A key leader in the school choice movement dubbed 2023 “the year of universal school choice” during the John Locke Foundation’s Carolina Liberty Conference on Jan. 26-27. In 2023, there were 111 bills introduced in 40 states relating to Education Savings Accounts or vouchers, according to Robert Enlow, president and CEO of the Indianapolis-based group...
I have a feeling most people involved in education policy intuitively accept the conclusion that parents should be the final word on what’s best for their child. But I also believe some don’t really understand its implications. You see, if we accept as our guiding principle that final authority rests with parents, then the answer...
Over recent years, voices across the education establishment have been crying out about a rise in teacher vacancies in classrooms across North Carolina. But things are a bit more complicated. For example, in Charlotte Observer’s late 2023 article on NC’s alleged teacher shortage, it admits: School districts opened the school year with 3,584 teaching vacancies,...
A legal watchdog located in Asheville, NC filed two civil rights complaints this week for discriminating against students based on skin color.
The Tar Heel state is third best in the nation for the growth of public charter schools during the pandemic, trailing only Texas and Florida, according to a new report by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. Nationwide, charter schools have gained more than 300,000 students since the 2019-2020 school year, while traditional public schools have...
What’s in a name? In the case of the newly minted Charter School Review Board, that answer encompasses the entirety of the entity’s new charge and function. Formerly known as the Charter School Advisory Board, or CSAB, this government body has moved from an advisory to a regulatory capacity. It no longer makes recommendations to...
For a long time, Democrats have held a large advantage over Republicans amongst voters on the issue of education. However, that appears to have changed. A new poll conducted by Democrats for Education Reform reaffirmed a trend that has been observed in other polls, including one from Carolina Partnership for Education Reform, over the past...
North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction Catherine Truitt has released an update on Operation Polaris, a four-year plan for strengthening student outcomes across the state. Operation Polaris was initially released in September 2021. The “north star” of the plan is that “every student deserves a highly qualified, excellent teacher in every classroom.” In an update...
Most of us are, of course, more familiar with the thin blue line — law enforcement that protects us from one another, and even from ourselves. Politically, however, during the recent elections, many conservatives were hopeful for a thick red line to save us from ideological miscreants in Congress. The end result proved not more...
Donna King, Carolina Journal editor-in-chief, asks N.C. House Speaker Tim Moore, R-Cleveland, about his education priorities. This exchange took place during the Nov. 25, 2022, edition of PBS North Carolina’s “Front Row with Marc Rotterman.”
New Zealand proposes taxing cow burps, angering farmers Isn’t there a saying about “the inmates running the asylum?” On a more serious note, there has been a lot of progress in the world, but I hope our regression on critical thinking skills is rightfully mocked by future generations. Troy Aikman under fire for ‘take the...
