K-12 education

The N.C. State Education Assistance Authority posted updated data on the Opportunity Scholarship Program, which awards private school vouchers to low-income children. Between 2017 and 2019, the Opportunity Scholarship Program had a 12.8 percent increase in applications and a 16 percent increase in recipients (so far).  Not bad!   2018-19…

Dan Way reports for Carolina Journal Online on small N.C. towns that consider merging public services with larger neighbors. John Hood’s Daily Journal urges North Carolina to continue expanding access to parental school choice.

Breitbart reports that the N.C. State Teacher Education and Learning Sciences Department will add a social justice education specialization to their Ph.D. program.  A press release outlines the goal of the new program. “The goal of the program is to help educators recognize and disrupt systems of oppression…

John Locke Foundation’s Joe Coletti explains where funding for the State Health Plan comes from: An angry teacher on Facebook wondered why those in charge of the State Health Plan “felt the need…to remind us that we are funded by taxpayers” on the new insurance ID cards.  Worse,…

On the Center for Education Reform’s (CER) 2018 Parent Power Index, North Carolina is ranked 7th in the nation with an overall PPI score of 73.0 percent.  CER writes, Things are looking up for parents of the Tarheel state. Improvements to the state’s charter law and school…

“When it comes to education policy, leave it to the teachers — not the politicians” declares Jay Mathews in his latest Washington Post column.  It’s hard to believe that someone who has been writing about education for so long still gets so much wrong. Mathews believes that “I think…

A simple change to ballot language and another small change in ball could have huge impacts on local borrowing. Dan Way reported for Carolina Journal that “Debt fared better than taxes in local referendums.” Only one bond referendum failed. Wake County alone received permission from voters to issue $1.017 billion…

With the election over and thoughts turning to 2019, the next state budget cycle, and the work of the General Assembly, I hope we have a robust discussion about priorities — education for example. The current General Assembly has made K-12 education a priority. Let’s start with the…