Opinion

Eliminate licensure to solve ‘teacher shortage’ and reduce classroom radicalism

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,...

David Larson
Opinion

North Carolina’s likely path to 2040

In July of last year, the Census Bureau estimated that some 10.8 million people resided in our state. One of the fastest-growing in the country, North Carolina’s population ranks ninth, just below Georgia’s population of 11 million. More generally, Southern states accounted for almost 90% of America’s net population increase last year, with migration into...

John Hood
Opinion

Where Georgia beats North Carolina

A new study of occupational-licensing laws is out — and the results aren’t pretty for North Carolina. According to a report by the Archbridge Institute, which studies barriers to economic mobility, the Tar Heel State has the eighth-highest level of occupational licensing in the country. That’s higher than any of our neighboring states. Indeed, one...

John Hood
Opinion

How North Carolina can expand opportunity

Having enacted major reforms of North Carolina’s tax code, regulatory system, budgeting process, transportation funding, and education system over the past dozen years, what should the General Assembly do next? Phil Berger wants to double down on the legislature’s impressive record of conservative policy innovation. “We must build on that success so future generations of...

John Hood

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Opinion

Liberate markets to help workers succeed

I have two favorite quotes from Ronald Reagan about the world of work. The first one illustrates his mastery of an indispensable political tool: self-deprecating humor. “It’s true hard work never killed anybody,” he quipped, “but I figure, why take the chance?” My other favorite Reagan quote makes a serious point: “I believe the best...

John Hood
Opinion

Our workforce is still too small

Most economic forecasters expect us to enter a recession sometime in 2023. I sure hope they’re wrong. Even a mild recession would throw tens of thousands of North Carolinians out of work. And the ranks of displaced workers would rise into the hundreds of thousands if we suffered a downturn as serious as the Great...

John Hood
Opinion

Licensing hurts consumers more than it helps

Although North Carolina has become a demonstrably freer place to live and work over the past 10 years, our state remains grossly out of step with the rest of America in a key respect: we unnecessarily restrict the freedom of workers to enter new occupations and the freedom of consumers to purchase goods and services...

John Hood
News

Bills, now in committee, snip away at barriers to entry in cosmetology  

At Alexander Paul Institute of Hair Design in Greenville, N.C., students are looking toward the future. Here they learn to cut, curl, and color hair, but also tend to customers and build their client base — all the skills they will need for a lucrative career in cosmetology and other personal services.  Some 50 students launch a new...

Donna King