This year marks the 20th anniversary of North Carolina’s historic Charter Schools Act, which ushered in an era of parental choice in K-12 education in our state. Over the past two decades the John Locke Foundation has been a fierce advocate for giving parents more options so they can choose the educational environment that best suits their children’s unique needs and individual challenges. Lindalyn Kakadelis, the Locke Foundation’s director of educational outreach, discusses the milestones in charter schools, virtual schools, home schools, and private-school vouchers for kids with special needs and those living in low-income households. Then we turn to fiscal issues. Before announcing his departure from the N.C. Office of State Budget and Management, state budget director Lee Roberts sat down with Carolina Journal Radio to assess the good news in North Carolina’s budget picture. Rather than dealing with regular budget shortfalls, current trends suggest government budget writers might face their second straight surplus when the current budget year ends in June. Next is a look at an alarming case of embezzlement in state government. State lawmakers are seeking an investigation of the NCFlex state insurance plans after the recent publicity surrounding a former employee’s embezzlement of almost $250,000 from the program. You’ll hear highlights from recent legislative debate on the topic. That’s followed by a look at the state’s court system. North Carolina magistrates made headlines last year during the debate over same-sex marriage rules. That issue helped highlight a longstanding concern among some elements within the state’s court system about oversight of magistrates. Two different elected judges and an elected court clerk in each county all play some role in magistrate oversight, but critics say it’s impossible to tell who holds ultimate responsibility for magistrates’ actions. The N.C. Courts Commission recently discussed the topic. And finally, Carolina Journal Managing Editor Rick Henderson analyzes the large presence of Libertarians on the 2016 ballot, which of the major parties this helps and hurts, and why Libertarians are particularly interested in Wake County.
NC School-Choice Movement Celebrates Achievements
Related
How will Opportunity Scholarship boom affect NC charter schools?
According to the National School Choice Awareness Foundation (NSCAF), more Americans googled “school choice” during National School Choice Week in January 2023 than during any other time over the prior six years. This should come as no surprise to North Carolinians. Since January 2023, our state legislature has made major expansion possible in both charter...
New school board group sounds alarm on mediocre education putting ‘nation at risk’
Forty-one years ago, under the leadership of President Ronald Reagan, the National Commission on Excellence in Education found “a nation at risk.” If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war. As it stands, we...
The right to school choice is also about the right to stay put
Despite signs of progress, the latest test results show that most North Carolina students have yet to regain the ground lost during the pandemic. There are at least three barriers to academic recovery. First is chronic absenteeism. Compared to five years ago, the number of chronically absent students has doubled. Second, there has been a...
Ruling could leave NC families at mercy of ‘woke’ private-school admins
Can parents sue a private school when the school expels their children merely because the parents asked questions about what is being taught and expressed concerns for their children’s health and safety? This is the question currently before the NC Court of Appeals. Our two children were expelled from their private school, Charlotte Latin, by a...