How are Wake’s schools doing? Supt. Taylor says they face ‘difficult choices’
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Superintendent warns rising costs force program cuts and tough budget choices.
- District plans 9% cut to special education staff and seeks $25M from county.
- Officials cite slowed enrollment and aging facilities while pushing bond vote.
Wake County Superintendent Robert Taylor is warning that the school district will have to make difficult budget decisions this year and in the future.
In his annual State of the Schools address on Friday, Taylor said rising costs are eating away at the investments that have been made to maintain the level of services provided to students. The district has already announced it’s planning to eliminate 9% of its special education teaching positions due to rising costs in that program.
“The plain truth is these costs are growing faster than the funding available to support them, which means our community will face difficult choices in the years ahead,“ Taylor said Friday afternoon at Southeast Raleigh High School. “Which programs can we sustain? Which services can we continue to provide? And what will those decisions mean for students?”
Taylor’s speech was part of the school district’s Family and Community Engagement Summit.
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Special ed cuts under the spotlight
Taylor gave a preview of his budget on Tuesday, warning that cuts will be needed this year. He plans to ask the Wake County Board of Commissioners for an increase of around $25 million this year, much less than what’s been requested in past years.
On Thursday, the Wake County chapter of the North Carolina Association of Educators held protests across the county over the district’s plan to cut $18 million from the special education budget. The cut for next school year would lead to the elimination of 130 special education teaching positions.
Wake NCAE wants Taylor to ask commissioners for enough money to eliminate the $18 million cut and to increase special education funding.
Wake NCAE says the remaining cross-categorical resource teachers will see increased caseloads. But the district says it will still meet all the goals outlined in Individualized Education Programs for students with disabilities and stay within required staffing ratios.
In an interview with The News & Observer before his speech, Taylor said they had to announce the special education reductions now to avoid putting the district in a financial deficit next school year.
Taylor: I know you’re ‘concerned right now’
During his speech, Taylor said his budget reflects the reality of the difficult choices they’re facing.
“It includes reductions in areas none of us want to reduce,” Taylor said. “Those are, indeed, difficult choices. And the decisions ahead may become even harder.”
Details about additional budget reductions will be announced on April 7 when Taylor officially presents his budget. The school board will then decide whether to make any changes before submitting its request to commissioners.
Taylor told The N&O that the goal is for students not to notice the impact of the reductions.
“I know many of our families and employees are concerned right now,” Taylor said in his speech. “I want you to know that I share those concerns, and that I will do everything in my power to minimize the impact of these financial challenges on students and staff.”
Taylor called for the community to rally together during this time.
“I believe in this community because here’s what I see,” Taylor said: “I see parents and families who support their children and lift up our teachers and staff members. I see teachers, principals and staff who do the hard work every day of helping students grow and succeed.
“I see businesses and community members turning out to support us at an unprecedented rate. And I see elected leaders who care deeply about the education of our students and the preservation of our legacy.”
School bond referendum expected this fall
Taylor leads a school system that is still the largest in North Carolina with 160,413 students. But enrollment remains below pre-pandemic levels and dropped this school year.
The district is celebrating the 50th year anniversary of the 1976 merger of the Raleigh City Schools and Wake County school system. But the district is projecting it will grow by only 48 students this fall and by 2,600 students over the next decade despite the rapid growth happening in the county.
“For the past 50 years, this school district and this county have grown together, in size and in success,” Taylor told the crowd. “If we are to sustain that upward trend over the next 50 years and beyond, we must keep this sense of unity, the sense that we’re all in this together because we are.”
The district is attributing the slowdown in its growth to factors such as increased competition from the state’s expansion of the private school voucher program and a drop in foreign-born migration to the U.S. Immigration has dropped since the Trump administration put limits on legal immigration as well as increased enforcement against people entering the country without permission.
While growth is slowing, the school board and commissioners are working to get a school construction bond referendum on the November ballot. During his speech, Taylor said providing students and staff with equitable access to high-quality learning environments is an important priority.
“One of the most pressing challenges facing our district right now involves our school facilities,” Taylor told the audience. “Many of our school buildings are aging. Some require major renovations, while others need infrastructure upgrades.
“Additionally, we still need to build new schools to keep up with population growth in certain parts of the county.”
Weapons detectors still not planned for daily use
Taylor promoted academic accomplishments such as rising test scores and more than half of Wake’s schools receiving A or B school performance grades from the state.
Taylor also highlighted plans to expand the number of schools participating in a mental health program that provides therapy to students — with the permission of their parents.
Taylor discussed security measures such as how Wake is using the state’s Say Something Anonymous Reporting system that he says helped discover a student had brought a loaded gun in February to Millbrook High School in Raleigh.
He singled out Raleigh Police Officer Marcus Kirk, the school resource officer at Millbrook who responded to the gun incident.
But Taylor did not bring up using weapons detectors, which are currently only used to scan people entering some school athletic events. Taylor said using weapons detectors to scan people entering schools on a daily basis is not a panacea for school safety.
“One, that comes at a tremendous cost, and two, it also impacts people coming and going from school,” Taylor said in an interview. “It completely changes the entry time, the number of personnel that’s needed to man those stations.”
Wake reported 1,527 school crimes last school year — a 20% increase from the prior school year. Much of the increase was fueled by a 47% increase in cases of a possession of a controlled substance.
This story was originally published March 20, 2026 at 3:50 PM with the headline "How are Wake’s schools doing? Supt. Taylor says they face ‘difficult choices’."
