future.
The First Lady visited Mountain View Elementary School in Jefferson, where students and educators reflected on the school's following Hurricane Helene and discussed efforts to expand technology and hands-on learning in rural North Carolina. Media was also granted access to the event. Principal Jerry Grabel said during the event, Mountain View is a special place because of the people who fill it every day. Following Hurricane Helene, our school became a place of service and support for our community. Today, we are also looking towards the future, creating new opportunities for our students through STEM innovation and hands-on learning.
Hurricane Helene devastated portions of western North Carolina almost two years ago, coming up next week in September of 2024, damaging roads, homes, and infrastructure while isolating mountain communities. The First Lady centered much of her Tuesday visit on the community's response to the storm and its recovery in the nearly two years since. She told students, And school employees in a gymnasium or auditorium, North Carolina is a definition of resilience. Toughness in times of adversity is ingrained in the Tar Heel State's character. The first lady recalled the widespread damage Helene inflicted across western North Carolina before turning specifically to Mountain View.
where the school was transformed into a distribution center after the storm. She said, for children here at Mountain View Elementary, the storm took away much more than just your daily routine. Your neighborhood was flooded and your school was transformed into a resource center. But as communities became isolated and normal school routines disappeared, the first lady said that residents responded by helping one another. Noting teachers became anchors of stability and your school turned into more than a place to learn.
It turned into a lifeline, providing food, water, supplies, counseling, and hope. Ashe County Schools Superintendent Elisa Cox similarly recalled roads disappearing, homes being lost and families becoming displaced following the storm. She said before introducing the first lady, When I think back to those days, what I remember most is not the devastation, it is the people. It was neighbors helping neighbors right here in this community. Melania Trump also recognized Mountain View Assistant Principal Cynthia Harliss for her work in the aftermath of Helene.
When the storm struck, the assistant principal drove to check on the school before floodwaters washed away roads, leaving her and her family unable to return home. The first lady noted, rather than focus on her own hardships, she spent the next four weeks volunteering at Mountain View Elementary's distribution center, providing critical supplies to families and neighbors in need. Melania Trump added that resilience in western North Carolina should also be measured by the community's willingness to look beyond what was lost and towards opportunities. She said, resilience, however, is more than just being strong and rebuilding what was lost. True resilience means having the courage to look ahead and move society forward, creating a better future for our children.
That is when the first lady transitioned to talking about STEM and artificial intelligence. As the first lady made artificial intelligence education one of her main focuses for her second term as first lady, including through the Presidential AI Challenge, a nationwide competition that encourages students and educators to explore the use of emerging technology. The First Lady noted less than two years after Helene, North Carolina did just that. Through the President's AI Challenge, students and teachers from North Carolina took the national stage inspired by what is possible. During the Tuesday event, the First Lady highlighted North Carolina's North Carolina second-grade teacher by the name of Carrie Robito, who was one of the challengers' 2026 national champions.
She is a teacher at Starr Elementary School and developed AI Insect Devices, a project that introduces young children to artificial intelligence through science, insects, and the natural world. The first lady recognized her, saying, think about the remarkable journey from floodwaters to the cutting edge of artificial intelligence. Ms. Robletto built something that no hurricane can destroy and no flood can wash away, and that is knowledge. Melania Trump said that the knowledge could help students and the broader community look beyond the destruction left by Hurricane Helene, noting that knowledge gives everybody in this town the chance to move beyond Helene and to imagine new possibilities.
It gives the next generation the choice to help create a beautiful world in the future and a better America. Ashe County school leaders have also emphasized connecting emerging technologies with opportunity for students within their districts to solve problems and build careers in their own communities. The superintendent told the crowd, we want you to be invested in your future. We want you to solve problems and we want you to come up with solutions and we want that to be right here in Ashe County. Superintendent Cox said that the district's emphasis on rural STEM education is intended to equip students with the skills and the confidence to work in fields such as agriculture, engineering, technology, and artificial intelligence.
She told the crowd, it's not technology for technology's sake. It's about giving children knowledge, skills, confidence, and opportunities to solve problems, to strengthen our communities right here in Ashe County, and imagine futures that have not yet been imagined. The First Ladies Ashe County visit yesterday comes the one day before President Donald Trump is scheduled to return to North Carolina. The president, as I just noted, will appear today at the Gastonia Municipal Airport around 7 o'clock for a campaign rally supporting Republican U.S. Senate candidate nominee Michael Watley.
We will be covering that in full detail. You can read more on the First Ladies visit to Western North Carolina to Ashe County at an event yesterday. Those details over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. Look for the story with the headline: Melania Trump Touts Resilience, AI Education During NC School Visit. Many people believe buying a home requires a large down payment and years of saving, but that's not always the case.
Across the country, there are programs designed to help first-time homebuyers take the next step toward home ownership.
Some of these programs offer down payment assistance or grant funding that may help cover part of the upfront cost of purchasing a home. Grants are especially helpful because they generally do not have to be repaid. There are also organizations that provide homebuyer education, financial counseling, and guidance to help individuals understand the home buying process before they begin. The goal is simple: to help more families become informed and prepared for home ownership. If owning a home is something you've been thinking about, start by visiting ToolsForHomeownership.com.
This message is brought to you by the National Foundation for Credit Counseling's Paving the Way Forward initiative. It's 5.37. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM, WBT. I'm Nick Craig. Good Wednesday morning to you.
We are a little more than a week and a half into absentee by mail voting here in North Carolina. The state has the lengthiest absentee by mail period anywhere across the United States with ballots going out back on September the 4th. We've been keeping a very close eye as those ballots have begun the very slow process of trickling into board of election offices over the last couple of weeks. To walk us through where things stand right now, it's my pleasure to welcome Dr. Andy Jackson from the John Locke Foundation to our airwaves this morning on the Carolina Journal News Hour.
Andy, we've seen this process begin over the last week and a half or so. What are the numbers and data that you're tracking thus far?
Well, we've got just very early, early returns going on.
So, yesterday we had a little over 2,400 ballots come in. We're going to have some more coming in. I haven't had a chance to run the numbers for today, but you'll get a few hundred each day, and that trickle will start becoming a relative torrent of mail ballots. And then things will really hit into high gear in mid-October when we start getting early voting comes in. And we noticed this: like if you look at our vote tracker site where we keep up with this, the graphic looks very impressive with the amount of votes coming in for the mail ballots.
But then, once that first day of early voting hits, that blue line that we use to indicate mail ballots just gets squished down to the bottom because really, you're only looking at four or five percent of votes altogether from all. Mail voting. And so, this is just a tiny part of a tiny part that we're seeing so far. Yeah, especially this early, as early voting will kick off here in a little less than a month now, October the 15th, the start date for that in all 100 counties across North Carolina. All right, Andy, with about 20, a little more than 2,400 votes in.
You have election predictions for us? Can you draw any conclusions from these numbers this early on, maybe in comparison to a couple of other midterms? Or things are relatively normal as we would expect them to be? They are for this early phase of mail voting. The votes are mostly Democrats followed by unaffiliated and then Republicans.
And this is kind of normal because Democrats, certainly since 2020, have been more heavily using absentee voting. It really, really kicked into high gear in 2020. In 2022, definitely was more. Republicans are far behind. I think they're still in the single.
digits percentage-wise as far as percentage of the votes that have come in and republicans will gradually become a larger share of that if if past is prologue with this election um and generally unaffiliated will even though unaffiliated is the single biggest set of registrations unaffiliated voter participation across the board is much lower than democrats or republicans so even though they're more unaffiliated voters they tend to have much lower turnout than either democrats or republicans so at this point Okay. It's about roughly like you would expect it to be.
Now, as far as absentee ballot requests, which is a little more future-oriented, right now we have 61,000 absentee ballot requests that have come in. That compares to 85,000 at a similar point back in 2022. And Republicans are doing a little better than they did relative to Democrats because Democrats have dropped off about 18,000. Republicans have only dropped off about 1,000. Unaffiliated dropped off about 6,000.
So if you're a Republican, That's something that you could maybe hang on to for some hope. But once again, this is probably just people going back to their old voting habits, especially Democrats, because a lot of them switched to absentee voting in 2020. They kept it up in 2022, and now they're starting to go back to early voting or election day voting. And so we're really getting a kind of a return to normalcy on that front.
So even there, I wouldn't really hang too much up on these numbers. Yeah, well, and that's a really good point to make. I think while most people went back to some semblance of normalcy as we got into the latter parts of 2022, Andy, we're not going to go down this rabbit hole. We did that plenty over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com and the John Locke Foundation website during that period of time. There were still a lot of folks, even in late 2022, that were still operating under a lot of the COVID procedures that we had seen laid out in the years prior to that.
It's a very interesting bit of information there. Also, important to note, you mentioned 61,000. As I understand it, the deadline to request absentee ballots remains open for quite some time.
So you expect that that number will continue to grow? Yeah, it's going to grow. We're going to get, we're going to end up getting over 100,000, probably considerably more. And once again, we're looking at these being roughly 4% or 5% of all votes, which is important in North Carolina because we have often really close, even at a statewide level, really close elections.
So how things work out, even for something that's only 5% of all votes, is a big deal.
So I'm expecting there, yeah, there'll be a lot more requests coming in, and they're going to keep coming in and still be hunted. And if you're military or overseas voters, those as long as they get into the system by election day, they're still going to be counted until the day before the canvas, which is nine days after election day. Yeah, and we have seen those rules change for those that are living stateside.
However, they go through the process of voting absentee by mail. We've seen those changes over the last couple of years. That ballot does have to be in the hands of local county election officials by 7.30 p.m. That is the time that polls close on Election Day, November the 3rd.
So maybe if you haven't voted absentee by mail for quite some time, that rule has changed. That was a two or three day grace period that used to exist, Andy. That's been gone now for a couple of years, right? You're right. Yeah, it was a three-day grace period.
So they switched the back, made the deadline on election day, which I think was a great policy change because, frankly, you don't even always get postmarks on the mail anymore. And so you don't really know, well, did this actually come in on the deadline?
So it's better to have this. And it also allows a little more certainty because we know on election day, with the exception of a very small sliver of those military and overseas, which are a tiny, tiny portion of the votes, we know how many votes are in. And that makes it provides a little more certainty and makes it a little easier to make sure that we get all the counting done well before the county canvas. Andy, is it fair to say at this point, again, we only have a little more than 2,400 ballots that have been returned over the last week and half? Is it fair to say our larger population centers, our Raleigh and Wake County, our Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, are kind of leading the charge just simply based on the amount of people that live in those areas?
Yeah, that that's That's half of the equation.
So half of it is population.
So Wake is by far the leading county right now. They've got almost 500 in out of that 2,400. Mecklenburg has a little under 300. But then you also look at the relatively large counties that are disproportionately Democratic.
So for example, Buncombe County is tied with Durham County at 165 as far as the Monday numbers went. Orange County is just behind them around 150, 160.
So you look at the big counties, that's the obvious one, but also the more Democratic-leaning counties because absentee voting has become kind of much more normal among Democratic voters than Republican voters, especially again, since 2020. Let's talk about a product that we're going to be mentioning a lot, and we encourage our audience to be checking out very frequently in the final home stretch here leading to November the 3rd Election Day. A website called Carolina Elections that you keep up to date during this absentee by mail period. It'll then transition into the early voting period on October the 15th. A pretty cool tool for folks that want to dig into the data and the numbers in a little bit more broad way and really zone in on a specific area of the state.
You can look at a lot of very interesting information on that site. Tell us a little bit about it.
Well, this so Carolina Elections, and that's Carolinaelections.com. It's actually two sites in there. One of those is voter registration changes.
So every Monday, I come in, get my morning coffee, upload the new registration data, and report on that. But the other one, the one that is of more interest these days since voting is actually coming in, ballots are coming in, is vote tracker.
So if you go to Carolinaelections.com, you'll see the left column vote tracker. Click on that. And then that's going to give you right off the bat. You got the total numbers there. If you want to look by county, you can do that.
They have it broken down by party, by ethnicity, if that's what you want to look at. If you want to see which congressional districts have the most votes, right now it's the fourth district, which is in the triangle area that has the most. And you can, one nice feature that we added a couple years ago is that you can cross-reference all these things.
So if you want to know. How Republican men in Harnett County, North Carolina. Are voting, you can click on all of those and see how many Republicans and Democrats among them for, oh, not Republicans, they're all Republicans, but you can see those kind of numbers and see what kind of turnout. This doesn't tell you election results, obviously, but this tells you who's voting and where and when.
So, this is all useful information, especially for people like me that just like to crunch over numbers all day long. Yeah, it can be very useful, especially once we get into that early voting period to see. Obviously, it is a midterm election with Republicans holding control in Washington, D.C., what has historically been a year that should be very good for the opposition party. Currently, the Democrats, we'll see if that materializes live. Again, we don't know who these individuals are voting for, but we feel like we can draw a pretty close comparison.
If you're a registered Democrat, probably voting for Democratic candidates, registered Republican, probably those Republican candidates as well. All of those details over on the Carolina elections website and the vote tracker product. We'll be continuing the conversation with Andy Jackson in the days and weeks to come. We appreciate his time this morning right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour. Have you ever thought about the difference between paying rent and owning a home?
When you rent, your monthly payment helps cover the cost of living there, but it usually doesn't build anything for your future. Home ownership is different. Each payment you make on a home may help build equity, which is the value you own in the property over time. As that equity grows, it can become a financial asset that may support your long-term goals. Owning a home can also provide stability.
You have a place that's yours where you can build memories, establish roots, and truly make the space your own. And the good news is that many people are surprised to learn there are programs designed to help first-time homebuyers get started, including grants and assistance programs that may help with down payments or closing costs. Learning about your options is the first step toward making an informed decision about your future. Visit ToolsForHomeownership.com. This is Matt Rogers from Lost Culture Issas with Matt Rogers and Bo and Yang.
This is Bo and Yang from Lost Culture Isos with Matt Rogers and Bo and Yang. You know when people try a new food and suddenly it's like, wait. That's the reaction a lot of people are having when they first try Cupie Mayo. It's the one with the red cap and the little baby on the bottle. You've probably seen it in the grocery store before.
And if you've ever just walked past it, some people would say that's a huge mistake. Because this mayo is different. Most mayonnaise uses whole eggs. Cupie only uses egg yolks, which gives it this rich umami flavor. It's smoother, deeper, and almost buttery.
Once people try it, they start putting it on everything. Egg sandwiches, fries, burgers.
Some fans even swear by dipping pizza crust in it. And once you notice it, you start seeing it everywhere. Chefs use it, restaurants use it, people who really care about flavor use it. Never tried it? Grab the bottle with the red cap next time you're at the store.
Put it on just about anything. Then you'll understand. Cupie, the original Japanese mayonnaise. Good morning again. It's 5:53.
Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk 107.9 FM. WBT, there is going to be a very important meeting coming up in December as the North Carolina State Board of Education will vote on my plan to merge Catawba County's three school districts. Why is this a big meeting and a big decision?
Well, this is the board's first review of a county-ordered school merger in more than 25 years, not something that happens very often here in North Carolina. The new Catawba Valley School District would set to open July the 1st, 2028, replacing Catawba County schools, Hickory County schools, and Newton City schools. Together, the three districts serve a little more than 21,000 students, with the current Catawba County School District by far being the largest, with more than 15,000 students, Hickory about 3,600 and the Newton Conover district, about 2,500. The merger was ordered by the Catawba County Board of Commissioners, not the school districts themselves. And if the state board approves the plan, the commissioners would appoint all nine members of the new school district's board, two from each of the existing three boards, plus three at-large members.
And an interesting fact in this: voters would not elect a school board coming up until November of 2030. Even then, only five of the nine seats would be on the 2030 ballot, with the other four not facing voters until 2032. The Board of Commissioners approved the plan in a 3-2 vote back on April the 20th, shortly before midnight at a public hearing where more than 70 people spoke out against the merger during more than four hours of public comment. In a statement after the vote, the commissioners pointed to shrinking enrollment in the two city school districts as their reason for moving forward with the merger, saying student enrollment declines in both the Newton City schools and Hickory City schools, which have already led to significant underutilization in existing school facilities, are projected to continue over the next decade. As a result of this student loss, both districts are expected to continue losing state operating funding at a rate that raises concerns regarding maintaining existing student services.
Leaders of the two city school districts opposed the move from the county commissioners and at the time told WBTV that they were very disappointed in the vote from the commissioners. Dr. Robert Lubke, the Center for Effective Education at the John Locke Foundation, said that he supports the Commission's plans to merge the school district, but did have some concerns over waiting until 2030 and 2032 to elect members of that board. The State Board of Election approved its review schedule on September the 3rd. Written arguments from three districts are due October the 5th, with commissioners getting until October the 26th to respond, with the board moving to discuss it at its November meeting and officially voting in December on whether this will be the state board of elections in December that will vote to determine whether those mergers will take place.
Tiffany Lucas, who is the State Board of Education's general counsel, told members that the schedule matches the one that the board used the last time it reviewed a county merger plan. That was in the early 2000s when the board approved a Planned combining of the Shelby City, Kings Mountain, and Cleveland County school districts into one countywide district. Kings Mountain School Board sued the state board and lost, and the merged Cleveland County School District began operation in 2004. Again, not a common process that we see here in North Carolina. The vote is scheduled for December.
We'll be keeping a close eye on details right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour and over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. That's going to do it for a Wednesday edition. WBT News is next, followed by Good Morning BT. We're back with you tomorrow morning, 5 to 6, right here on Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FMWT.
