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GOV. MCCRORY PROMISES BIG CHANGES COMING: Days after releasing a modest state budget and weeks after a tepid State of the State address, Republican Gov. Pat McCrory is promsing big things. "Now we're moving into policy," he told a Chamber crowd Wednesday. The News-Record hits the highlights of what we should expect: "McCrory said the state Department of Transportation will be “revamping” how it finances and distributes money. ... McCrory said he’ll have “major announcements on Medicaid reform” next week, and that his administration is “completely revamping” the state’s commerce department. ... He said his tax plan should be ready within weeks and reaffirmed a desire to cut income and corporate tax rates to the lower levels of neighboring states. ... He said major announcements are coming on the state’s job recruitment efforts at the N.C. Department of Commerce, which new director Sharon Decker said last week may privatize many of its functions."

TODAY AT THE STATEHOUSE: The Senate convenes at 11 a.m. to hear a Mecklenburg property tax measure. The House meets at noon to hear a bill to repeal taxpayer funded judicial elections and another bill that favors Blue Cross Blue Shield. At the Capitol, McCrory and Public Safety Secretary Kieran Shanahan will announce at 10 a.m. the new Highway Patrol commander, Alcohol Law Enforcement director and State Capitol Police chief at a swearing-in ceremony.

Also on the political calendar: Mayors Against Illegal Guns is promoting a day of action to push its background-check legislation; a group of area university and college professors host a 5 p.m. forum at Duke University titled, "Save Our State: Scholars Speak Out on North Carolina's New Direction"; and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush appears at Guilford College for a 7:30 p.m. event with former U.S. Sen. Bill Bradley, hosted by PBS's Gwen Ifill. This is likely Bush's his first visit to the state since the release of his book and open talk about running for president in 2016.

***Good morning! Happy "Friday" to state employees with tomorrow's holiday. Thanks for reading the Dome Morning Memo -- the source for North Carolina political news. Send tips and news to dome@newsobserver.com. More headlines below.***

A bill directing the state Department of Public Instruction to come up with a plan for attaching "endorsements" to high school diplomas passed the House by a vote of 110-1 and is on its way to Gov. Pat McCrory.

The bill "tries to get the ball rolling on vocational education," said Rep. Bryan Holloway, a King Republican.

Legislators want high school diplomas to indicate whether students are prepared for work, college, or both after graduation.

Increasing vocational education was one of McCrory's campaign issues.

Rep. Paul Luebke, a Durham Democrat, objected to bringing the bill to a vote Wednesday evening, the same day it was debated in a House committee. But in the end, he sounded resigned.

"This is a feel-good bill," he said. "There's not much substance in it. There are still a lot of questions we could be debating on the floor."

Luebke voted for the bill. Rep. Carla Cunningham, a Democrat from Charlotte, voted against it.

Today might have been Bill Harrison's last day as chairman of the State Board of Education. The people who know for sure aren't saying.

Former Gov. Bev Perdue named Harrison to run the board in 2009, but his term expired last year. Senate Republican leaders declined last session to reappoint board members whose terms had expired or make new appointments so the new governor could put in people he wanted.

Ricky Diaz, Gov. Pat McCrory's spokesman, said a few days ago he did not know when the announcement of a new chairman was coming. Harrison said this week he hadn't heard from McCrory when he'd be replaced.

"Let's just say I'm packing,'" Harrison quipped.

The state Department of Public Instruction received 161 letters of intent from people and organizations who want to open new charter schools in 2014. The letter is an indication that the writer intends to submit a charter application by the March 1 deadline.

Charter applications have increased since the legislature ended the 100-charter limit two years ago.

This summer, the Public Charter Schools Advisory Council considered 63 applications for new charters to open this fall, and 25 were approved.

The State Board of Education earlier approved nine charters under a "fast track" process, and some of those opened last fall.

The advisory committee is scheduled to make its recommendations to the State Board of Education on the 2014 charters in June, with the board giving final approval in December or January 2014.

North Carolina voters will decide whether the state superintendent of public instruction for the next four years should be an educator.

Democratic incumbent June Atkinson, 64, argues that her education degrees, her career as a teacher and state school administrator, and her two terms as state schools superintendent make her the right choice for the job. But her Republican challenger, Wake County school board member John Tedesco, 37, argues that what’s needed is a superintendent who represents taxpayers and families, and not someone who’s worked in the “Raleigh education establishment since 1976.” Read a full profile of the race here.

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An employee at the state Department of Public Instruction collected $3,270 in undeserved  travel reimbursements over the 12 months ending June 2011, according to a state audit.

The state Auditor's office found the employee had overstated miles driven by 6,474.
DPI said in response that the employee will be disciplined and the department will get the money back. The employee works for the DPI division responsible for helping schools improve.

Television ad: “The new legislature balanced the budget, they cut waste, lowered taxes – they even added state funding for 2,000 more teachers.”

Sponsor: Americans for Prosperity Foundation

Claim: The Republican-led legislature added state funding for 2,000 more teachers.

As part of the push-back against state lawmakers' suggestion to privatize state Pre-K, the state Department of Public Instruction released results of studies that say students do better in pre-school classes based in public schools than they do in classes in private child-care centers. 

The information was mined from studies undertaken by the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at UNC-Chapel Hill when the state pre-school program was called More at Four. The legislature changed the name to N.C. Pre-K in the middle of last year. 

Among the findings:

- There were greater gains in literacy skills in students who have teachers with at least bachelor's degrees and birth-kindergarten licenses. These teachers are found in significantly higher numbers in public schools. 

- Classrooms in public schools are better organized. 

A House committee on Thursday will consider a proposal that would make it harder for students to qualify for N.C. Pre-K and would take the program out of public schools in favor of private child-care centers. 

The U.S. Senate is moving to reauthorize the federal No Child Left Behind law just as dozens of states, including North Carolina, are seeking permission to come up with their own rules for measuring student progress.

A Senate committee last night voted to send a bill to a full Senate vote.

Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan said the bill includes some of her provisions - a measure to ensure principals hired to improve low-performing schools have demonstrated effectiveness, and another ensuring students who attend early college can do so at no cost, as they do in North Carolina.

No Child Left Behind was scheduled for reauthorization in 2007, but Congress has not acted. The Senate bill still has a long way to go if it is to become law.

The Obama administration said last month that it would grant states waivers from No Child Left Behind guidelines if they come up with their own plans that pass federal review.

The existing law has been widely criticized for putting too much emphasis on high-stakes tests.

More at Four is gone.

With the move from the state Department of Public Instruction to the state Department of Health and Human Services comes a name change for the pre-school program Gov. Mike Easley started.

It's now called the NC Prekindergarten Program, or NCPK.

Going from a rhyme to an alphabet test is not the biggest change, of course. Now, 80 percent of parents will be required to pay a fee.