U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan has joined U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota in introducing legislation to crack down on kids who don’t show up for school.

The senators, both Democrats, want to establish a national truancy resource center and a federal grant program for schools, reports Barb Barrett. The competitive grant program would allow schools to work with community groups to discourage truancy, especially in middle school.

The senators say middle school truancy is a strong indicator of drop-out rates in high school.

The grant program’s cost has not been established yet, said Hagan spokesman David Hoffman.

But Klobuchar said she hopes to include it in Congress’ reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act.

Hagan, of Greensboro, is a member of the Senate education committee, which would handle the reauthorization.

Local school districts will have more leeway in moving money between accounts as they manage their budgets.

The local districts have to figure out a way to fold into their budgets a $225 million unspecified cut this year. At the same time, they've been told to try to save jobs for teachers in 4th through 12th grades, Lynn Bonner reports.

About 90 percent of school budgets pay for people, said state board Chairman William Harrison. School districts couldn't meet requirements without budget flexibility, he said. The State Board of Education, acting on authority granted in the new state budget, voted today to loosen money transfer rules in about a dozen line items.

Here are the programs were districts are allowed new, unrestricted transfers: Academically & Intellectually Gifted; at risk student services/alternative schools; classroom materials/ supplies/textbooks; disadvantaged student supplemental funding; limited English proficiency; low wealth school supplemental funding; small county supplemental funding; school technology, teacher assistants; high school Learn & Earn.

The board has asked state Department of Public Instruction staff for periodic reports on district spending.

The state House passed a bill today that would allow schools to start the second Monday in August rather than wait until Aug. 25.

The bill would roll back a 2004 law pushed by the tourism industry, teachers and some parents who were peeved about schools starting in early August. Opponents of the later school-start date have been fighting to change it ever since, reports Lynn Bonner.

The N.C. Association of Educators has switched sides, and now wants districts to be able to start school before August 25.

The 79-39 House vote sent the bill to the Senate, where it faces an uncertain future.

Read more after the jump.

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U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge's school construction proposal has been restored to the stimulus package.

The original House bill included the Lillington Democrat's long-standing proposal to give tax credits that would allow local schools to get zero-interest bonds for construction and renovation projects.

The amount of bonds that would be provided by the credits was cut in the Senate version from $25 billion to $13 billion. But it has been restored to the full amount, said Etheridge spokeswoman Joanne Peters.

The final version of the bill still has to be approved, but Peters said Etheridge was feeling confident the credits will be included.

"He's very optimistic that the bill will be passed by both chambers and signed by President Obama," she said. 

The Senate has cut a school construction program championed by U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge.

A bipartisan amendment to the stimulus package already passed by the House would trim a program to help local school districts get zero-interest construction bonds from $25 billion to $13 billion.

Etheridge has long pushed the tax credits as an efficient way to help build new schools while leaving construction under local control.

It's not clear whether the spending cut will remain yet, since Congressional leaders have not decided how to reconcile the House and Senate versions of the bill, which differ by more than $100 billion in spending.

"We don't know yet what the next step will be," said spokeswoman Joanne Peters.

She said House Ways and Means Committee chairman Rep. Charles Rangel is working with Etheridge to try to restore the full funding to the final version of the bill.

Sen. John Snow has filed the first bill in his chamber.

The Murphy Democrat has filed S.B. 2, which would change the capital fund formula in the state lottery.

Details of the bill are not yet available, but Snow and other Western lawmakers have argued that their school districts have been shortchanged by the formula, part which is divvied up among areas with higher-than-average property taxes.

The bill is cosponsored by Sen. Martin Nesbitt, an Asheville Democrat.

He also filed S.B. 3, entitled "Smoky Mountains National Park Plate Changes" and S.B. 4, entitled "Clarify Emergency Judge Qualifications."

Two other early bills concerned hunting.

Sen. Richard Stevens filed S.B. 5, entitled "Continuing Crossbow Permit/Dealers and Manufacturers." Sen. Julia Boseman filed S.B. 7, which would allow hunting on Sundays.

Boseman also filed S.B. 6, entitled "Beach Plan and Insurance Rate and Deductible Stay." 

U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge says some economic stimulus money may build schools.

In a conference call with reporters this afternoon, the Lillington Democrat said that a bill he has long pushed to provide zero-interest school construction bonds has been included in the House version of an economic stimulus package.

Earlier this month, Etheridge wrote President-elect Barack Obama a letter asking that school construction be included in the stimulus package.

His efforts got a boost from his recent appointment to the House Ways and Means Committee, which is overseeing the stimulus bill. He also attributed it to being at the right place in the right time.

"I had a piece of legislation that fitted the needs," he said. "It was timely, it was needed and the president-elect thought it would be most appropriate for his package."

He said that the bill currently includes some direct appropriations and some bonds. He estimated the bill would provide $448 million for North Carolina and create or sustain an estimated 10,752 jobs here.

Overall, Etheridge's proposal would provide for $26 billion for school construction.

With Congress likely to soon consider a huge stimulus package, the Institute for Emerging Issues has scheduled a two-conference on the subject.

Jim Hunt, the former four-term governor, met at lunch with journalists at his law office at Womble Carlyle this afternoon to discuss the forum which will be held Feb. 9 and 10th, Rob Christensen reports.

This year's topic is what North Carolina needs to do improve its infrastructure including building, roads, bridges, water and sewer lines, schools and rail.

The Institute chooses a subject every year to discuss such as taxes or energy.

Hunt, the founder of the forum, said it was luck that infrastructure is so timely because the subject was chosen more than a year ago. The forum, which will be held for the first time at the new Raleigh Convention Center, will include speakers such as Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut, New York Times columnist David Brooks, Gov. Beverly Perdue, and and former London Mayor Ken Livingstone.

Hunt said state spending for road and schools and other projects had not kept pace with growth.

"We have to to do more building," Hunt said "and we got to rethink how we build."

Because of the federal stimulus package, North Carolina should get a lot of new money for public works projects.

The Institute already has working groups preparing recommendations to be discussed at the forum. Hunt hopes the conference will produce some specific recommendations for the legislature.

U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge wrote President-elect Barack Obama today asking him to including Etheridge’s school construction bill in the next economic stimulus package.

Etheridge, a Lillington Democrat, wants to provide local tax credits to fund school construction to both create jobs and provide more space for growing school districts, Barb Barrett reports. North Carolina is one of the fastest growing states in the country, with school enrollment jumping 30 percent in the past decade.

Obama has made individual tax credits a central part of his economic stimulus plan, but Democrats also have talked about building new infrastructure with federal tax dollars.

Etheridge proposes providing no-tax, zero-interest municipal bonds for school construction, which he says could save school districts $500 for every $1,000 of construction bonds.

According to Etheridge, North Carolina could receive $448 million under his plan.

The state is ordering school districts to return $58 million.

The education cuts are part of across-the-board budget cuts ordered by Gov. Mike Easley to make up a budget shortfall that could be as high as $2 billion.

The shortfall is being caused by the poor economy, which means the state is collecting less tax revenue. Without cuts the state might not be able to make ends meet by next June.

The N.C. Department of Public Instruction was told to cut $119 million, and state officials found about half of that at the state level. The rest will come from local schools, including charter schools. (W-SJ)