Opinion (Page 7)

• A ‘scorecard’ for North Carolina’s redistricting battles

  You can't tell the players without one.

  by Mitch Kokai
• Tax cuts are not self-financing

  While North Carolina’s GOP leaders may share a party label with Kansas Republicans or the Trump administration, their approach to fiscal policy has been quite different.

  by John Hood
• High Point swinging at wild pitches in misguided stadium plan

  Spring, in my mind, means one thing — the return of baseball. A few years ago, there was a campaign to make Opening Day a federal holiday. I signed the petition. From April through October, more often than not, there’s baseball on in my office during the afternoons, at home…

  by Julie Tisdale
• North Carolina needs an alternative to occupational licensing

  For half a century, making any reform to a state’s occupational licensing system has been nigh on impossible. How hard? In 2015, the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics could find “only eight instances of the de-licensing of occupations over the past 40 years.” In recent months, however, the ice…

  by Jon Sanders
• Pay raise could lessen regulation

  Bureaucrats often go far beyond the power clearly delegated to them by elected lawmakers, who in turn lack the knowledge or expertise to detect and stop regulatory abuses.

  by John Hood
• Debate highlights flaws in N.C. criminal code

  The Raise the Age bill's distinction between violent and nonviolent felonies exposes a larger issue.

  by Mitch Kokai
• Party divides are no surprise

  To say that today’s politics is more polarized in a partisan sense is not to say there aren’t still tensions within each party on some issues.

  by John Hood
• Summer reading: It schools the mind

  Languid summer days are near at hand. For students finishing the traditional academic year, time — free and fallow — beckons. But as days slip into weeks and months, something else accrues alongside rest and refreshment: a skills drop-off that erodes learning gains. Low-income students are most at risk. Unlike…

  by Kristen Blair
• Seeking protection, rather than competition

  Americans are upset. Some are just mildly unhappy, others seem miserable, many are plain mad. A NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll reports that more than half have believed the country is “on the wrong track” in every month since February 2005. A Pew survey reveals most of us have been…

  by Andy Taylor
• Average pay isn’t the point

  The real story of the past several years is that North Carolina lawmakers have been restructuring the pay scale for teachers in ways intended to attract and retain high performers.

  by John Hood