Opportunity Scholarships: Discrimination and neglect of special-needs children

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RALEIGH (January 23, 2025) – There is misinformation circulating about whether North Carolina’s taxpayer-funded Opportunity Scholarships enable schools to discriminate against applicants.  Let’s set the record straight. The starting aim of the program was to provide low-income families with greater access to private education. But the program has come under increasing scrutiny for enabling private… READ MORE

Vouchers: Next step to dismantle NC public schools

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By Kris Nordstrom Senior Policy Analyst, North Carolina Justice Center RALEIGH (January 16, 2025) – If your goal was to dismantle North Carolina’s public school system, how would you do it? Would you starve schools of resources?  Real per-student state funding is down 3.8 percent from 2009. North Carolina’s school funding effort (education spending as… READ MORE

Gov. Stein: Open doors of opportunity to every child

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EDITOR’S NOTE: The following are excerpts from new Gov. Josh Stein’s inaugural address Saturday where he addressed several education issues.1 RALEIGH (January 11, 2025) – North Carolina Strong means opening the doors of opportunity to every child. There is no better investment in our future than providing excellent pre-K so that every child starts kindergarten,… READ MORE

Inaugural food for thought

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RALEIGH (January 16, 2025) – When an Inaugural Ball where you’re expecting more than 2,000 people gets postponed, what do you do with all the food you’ve ordered? Facing the snowstorm that forced postponement of Gov. Josh Stein’s inaugural festivities last weekend, the Junior League of Raleigh and Empire Eats Catering didn’t hesitate with the… READ MORE

UNC Asheville makes hustle plays to reopen

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By Eric Johnson ASHEVILLE (January 16, 2025) – On Wednesday afternoon, after more than three months of empty classrooms, UNC Asheville celebrated an extraordinary return for the spring semester. Over a welcome-back dinner of tacos and nachos inside Kimmel Arena, faculty, staff, and students greeted one another, swapped harrowing stories, and settled in to watch… READ MORE

Revere our teachers

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By David Rice Executive Director, Public Ed Works WINCHESTER, VA (January 8, 2025) – I’m the son of two teachers – one a highly successful football coach and excellent math teacher, the other a strict home-ec teacher. Rather than The Brady Bunch, I grew up watching game film on our living room wall – forward… READ MORE

Hopes for 2025

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RALEIGH (January 2, 2025) – North Carolina’s General Assembly seems to consider itself all-powerful. Well here’s hoping that changes with the new year. Republicans lost their supermajority in the state House by a single seat in November’s elections, giving Gov. Josh Stein slightly more bargaining power with the legislature than his predecessor Roy Cooper had…. READ MORE

Vouchers’ impact on public school funding

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RALEIGH (January 2, 2024) – Over the next several weeks, we will publish several short posts to address misinformation circulating about the North Carolina School vouchers called “Opportunity Scholarships.” These vouchers use public, taxpayer funds to pay for private school tuition. First up is the claim that Opportunity Scholarships do not divert funding from public… READ MORE

2024: An onslaught on public education

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RALEIGH (December 26, 2024) – 2024 marked a continuing – and at times audacious – eating away at public schools in North Carolina. Governing boards appointed directly or indirectly by state legislators drove away a chancellor at UNC-Chapel Hill, asserted control over athletic conference switches, and did away with Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs at… READ MORE