Wake County Board of Education, District 7: Jacob Arthur

Name: Jacob Arthur

Age: 47

Party affiliation: Republican

Campaign website: jake4wakeschools.com

Occupation & employer: Legislative Assistant – NC General Assmebly

Years lived in the area: 47

1. What is your past or current involvement with Wake County Public Schools? What makes you qualified for this job?

“I’m a graduate of Wake County Public Schools, and now I’m a WCPSS parent. So I’ve seen the system from both sides, first as a student and now as a parent raising children in it.

I first ran for the District 7 seat in 2022, and since then I’ve stayed engaged with what is happening in the district, particularly around student achievement, the budget, special education and school facilities.

Professionally, I’m an attorney and currently work as a Legislative Assistant in the North Carolina General Assembly. I’ve also worked in public policy and advocacy. That experience has taught me a lot about how government works, how budgets and legislation come together, and how decisions made at the state level affect local school systems.

I think I would bring a useful combination to the board: the perspective of someone who grew up in Wake schools and now has children in them, along with legal and government experience and a willingness to dig into issues and ask questions.

I’m not running because I want to bring national political fights into the school system. I’m running because I want Wake to have excellent public schools, and I think we can do a better job in some areas of making sure students are learning, teachers are supported and taxpayers can understand how decisions are being made.”

2. What are the three main issues that you believe the Wake County Public Schools Board of Education needs to address in the upcoming years?

“For me, the three biggest issues are student achievement, supporting teachers and students, and getting a better handle on how the district manages its money and facilities.

First, we need to keep improving academically. Wake made some very encouraging gains this year, and our students and teachers deserve a lot of credit for that. But districtwide numbers can hide schools and students who are still struggling. I want us especially focused on early reading and math and on identifying students who are falling behind before those gaps become much harder to close.

Second, we need to support the people who are actually in our schools every day. That means competitive pay, reasonable workloads, safe and functional buildings and making it easier for teachers to spend their time teaching. It also means making sure students with disabilities get the services they are supposed to receive. Special education should not be an easy place to look for savings whenever the budget gets tight.

Third, I think Wake needs better long-term planning around both its budget and its buildings. We’ve seen too many maintenance problems, HVAC issues and difficult last-minute budget decisions. The board should be able to explain where the money is going, what is working and why it is making the choices it makes.”

3. In your opinion, how should the school board approach its mandate to pass a balanced budget when costs (teacher and staff pay, building maintenance, materials, transportation, etc.) are rising every year and the state continues to underfund Wake’s public schools? For example: Which types of funding cuts are you most or least comfortable approving? How aggressively should the school board lobby Wake County for more funding? 

“I don’t think the first response to a budget problem should be cutting things that directly affect students in the classroom.

I would be very reluctant to cut classroom instruction, special education, teacher and staff retention, student safety or needed maintenance. We’ve already seen what happens when maintenance gets put off for too long. Eventually the problem gets more expensive.

Before getting to those areas, I would want a hard look at central-office spending, outside contracts, vacant or duplicative positions and programs that have been around for years but cannot really show that they are helping students. I don’t think any program should be automatically protected just because we have always funded it.

I also think we need to get away from using temporary money to create permanent expenses whenever we can. That puts future boards right back in the same position when the one-time funding disappears.

At the same time, the board should absolutely advocate with both the county and the General Assembly for the resources Wake needs, especially when it comes to teacher and staff pay. I just think those requests should be specific. Tell taxpayers and lawmakers what the money is for, why we need it and what difference we expect it to make.”

4. North Carolina recently passed a law barring teachers from instructing their students on “divisive concepts” related to racism, sexism, and inequality. The Trump administration says it has cut billions of dollars in spending for diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives nationwide. WCPSS still has an equity policy in place, but has eliminated its Office of Equity Affairs to come into compliance with the new state law. How do you think these changes will affect the WCPSS community? What should the school board be doing to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion districtwide?

“The district has to follow state law. But I don’t think that means we stop talking honestly about race, discrimination or difficult parts of American history.

Students should learn about slavery, Jim Crow, the civil rights movement, discrimination against women and minorities and other parts of our history that are sometimes uncomfortable. They should be able to talk about those subjects and think critically about them without teachers feeling like they are walking into a legal minefield every time a difficult topic comes up.

I also support the basic goals behind diversity, equity and inclusion when we are talking about making sure kids have a fair opportunity to succeed. To me, equity means looking at why a student is struggling or being left out and trying to address it. That could mean access to advanced classes, services for students with disabilities, support for English-language learners, fair discipline or making sure opportunities are available in every part of the county.

Wake is a very diverse community. That is actually one of the reasons my family continues to choose public schools. We want our children in schools that reflect the community they live in and where they learn alongside people who may come from very different backgrounds.

I’m less concerned about whether the district has an office with “equity” in the name than I am about whether kids are being treated fairly, achievement gaps are getting smaller and students feel like they belong in their schools.”

5. WCPSS, like other North Carolina school districts, is losing students (and dollars) to charter and private schools. Do you support North Carolina’s Opportunity Scholarship voucher program for private schools? What should WCPSS do to retain more students and families, and how should the district manage the funding loss from students moving to charters?

“Yes, I support Opportunity Scholarships and parents having choices about where their children go to school.

But I also strongly support public schools. My own family continues to choose Wake County Public Schools, and I want Wake to be the first choice for as many families as possible.

If families are leaving, I don’t think our response should be to criticize them for making a different choice. We should be asking why they left. Was it academics? School assignment? Special education? School climate? Facilities? Was there a program they wanted that Wake didn’t offer? We should know those answers.

Then we should compete by making our schools better. Strong academics, good teachers, safe buildings, reliable special education services, good extracurricular opportunities and a school system that listens to parents are all part of that.

Charter enrollment also creates a real budget issue because funding follows the student while many of Wake’s costs don’t disappear overnight. We still have buildings, buses, maintenance and staffing costs. That means the district has to use realistic enrollment projections and adjust over time instead of continually being surprised by the numbers.

I think public schools are going to remain the backbone of education in Wake County. The best way to protect them is to make them schools that families actively want to choose.”

6. Wake County voters will have the option to support a $680 million school bond for new school construction and facility repairs. Do you support the bond? Why or why not?

“Yes, I support the bond.

I don’t agree with every decision that put Wake County in the position of needing a bond this large. For years, maintenance needs have piled up and too many problems have been dealt with after they became emergencies instead of before. I think taxpayers deserve some honesty about how we got here.

But we are here now, and the maintenance problems are real. We have aging schools, HVAC problems and major repair and renovation needs. Students and teachers should not have to sit in buildings that are not functioning properly while we argue about decisions that were made years ago.

So I support the bond because we need to deal with the problem in front of us. That doesn’t mean writing a blank check. I want strong oversight of the projects, clear priorities and transparency when something goes over budget or gets behind schedule.

And going forward, we have to do a better job of preventive maintenance so we don’t end up right back in the same place.

I may not agree with every decision that got us here, but we still have a responsibility to fix the problem.”

7. Last school year, a state investigation found that WCPSS failed to reliably transport two students with disabilities to and from school in violation of their legally-binding Individual Education Plans. WCPSS paid over $2 million in settlements to special education families since the start of 2025. And this spring, the school board unanimously rejected the superintendent’s proposal to cut $18 million in special education funding to plug a budget hole—but did not meaningfully increase the budget for special education, as the local chapter of the North Carolina Association of Educators implored them to do. What should WCPSS be doing to better support students with disabilities and their teachers?

“Students with disabilities and their families should not have to fight the school system to get services they are legally supposed to receive.

I was glad the board did not move forward with the proposed $18 million reduction in special education. When the budget gets tight, I don’t think some of our highest-need students should be one of the first places we look for savings.

We also need to make sure IEPs are actually being followed. An IEP is a commitment to that student. If we are repeatedly failing to provide a service, whether it involves instruction, therapy or even getting a child to school, the board needs to know why and what is being done to fix it.

Staffing is another big part of this. Special education teachers, instructional assistants, therapists and other staff are doing difficult work, and if caseloads become unreasonable or people feel unsupported, we are going to keep losing them.

I also think we need to make the system easier for parents to navigate. Parents should not feel like they need an attorney or months of escalation just to get someone to address a legitimate concern. As an attorney myself, I would much rather see problems resolved early than have families and the school system spending time and money fighting each other.

And we need a real long-term funding plan. Special education cannot become an emergency budget discussion every year. How we treat students who need the most support says a lot about our school system. They should never feel like an afterthought.”

8. How should WCPSS address the ongoing challenge of school bus driver turnover as drivers leave the school system for better-paying positions in the private sector? 

“I think the first thing we have to recognize is that bus drivers are essential employees. If students cannot get to school reliably, that affects families, teachers, and the entire school day.

Pay is obviously part of the problem. WCPSS is competing with private employers for people who have CDLs, and some of those employers can offer better wages or schedules. We need to keep looking at whether our compensation is actually competitive enough to retain experienced drivers.

But I do not think this is only about pay. We should be asking drivers why they stay and why they leave. Split shifts, route difficulty, student behavior, inconsistent hours, and whether drivers feel supported all matter. Sometimes the best way to improve retention is simply to listen to the people doing the job and fix the things that make the job unnecessarily difficult.

I would also put more emphasis on keeping good drivers, not just recruiting new ones. Experience and reliability should count for something.

We may never be able to match every private-sector offer, but WCPSS should be able to provide competitive pay, solid benefits, predictable working conditions, and a workplace where drivers feel respected and supported.”

9. How should WCPSS respond to efforts to ban books in schools?

“I do not support removing books from schools simply because someone disagrees with the ideas in them. Schools should expose students to different perspectives, including perspectives that may make them think or challenge what they already believe. At the same time, I do think parents have a legitimate role in what their own children are reading, and schools have a responsibility to make sure materials are appropriate for the age and maturity of the students who have access to them.

When a book is challenged, there should be a clear and transparent review process that actually looks at the book as a whole and considers its educational value and age appropriateness. Decisions should be made based on the material itself, not political pressure from either side.

I also like the approach of giving parents more control over their own child’s library choices without automatically making that decision for every other family. North Carolina law now allows parents to identify books their own child may not borrow, and I think that is a reasonable way to respect parental involvement without unnecessarily restricting access for everyone else.

I trust our educators and librarians to make thoughtful professional judgments, while also recognizing that parents should have a meaningful way to raise concerns. The board’s responsibility is to make sure that process is fair, consistent, and focused on students rather than politics.”

10. Recently, Durham Public Schools implemented a Universal Free Lunch program that provides nutritious free breakfasts and lunches to all of the system’s students. The Wake County school board, on the other hand, voted to charge more for meals this academic year (while also agreeing to form a task force to explore lowering prices and feeding more students) Was this the right move? Should WCPSS follow DPS’s lead and find a way to provide free meals to the district’s students? What strategies can the district employ to bring meal prices down?

“I would like to see Wake make school meals more affordable, and I’m open to universal free breakfast and lunch if we can find a responsible way to pay for it. I understand why meal prices went up this year. Food, labor and other costs have increased, and Child Nutrition Services has to balance its budget. But raising prices every year cannot be the only solution. For families with several kids in school, those increases add up.

Wake is already providing free meals at a number of schools through the federal Community Eligibility Provision, and I think we should look at how much further we can expand that. We should also make sure we are taking advantage of every federal reimbursement and other funding source available.

I’m glad the board created a task force to look at this, but I would want it to come back with real options. That means looking at food costs, waste, staffing, participation rates, and what districts like Durham are doing differently. At the end of the day, a hungry student is going to have a harder time learning. Making sure kids can eat at school is part of helping them succeed academically.

So yes, I think universal meals are worth exploring. I just do not want to promise a new program without being upfront about what it costs and how we are going to pay for it.”

11. In 2023, the district set a goal for 90% of its students to meet or exceed grade-level proficiency in 2028, with no disparities based on race, ethnicity, gender, or socioeconomic status. Recent data show that two-thirds to three-quarters of WCPSS students are testing proficiently on their end-of-grade exams, an increase from 64.4% of students who, at the end of 2025, were meeting or exceeding proficiency. What factors do you believe are contributing to this progress, and what should the district continue to do to boost proficiency across the board and eliminate disparities?

“First, I think our students and teachers deserve a lot of credit. These are very encouraging numbers, and we should acknowledge when the district is making real progress.

I doubt there is one single reason for the improvement. Some of it is continued recovery from the disruption of the pandemic, and we are seeing academic gains statewide. But I also think Wake is seeing the benefits of teachers having better information about where individual students are struggling and being able to intervene earlier.

The recent results at Knightdale Elementary are a good example. They made significant gains by using student data more intentionally, building time for small-group and individual instruction into the school day, and giving teachers a clearer structure for addressing students who needed additional help. I would like to see us identify schools that are getting unusually good results with similar student populations and learn from what they are doing.

I also think we need to stay focused on the early grades. If a child is significantly behind in reading or math by third or fourth grade, catching up becomes much harder. We should identify those gaps early and make sure interventions are actually working rather than simply checking a box that a student received one. This is why I was disappointed to see the Board cut literacy coaches as part of a recent budget fix.

The improvement among Black, Hispanic and economically disadvantaged students this year is especially encouraging, but significant gaps still exist. Eliminating those disparities means looking at individual students and schools, making sure effective teachers and programs are reaching the students who need them most, and being willing to change approaches that are not producing results.

The 90% goal is ambitious, and we are obviously not there yet. I don’t think the answer is to lower the expectation. I think the answer is to keep measuring our progress honestly, learn from the schools and teachers that are succeeding, and put more of our effort and resources behind approaches that are actually moving students forward.”

12. Should WCPSS adopt a formal meet-and-confer policy with the Wake County Association of Educators as Durham Public Schools has done? Why or why not? How should the school board work with the group?

“I am open to a formal meet-and-confer process. Teachers and other school employees are the people actually doing this work every day, and the board should have a regular way to hear directly from them before making decisions that affect their jobs and classrooms.

I would want that process to be inclusive, though. WCAE represents an important group of Wake educators, and I would absolutely meet with them and listen to their concerns, but they do not represent every WCPSS employee, so I would not want to create a system where one organization becomes the only voice for teachers and staff.

Durham’s policy provides an interesting model because it creates a structured way for employee organizations to discuss issues such as compensation, benefits and working conditions with district leadership, while the school board still retains responsibility for the final decisions. I think that is worth looking at for Wake.

North Carolina does not allow collective bargaining for public employees, so obviously anything Wake adopts has to stay within state law. But there is a big difference between collective bargaining and simply making sure employees have a meaningful seat at the table.

Whether we ultimately use Durham’s exact model or something different, I want teachers and staff to know that the board is willing to hear from them before decisions are made, not just after a problem has developed.”

13. If there is anything else you would like to address, please do so here. 

“I think one thing that sometimes gets lost in school board races is that most parents want many of the same things. We want our kids to learn, we want good teachers to stay in the classroom, we want schools that are safe and well maintained, and we want to have confidence that the people making decisions are using our resources wisely.

I know INDY readers may not agree with me on every issue. I don’t expect that. But I also don’t think school board members should be chosen based on whether they check every box for one political party or another.

I’m a Wake County public school graduate and a current WCPSS parent. My family believes in our public schools, and I want them to succeed. I also believe supporting public education means being willing to ask hard questions when something isn’t working.

If elected, I would try to approach the job the same way I have approached this campaign: listen, do my homework, be willing to work with people I disagree with, and keep the focus on students rather than political fights.”