One Bad Brutal Boondoggle - The One Big Beautiful Bill and North Carolina (Part 2)
Immigration, Education, Energy, & Communications
(See part 1 of this series from our September 2025 newsletter.)
By Galen Smith and Carrie Phillips
The “One Big Beautiful Bill” (OBBB) was signed into law in July 2025 and extends many of the features established in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. Most Americans are keenly aware that the bill’s tax cuts will benefit the wealthiest people the most and disadvantage those at the lower end of the income spectrum. State-level impacts will be broad-based, especially in terms of the pernicious effects on society and the social safety net. Last month we focused on the OBBB’s impacts on North Carolina related to Medicaid, Medicare, and the SNAP program. This month the focus is on effects on immigration, education, energy and communications:
Disruptions to the workforce resulting from aggressive immigration enforcement and deportation policies,
Limits on the amounts of student loans that present barriers to students in North Carolina pursuing higher education,
Creates burdens for North Carolina’s public schools to protect student safety and student privacy standards, regardless of immigration status,
Increases household energy bills and decreases green energy jobs (i.e. wind, solar, and battery storage), and
Disrupts local news programming and emergency alerts in communities resulting from funding cuts to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Immigration and Border Enforcement Impacts
Foreign-born North Carolina residents make up 12% of the state’s labor force. Their presence is especially important in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, construction, and agricultural industries and amongst entrepreneurs. The workforces within these sectors of the North Carolina economy will likely be disrupted by the OBBB. The primary reasons are the large allocation of funds toward immigration enforcement attributable to the OBBB, coupled with aggressive and overreaching immigration enforcement and deportation policies (including deportation of U.S. citizens who may be targets of racial or ethnic profiling). The loss of asylum protections and constitutional due process, as well as the permitting of indefinite detention of children and families, will create disincentives for immigrants to stay within the U.S. and likely have a chilling effect on those considering immigrating to the United States.
Student Loan and Higher Education Impacts
The OBBB imposes more limits on the amount of federal student loans for graduate students and the parents of undergraduates. Additionally, it provides:
fewer repayment options,
a requirement that students must be enrolled full-time in order to qualify for Pell Grants,
that parent student loan borrowers will not be eligible for income driven repayment (IDR) plans, and
for the elimination of deferments for hardship and unemployment.
This will create hardships and disincentives for North Carolina students pursuing higher education. Limits on professional graduate school loans (i.e., medical school, law school, etc.) may shrink student enrollments in these programs and exacerbate existing shortages of professional practitioners (i.e., physicians) in North Carolina and other states. Another potential consequence for higher education in North Carolina is the possibility that state-supported schools might increase tuition to make up for shortfalls in federal funding of the Medicaid and SNAP programs.
Other Education Impacts
The OBBB also allows states to opt into a federal school voucher program. In effect, this policy diverts public education funds to provide for private school tuition. Both chambers of the North Carolina legislature recently voted to allow the state to participate in the program, but Governor Josh Stein vetoed the bill, effectively putting North Carolina’s participation on hold for now. However, Stein has indicated that he might eventually approve the legislation if it is revised to benefit public school students instead. The bill was referred back to the House Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House Committee within the N.C. House of Representatives on September 22nd, suggesting continued legislative maneuvering of the issue.
Public schools are legally obligated to provide a free K-12 education to all children, regardless of their immigration status. All public schools, including those in North Carolina, are also obligated to protect students and student privacy standards. The burden of fulfilling these demands on our state’s educators will be heightened as the pace of apprehending immigrant students in schools is likely to increase due to the additional financial resources provided for immigration and border enforcement by the OBBB. Another threat to North Carolina public schools is the possibility of lost federal funding if school enrollments decline – a very real possibility if aggressive immigration enforcement measures lead to decreased school attendance and/or poor academic performance.
Energy Impacts
The OBBB increases energy bills across North Carolina households by $13 billion for the budget window spanning 2025 to 2034. Higher dependence on fossil fuels and higher fossil fuel prices are expected due to the OBBB’s elimination of existing energy and manufacturing tax credits, thereby threatening investment in green energy sources such as wind, solar, and battery storage. This could stymie economic growth and cost jobs in North Carolina. Energy Innovation Policy & Technology LLC, an energy and environmental policy firm, forecasts that as investment sours in the domestic energy and manufacturing sectors within North Carolina that as many as 45,000 jobs will be lost by 2030 and an additional 42,000 by 2035. North Carolina’s GDP is also predicted to shrink by nearly $67 billion between 2025 and 2034 as new investment in domestic energy and manufacturing falters due to enactment of the OBBB.
These pro-fossil fuel incentives, in tandem with the repeal of existing vehicle tailpipe standards implemented by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, will likely decrease zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) sales in North Carolina. The likely outcome in response to any decrease in sales of ZEVs will be an increase in vehicle sales with internal combustion engines which will likely lead to increased annual vehicle fuel costs for North Carolina households, higher levels of local air pollution, and the accompanying adverse consequences to public health.
Public Broadcasting Impacts
The OBBB rescinded approximately $1.1 billion dollars nationally for funding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The reduced funding will present staffing challenges to local public broadcasting stations and affect local news coverage, emergency alerts, and access to programming in North Carolina communities. These effects may be especially acute in rural areas of North Carolina where broadcasting outlets of all types may be very limited and cell phone coverage is spotty. WUNC, WFDD, WFAE, WNCU, and PBS North Carolina – all public broadcasting venues in North Carolina – have reported significant financial losses in annual support or lost grants and WFAE has reduced its workforce by six staff members.
Sources and Further Reading
What Student Loan Borrowers Need to Know About the “Big Beautiful Bill”
Student Loans, Financial Aid, and 529 Plans: How the “One Big Beautiful Bill” Impacts Education
NC Public Radio & PBS Could Lose Millions in Federal Funds. What it Means
NC Legislators Are Putting Private Schools Over Most of North Carolina’s K-12 Students
Schools and Immigrant Students Navigate an Era of Rising Immigration Enforcement
Please check out our full newsletter from October 2025 on our main website, IndivisibleCLT.org!