Leaders in the General Assembly are planning to beef up the legislature’s oversight of state government, creating a new system that will be quick to act and more responsive to pressing issues in North Carolina. The new watchdog function will take place within the legislature’s joint committees and will replace the Program Evaluation Division, a...
The Senate has tentatively voted to reopen schools, despite pushback from Democrats to block full in-person learning for older students. Republicans passed Senate Bill 37 on its second reading, 29-16, to give K-12 students the option to return to the classroom at least part-time. Students with special needs could choose full-time in-person learning. The Senate...
Waiting. That’s what we do in North Carolina these days. We wait. Wait is one of the Cooper administration’s three Ws, somewhere between wash and wear. No ironing needed. We wait in lines, six feet between us and anybody else. But mostly we wait for the governor and his staff to tell us when it’s...
Earlier this month, I was honored to attend “North Carolina and the Science of Reading,” an event sponsored by the Charlotte-based Belk Foundation. Speakers from the Barksdale Reading Institute in Mississippi and The Reading League outlined the ways policymakers and state education leaders responded to disappointing test scores and inequitable reading instruction by embracing methods...
Tiffany Lesnik, a lawyer in Wake County, arrived at the N.C. State Board of Elections on Dec. 4 to file her notice of candidacy. But an official told her she didn’t qualify. Lesnik and other judicial candidates who are registered as unaffiliated voters have to submit a petition to the N.C. Board of Elections before...
The General Assembly is going home without raising teacher pay and without passing a full budget. During the Tuesday, Jan. 14 session, Senate Republicans failed to garner enough votes to override the vetoes of two bills. The veto overrides for Senate Bill 354, Strengthening Educators’ Pay, and Senate Bill 553, Regulatory Reform Act of 2019,...
North Carolina’s Republican legislators say they were left out of focus groups for a major education report that could seriously affect future policymaking. On Dec. 10, a 300-page report from research nonprofit WestEd was disclosed to the public. The dense document is a key piece in the decades-old Leandro case. But top Republican lawmakers —...
The January meeting of the N.C. State Board of Education ran late into the evening, but it concluded with a tense discussion between the board and State Superintendent Mark Johnson. Johnson was at a conference in Washington, D.C., during the board’s Wednesday, Jan. 8 meeting. But the superintendent had time to phone members during a...
The N.C. Senate will conclude its business this week, with or without overriding the governor’s budget veto, Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, said during a Monday, Oct. 28, news conference. What the rest of the week looks like depends on whether the Senate overrides the veto during its 7 p.m. session Monday night. Senators and...
The General Assembly may finally end the months-long budget stalemate and override the governor’s veto of the budget. The reconsideration of the budget veto was put on the Senate calendar for 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 28. The move prompts speculation Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, has enough votes for an override. Pat Ryan, a spokesman...
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to clarify a statement about state law requirements for NCDOT’s cash balance. The N.C. Department of Transportation is running out of gas. NCDOT depleted its budget in 2019, a new report shows, leaving top members of the N.C. General Assembly to question how, and why, the department failed...
