About: Terry Stoops

Here is a short summary of the public education budget proposed by Governor McCrory today: Teachers.  Governor McCrory’s budget would increase the number of teachers by 1,800 over two years and provide a one percent, across-the-board pay increase for state-funded public school employees.  The budget would also fund projected enrollment growth. Textbooks, technology, and tests.Continue Reading

According to the News & Observer, a group of college professors have planned a get-together on March 28 to discuss how much they dislike conservatives.  I do not know why this is news.  Professors talk about how much they loathe conservatives every day.  I suppose the difference is that this particular group therapy session includesContinue Reading

Thanks to a Google alert, I found a News-Leader (Springfield, Missouri) op-ed written by columnist John Lilly, “Be wary when you hear phrase ‘public good.”  Most of his op-ed deals with local politics, but his comments about appeals to the “public good” apply to political debates generally. That phrase is a feel-good, catch-all phrase thatContinue Reading

According to the NC Department of Public Instruction, North Carolina’s 107 charter schools had a record 50,001 students in average daily membership (ADM) this school year.  Charters enrolled 45,388 students last year. Here are a few student enrollment fun facts: The three largest charter schools in North Carolina are: Franklin Academy (Wake) – 1,624 studentsContinue Reading

The papal conclave is underway.  I went to Paddy Power to see the latest odds on the next Pope (the Roman Catholic leader and Bishop of Rome, not the businessman). Archbishop Angelo Scola (Italy) 9/4 Cardinal Odilo Scherer (Brazil) 4/1 Cardinal Peter Turkson (Ghana) 6/1 Cardinal Marc Ouellet (Canada) 10/1 Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone (Italy) 10/1Continue Reading

A recent statement from John Tate, a bank executive and member of the State Board of Education (SBE) from Charlotte, caught my attention.  In a blog post, Charlotte Observer reporter Ann Doss Helms asked Tate about the teacher pay discussion at this week’s SBE meeting.  Tate commented, “We could pass a resolution saying,  ‘We’re screwingContinue Reading

In an N&O op-ed, Jennifer Lovejoy and Susanne Werner of the Secular Coalition for North Carolina argue, Senate Bill 138, offering high school elective courses in Bible studies, is problematic for many reasons: It likely will not be implemented as intended and the costs of adequate implementation have not been addressed at all. The endContinue Reading