RALEIGH (July 6, 2022) – With the 2022-23 budget they unveiled and adopted last week, state legislators simply aren’t taking care of their people – our people. The state has a $6.5 billion revenue surplus this year. Let that sink in: $6,524,141,444.00.1 Yet this state continues to systematically underfund public education. By one estimate, the… READ MORE
$6.2B NC surplus: Make education a priority again
RALEIGH (May 18, 2022) – As the NC General Assembly reconvenes today with a $6.2 billion state budget surplus, it’s time to make education a priority again in North Carolina. Officials announced last week that the state will take in $4.24 billion more than projected in the budget year that ends June 30 – a… READ MORE
Buck Goldstein: The partnership is broken
By Buck Goldstein CHAPEL HILL (October 28, 2021) – In North Carolina, the relationship between the flagship public university and the state seems to be broken and getting worse. And that’s despite the good intentions of the chancellor, the chair of the faculty, and the leader of the Board of Trustees. Trust is at the… READ MORE
Support community colleges to make it happen
RALEIGH – To lead North Carolina’s economic recovery, the state’s community colleges will need support from the General Assembly and Gov. Roy Cooper, the NC Community College System’s president says. In the accompanying video, System President Thomas Stith III lays out what he calls a “moderate” agenda for this year’s legislative session. First and foremost,… READ MORE
41st? Support community college faculty, staff
RALEIGH – Raises for faculty and staff are at the top of the NC Community Colleges’ legislative agenda this year. “We’re the third-largest system in the country, yet our faculty and staff – those individuals that day in and day out provide educational instruction to our students – rank 41st in the nation (in pay),”… READ MORE
Hans: ‘We’ve got to reach more adult learners’
CHAPEL HILL (April 28, 2021) – Birth rates dropped during the Great Recession – many families weren’t sure of their futures. And 13 years later, colleges and universities are preparing to face the consequences. The population of 18- to 24-year-olds nationwide is projected to decline in coming years, with precipitous drops in the Northeast and… READ MORE
Higher ed must get better at second chances
By Eric Johnson North Carolina is entering a strange economic moment. Less than a year after the sharpest recession in modern history, the state is poised for a booming recovery. After peaking at 13.5% in May of last year, state unemployment now stands at 5.2%. But that’s not the whole story. There are two ways… READ MORE
CEOs: A moral obligation to our youngest readers
CARY (April 14, 2021) – In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and learning losses among the state’s most vulnerable students, North Carolina needs to double down on early-childhood education and literacy, a group of prominent CEOs said today. “COVID learning losses have impacted our youngest students the hardest – and particularly our students of… READ MORE
Don Flow: The case for NC education investments
EDITOR’S NOTE: As state legislators returned to Raleigh recently for their 2021 session, Winston-Salem businessman Don Flow shared the following thoughts with legislative leaders. By Don Flow America is in the midst of enormous turmoil, with rural whites and urban blacks caught in the same undercurrent. Although they express their frustration and anger in different ways… READ MORE
A modest ask of state legislators for 2021-22
CHAPEL HILL (Nov. 19, 2020) – Anticipating a difficult budget year, the UNC System Board of Governors adopted budget and legislative priorities for 2021-22 today that reflect the core mission of the University System, but also its intention to reduce employees. “I think we’ve been very modest with our ask,” board Chair Randy Ramsey said…. READ MORE