Each week, staff at Carolina Journal looks back at the week in N.C. politics and chooses several interesting, relevant stories you may have missed. School COVID testing: North Carolina is launching a program to help public schools test symptomatic students and staff.
The Department of Public Instruction spent $76 million of Coronavirus Relief Funds without making sure the money was helping students, a new audit report says. Online learning has created one of the worst years for student success in North Carolina. Almost one in…
Before the coronavirus pandemic shuttered schools, more teachers were staying in North Carolina’s classrooms. North Carolina succeeded in lowering its teacher-attrition rate, even after its budget stalemate froze teacher pay. The state lost only 7.53% of its 94,410 teachers in the past reporting year. …
A decade of fiscal responsibility and sustainable government could be squandered unless North Carolina taxpayers build some financial guardrails in the state constitution. A report by the John Locke Foundation says a tax and spending limit needs to be enshrined in…
The State Board of Elections made it official. But not without a bit of controversy. The board certified results of the 2020 election during a virtual meeting Tuesday, Nov. 24. More than 5.5 million North Carolinians cast ballots. All three Democratic members and Republican Stacy “Four”…
Gov. Roy Cooper in a new executive order is encouraging local authorities to pursue criminal and civil penalties against businesses that fail to uphold mask and distancing requirements. The order, which runs through Dec. 11, further tightens mask mandates when people…
Senate Republicans are asking Gov. Roy Cooper to reverse a move to eliminate relief money for rural broadband, hurting children and seniors. A new education partnership may be the reason for the move, but 15 Republicans who wrote the governor still want an explanation. The money…
North Carolina has an opportunity. Meaning North Carolina as a whole, but also as a sum of its complex and diverse parts. Gov. Roy Cooper has taken much from us, decisions made and edicts issued because of the COVID-19 pandemic. I’ve said this before.
Democratic judicial candidate Tim Gunther is disqualified from election after admitting to the Wake County Board of Elections he violated state law. But a remedy — which can’t be decided by the Wake board — hasn’t yet been prescribed. When Gunther filed as a Wake County District…
The results are in, and voters selected Republican Catherine Truitt, chancellor of Western Governors University N.C., to be North Carolina’s new superintendent of public instruction. She defeated her Democratic opponent, UNC-Greensboro education professor Jen Mangrum, by around 148,000 votes. Truitt will replace…
