RALEIGH, -- As lawmakers consider final approval of a $20.6 billion state budget, the first possible lawsuit is already being threatened in connection with its ramifications.The leader of the North Carolina Association of Educators is condemning the new state budget for the impact it will have on North Carolina schools.

The spending plan eliminates teacher tenure and provides state-funded scholarships to private schools for low-income students.

NCAE President Rodney Ellis calls it an attempt to privatize the education system. Ellis says the NCAE will file a legal challenge regarding the provision that would remove tenure and place teachers on one-year contracts.

The North Carolina Association of Educators says it will file a lawsuit over the state budget's elimination of teacher tenure. Teachers would be moved to yearly contracts under the new spending plan. NCAE President Rodney Ellis says the legislature seems to have ignored their efforts to work together on education policy.

"For them to disregard all that hard work and collaboration in favor of a budget that does this kind of harm to public education is very upsetting," says Ellis.

Ellis says they're also studying legal action in other states to see if they can fight taxpayer-funded scholarships for low-income students to use at private schools.