News
Senate budget proposal draws praise, concern across NC
Though Democrats focused on what they felt was underfunding, other groups applauded the budget for focusing on tax cuts and other economic issues.
Opinion
Raise teacher pay the right way
The empirical evidence is overwhelming: teachers with graduate degrees are not more effective than teachers without graduate degrees.
Opinion
Let’s reform how we pay teachers
During the just-ended 2024 election campaign, candidates for offices such as governor, legislature, county commission, and state superintendent of public instruction talked a lot about raising the pay of public schoolteachers in our state — as well they should have. Even after adjusting for living costs, for example, the average first-year teacher makes nearly $1,000...
Opinion
On schools and sports, follow evidence
The relationship between graduate study and teacher effectiveness is one of the most frequently studied issues in education policy.
Opinion
Sweat the details on teacher pay
The General Assembly ought to enact big pay increases for educators in North Carolina’s public schools. In the context of soaring prices, strong revenue collections, tight labor markets, and persistent vacancies in key teaching positions, it’s the right thing to do. The North Carolina House agrees. In its just-passed budget bill, lawmakers authorized more than...
Opinion
Charter school students deserve equal funding
In the coming weeks, state lawmakers will consider a fundamental issue of fairness in public education: Should some students be educated with less taxpayer funding than others simply because their parents chose a different type of public school? There is a stark difference in local education funding between public district school students and public charter...
Opinion
Three education facts you should know
I have strong opinions about education policy in North Carolina and beyond. Maybe you’ve noticed! I’ve also been researching and writing about the subject for a very long time. During my first stint as a newspaper reporter in 1986, I covered raucous debates about a potential merger of school districts in Nash County, Edgecombe County,...
Opinion
Three school initiatives show promise
The good news is that North Carolina institutions aren’t just producing good ideas about how to improve school leadership. They’re on the ground implementing them.
Opinion
Train and pay principals wisely
Few missions will be as important, and as challenging, as preparing the next generation of principals to lead North Carolina’s schools.
Opinion
State education rank isn’t low
Living in Mebane is less expensive than living in Manhattan — so if you don’t properly account for these kinds of disparities, any nationwide comparison of school spending is utterly useless.
Opinion
On reform, quicken the pace
The pause in North Carolina’s educational progress evident by the early 2000s is difficult to attribute to any particular policy change.
Opinion
School reform requires strong leaders
By some estimates, about a quarter of the entire effect of schooling on student learning is attributable to school leadership, directly or indirectly.
