State lawmakers are back in Raleigh to begin what’s known as the short session – several months in which they’ll make adjustments to the state budget for the upcoming year and consider a variety of other legislation that didn’t make it across the finish line in the 2023 long session. One of the biggest partisan battles is likely to be over education funding: How much of the state's projected revenue surplus will go to public schools, and how much will address high demand for private school vouchers? Will the state address the funding cliff that childcare centers are experiencing as federal pandemic money expires?

To sort through the issues facing lawmakers, WUNC's Colin Campbell spoke with Sen. Gale Adcock, D-Wake. Adcock, a longtime nurse practitioner, also discusses the state's healthcare policy needs in the months following the expansion of the Medicaid program.