The General Assembly has officially adjourned, but the work hasn’t ended. Some legislators, as well as the professional staff, are still working on studying issues that may come up in the next session. Becki Gray, the John Locke Foundation’s Vice President for Outreach, discusses her thoughts on how the legislature can build on the 2015 session reforms next year. Then we turn to higher education. The University of North Carolina system’s Board of Governors recently selected former U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings to serve as the next UNC president. During her first media briefing after the selection, Spellings discussed her approach to higher education and her goals for helping UNC succeed in a changing world for traditional public universities. Next is a look at a hot-button legal and social issue: capital punishment. Leaders within the N.C. General Assembly support capital punishment. But some rank-and-file Republicans are starting a conversation to end the death penalty in North Carolina. You’ll learn why they’re making what they call a conservative appeal to rethink the state’s approach to punishing the state’s worst crimes. That’s followed by a look at the future of public education. Technology has changed all of our lives, and the public school classroom is no exception to the rule. Jeni Corn is director of evaluation programs and Trip Stallings is director of policy research at the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation at N.C. State University. They explain the work that has gone into a Digital Learning Plan for the state’s schools. So what occurs when a recent North Carolina high school graduate decides to enroll in a North Carolina community college? A good portion of them unfortunately require remediation in reading or math or English in order to perform the work required of them. John Locke Foundation Director of Research and Education Studies Terry Stoops delves into the troubling remediation rate and how North Carolina might go about addressing it.