Michele Morrow and Mo Green are running to bvecome NC’s next Superintendent of Public Instruction (File photos)
North Carolina’s candidates for Superintendent of Public Instruction, Republican Michele Morrow and Democrat Mo Green, took to the virtual stage on Thursday for their first debate.
The event was hosted by Best NC, a nonprofit group of business leaders that seeks to improve the state’s education system via policy and advocacy.
Two very different candidates
The superintendent is responsible for leading the Department of Public Instruction and guiding North Carolina’s public schools. The two candidates bring dramatically different backgrounds and visions for public schools to the contest.
Green is an attorney who spent several years helping to lead two of the state’s largest school systems in Mecklenburg and Guilford Counties — the latter as superintendent. From 2016 to 2023 he served as the executive director of one of the state’s largest philanthropic nonprofits, the Winston-Salem-based Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation. He is the father of two adult children who both attended and graduated from North Carolina public schools. This is his first campaign for public office.
Green’s campaign platform emphasizes better funding for public schools, better supporting teachers, as well as celebrating public schools and returning them to the center of community life.
Morrow is a homeschool teacher and nurse whose children do not attend public school. In sharp contrast to Green, her campaign has emphasized what she has said are the many failures and weaknesses of public education. She was defeated in run for the Wake County school board in 2022.
Morrow is also a conservative culture warrior who has attacked efforts to teach students about race and racism and derided public schools as “indoctrination centers.” Perhaps most infamously, Morrow posted online statements in and around the January 6, 2021 U.S. Capitol insurrection from a Washington, DC hotel room in which she called on then-President Donald Trump to put “the Constitution to the side” and use the military to stay in power. In 2020, she tweeted a call for former President Barack Obama to be executed by firing squad in a televised pay-per-view event.
Democrats have also made efforts to tie Morrow to Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, the Republican gubernatorial nominee who has been struggling in polls.
Though Morrow’s controversial stances have dominated much of the news coverage surrounding the race, they played only a small role in Thursday’s debate. In response to Green condemning her endorsements of violence and suspending the Constitution, Morrow dismissed the attack by claiming Green has paid people to examine “personal things that I’ve stated and take them out of context.”
Differing on the issues
Most of the rest of the debate was revolved around the discussion of substantive education issues. Morrow cited her experience teaching biology, chemistry, Spanish, and civics, as well as homeschooling her own children. She painted herself as an outsider who’s able to offer a fresh perspective.
“We need somebody that’s outside of the current system because while it’s nice to talk about all of the accolades of being in administration, we can clearly see the decline of the last 20 years, and it’s time for us to not be focused on funding the system, but be focused on the student outcome,” Morrow said.
Green, in contrast, emphasized his former role as the superintendent in Guilford County.
He said this experience would provide him with an advantage and leg up in leading the statewide system.
“I believe that I certainly have background, having served as superintendent of Guilford County Schools for seven and a half years, and what comes with that is then a vision for our public schools,” Green said.
Over the course of an hour, the pair addressed questions on teacher pay, teacher and principal recruitment and retention, early literacy, school performance grades, attainment, school choice, and parent engagement.
Morrow said that the state’s challenges in recruiting and retaining teachers could be addressed if administrators create an environment where students are excited to learn and show up to school every day.
“Our teachers don’t need to feel like they’re in a silo, and that their class is only their responsibility,” she said.
Green did to disagree with the sentiment but emphasized the need to provide more and better resources and support for teachers so that they have more time to focus on teaching.
One issue on which the candidates sharply disagreed was the states Opportunity Scholarships program that provides vouchers to fund private school education.
Republicans in the state Senate voted to fully fund the plan on Monday with a “mini-budget” set to eliminate a waitlist of around 54,000 students from families of all income levels seeking private school vouchers.
Morrow endorsed the program and said she supports having a variety of education options for parents and students to select.
“Right now, it is absolutely necessary that we have healthy competition in the free market system,” she said. “Competition creates the best product at the best price, and our public school system should be raising the bar so that we can keep everybody in our schools, and we can make people want to be there and to stay.”
Green said that while he supports school choice, he opposes using public funds for private school vouchers.
“Public dollars should go into supporting public schools, that would be traditional public schools and charter schools,” he said. “Let’s be abundantly clear, you’re talking about hundreds of millions of dollars, which will turn into billions of dollars, through this taxpayer-funded private school voucher program, that are being drained away from our public schools, leaving our public schools with not enough resources to do what is called upon to do.”