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| Michele Morrow - Credit Ballotpedia |
by Melisaundra Welles
North Carolina has another problem. This time, it comes in the form of Michele Morrow, the GOP candidate for North Carolina’s Superintendent of Public Instruction (“Superintendent”). And like her staunch endorser, Lt. Gov. Mark Keith Robinson, she has some interesting ideas about what it takes to be a public official in the Tar Heel State.
One of those interesting ideas that Morrow and Robinson share is eliminating the North Carolina State Board of Education (“State Board”). That idea, again, reflects Project 2025’s proposal to abolish the federal Department of Education, stripping funding for public schools and promoting vouchers for private school programs.
It appears that ridding herself of the State Board is particularly important to Morrow. Speaking to a group of Northeast Carolina Republican Women in February 2024, she stated: “I’d like to see a constitutional amendment to get rid of the State Board of Education….If the superintendent is elected and works under the legislature—knowing that they’re accountable to the legislature to oversee the DPI and to oversee and have impact into the superintendents in the 115 districts, I think we would be so much better off because you don’t have all these extra people right in [the] mix.”[i]
Now, exactly who are all “these extra people right in [the] mix” that seem to make things so terrible for Michele Morrow? And why?”
According to Article IX, Sec. 4(1) of the North Carolina Constitution, those people are the Lieutenant Governor, the State Treasurer, and 11 other people that the Governor appoints and the State Legislature confirms. Those 11 people consist of one appointee from each of the eight educational districts of North Carolina, and three appointees from the State at large.
Then, of course, there are the six additional non-voting advisors mandated by NC General Statute §115C-11. Non-voting advisors include two high school students; a State Teacher of the Year; a Superintendent Advisor; a State Principal of the Year; and a Local Board of Education Advisor.
The organizational structure for the three goes like this: The State Board creates policy and general procedures for North Carolina’s public school systems (pre-k through 12th grade), “including teacher pay and qualifications, course content, testing requirements, and manages state education funds.”[ii]
The Superintendent, by law, serves as the secretary and chief administrative officer of the State Board, but has no voting power because the Superintendent is not a formal member.
The State Board, together with the Superintendent, then comprise the leadership of the Department of Public Instruction (“DPI”), which implements the State Board’s policies and procedures and administers nearly $11 billion in state and federal public school funds.[iii]
And here’s where things get tricky. Exactly who has ultimate oversight of the DPI has been hotly debated for many years. Dylan Blackburn, in Volume 101 of the UNC North Carolina Law Review, explains why.
“The constitution clearly places the board in a superior policymaking role, but its text offers vague, confusing, and contradictory language on the division of administrative power between the two. . . . Extraconstitutional efforts to clarify the board’s and superintendent’s roles have failed, and the courts have at best left the confusion just as confounding as they found it.”[iv]
To make matters worse, North Carolina’s Republican-led legislature reduced the State Board’s power by “pulling off a quiet coup” earlier this year. To achieve that, the State Legislature transferred power to the Republican Superintendent, created a new panel to oversee charter schools, and refused to confirm Board members appointed by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper. Ned Barnett, Associate Opinion Editor to the The News & Observer, wrote in his April 4th opinion piece that, “In their zeal for expanding school choice, they have abandoned interest in improving school oversight. Their expansion of school vouchers, for instance, comes with virtually no requirements that schools receiving the vouchers meet state standards.”[v]
With a partisan legislature waiting in the wings, the table seems to be set for Michele Morrow, who has made her disdain for public schools equally known in the past by calling them “socialism centers” and “indoctrination centers.” Those descriptions beg the question of whether electing Morrow as Superintendent will benefit North Carolina’s public schools or the children attending them.
Even more disturbing are news reports[vi] regarding Morrow’s more serious far right-wing ideas. Here’s a sample of them:
▪Morrow attended the January 6, 2021 riot and later videotaped herself suggesting that former President Donald Trump invoke the Insurrection Act to remain in power. (Doing so would displace the U.S. Constitution and would set the U.S. military against its own citizens.) Morrow claims that she did not participate in any violence at the riot, and that she was not proposing a military coup but was only “calling for the certification to go back to the states. . .”
▪Morrow has falsely perpetuated the baseless claim that the 2020 election was stolen.
▪Morrow has depicted Gov. Roy Cooper as “Our Communist sympathizer, Comrade Cooper” and followed it with several hashtags, including #DeathTo Traitors.
▪Morrow has claimed that former President Barak Obama, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Congressman Adam Schiff, former FBI director James Comey, former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, business magnate and philanthropist Bill Gates, and Dr. Anthony Fauci, former Chief Medical Advisor to the President of the United States all committed sedition. She also followed that tweet with several hashtags, including #DeathToTraitors.
▪Morrow has supported the arrest and death of President Joe Biden and the pay-per-view execution of former President Barack Obama.
Understandably, Michele Morrow deleted a lot of her social media while gearing up for her run for Superintendent. But given all the reporting still available, her beliefs and discourse are simply too much to be ignored.
Likewise, Morrow’s desire to eradicate the State Board, leaving her in total control of the DPI, while reporting only to the State Legislature clearly is untenable.
Imagine. The voices of 19 people being extinguished until only one voice remains—the voice of the extinguisher who screeches conspiracies and calls for the execution of presidents. I think North Carolina deserves better.◘
[i] “GOP nominee to run North Carolina public schools called for violence against Democrats, including executing Obama and Biden.” Kaczynski, A. and Steck, M., KFile, CNN, https://www.cnn.com/ 2024/03/14/ politics/kfile-gop-nominee-north-carolina-public-schools-michele-morrow-executing-democrats/index.html. March 15, 2024. Retrieved August 27, 2024. See also “Michele Morrow Northeast Carolina Republican Women 2/16/24,” YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= iDXBN4EGMnQ. Reviewed August 31, 2024.
[ii] “About DPI,” North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, https://www.dpi.nc.gov/about-dpi. Retrieved September 2, 2024.
[iii] Id.
[iv] Dylan R. Blackburn, Who’s in Charge?: The Constitutional Confusion Challenging North Carolina’s Public School System, 101 N.C. L. Rev. 517(). https://scholarship.law.unc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=6914&context=nclr. January 1, 2023. Retrieved September 3, 2024.
[v] “Republicans are pulling off a quiet coup with the NC Board of Education.” Barnett, N., Opinion, The News & Observer, https://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/article287330940.html#storylink=cpy. April 4, 2024. Retrieved September 3, 2024.
[vi] “GOP nominee to run North Carolina public schools called for violence against Democrats, including executing Obama and Biden.” Kaczynski, A. and Steck, E., KFile, CNN, https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/14/politics/kfile-gop-nominee-north-carolina-public-schools-michele-morrow-executing-democrats/index.html. Updated March 15, 2024. Retrieved August 27, 2024.
See also “GOP nominee to run North Carolina schools advocated pro-Trump military coup in January 6 video.” Steck, E. and Kaczynski, A., KFile, CNN, https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/09/politics/kfile-michele-morrow-january-6-comments/. August 9, 2024. Retrieved August 27, 2024;
“She ‘sarcastically’ said Obama should be killed. Now she wants to control kids’ education.” Perqueno, S., Opinion, USA Today, https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2024/08/19/michele-morrow-nc-superintendent-maga-republican/74783669007/. August 19, 2024. Retrieved August 27, 2024; and
“NC Superintendent race: Morrow defends comments on using military to keep Trump in Office.” Leslie, L. and Walkenhorst, E., WRAL News, https://www.wral.com/story/nc-superintendent-race-morrow-defends-comments-on-using-military-to-keep-trump-in-office/21575761/. August 13, 2024. Retrieved August 27, 2024.
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