-
Are Our Schools Swelling with the Poor?
Shame on the Raleigh News & Observer. A headline story on October 30th declared, “South’s schools swell with poor kids” and later stated, “49 percent of the state’s school children live below the poverty line” was irresponsible journalism.
-
Help Middle Class Children: Light Up a Smoke
If we want to help middle class kids get healthcare, we'd better start puffing.
-
Charter Schools: Why More Study Is Needed
The debate over raising the cap on charter schools has prompted legislation (HB 30) for a study of charter schools. A recent report by the North Carolina Center for Public Policy Research questioned the achievements of charter schools and recommended keeping the 100-school cap. While the report addresses some important issues, the proposed legislative study ideally would build on this report by recognizing the diverse range of measures of success that are appropriate for charter schools.
-
Overrated Economic Diversity
Misplaced confidence. That’s the best way to describe the Wake County school system’s support for economic diversity. Administrators use it as the template to help assign students across the district to ensure racial diversity. They also credit the plan for dramatically boosting Black and Hispanic test scores over the past five years. But is it really the cause of such success? Where’s the proof?
-
Are Our Students Performing As Well As We Think?
This week the federal government released the latest scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also called the nation’s report card. The NAEP tests a representative sample of students in each state. This year, while 4th graders in the United States overall improved their reading performance, North Carolina 4th graders have actually declined slightly in their percentage of higher level (proficient and advanced) scores.
-
Enrollment Growth
Student enrollment growth by county compared to each county's level of school construction lottery revenue.
-
Education Recap: Spending Increases and Program Expansions Mark Legislative Session
As might be expected, education remained a top priority for lawmakers during the 2007 long session. What is perhaps more surprising is that even as education spending increased by 15 percent over the previous year’s budget, the General Assembly neglected to pass legislation aimed at fundamental reform. While the rise in spending is disturbing, progress was made in some areas. The legislature did allow school districts to pilot alternative pay plans for teachers and also called for the development of lateral entry teacher education programs. But all in all, there was little real innovation. Unlike more recent legislative sessions, lawmakers failed to pass any signature pieces of education legislation. The bills that did pass proved limited in scope and financial impact. Many programs funded via the budget also represented a continuation of the same old themes.
-
Gambling with a New Plan for the North Carolina Education Lottery
Revenue from the North Carolina Education Lottery has fallen short of initial estimates, with the inevitable result that the Legislature has had to provide public tax dollars to “backfill” pre-kindergarten and other programs that were to be financed with lottery revenue. For example, more than half ($37.5 million) of the proposed budgetary increase of $56 million for Governor Easley’s More-At-Four program is to make up for the difference between projected ($425 million) and actual Education Lottery revenue receipts ($350 million). In hopes of remedying this problem, the conference committee budget reportedly includes provisions to change how revenue from the North Carolina Education Lottery is to be distributed. The new formula, however, does not address the root causes of the shortfall and further removes operation of the lottery from public accountability. The new legislation would make the following changes:
-
Do We Really Need Another School Bond? Rethinking the Conventional Wisdom
One of the most important − and most expensive − responsibilities of state government is to plan and maintain the capital needs of state agencies. Although specific estimates vary, over the past year, the General Assembly and the governor have been considering several billion-dollar bond packages. These projects range from school construction to water and sewer services to land conservation initiatives:
-
Charter Schools: Why More Study Is Needed
The debate over raising the cap on charter schools has prompted legislation (HB 30) for a study of charter schools. A recent report by the North Carolina Center for Public Policy Research questioned the achievements of charter schools and recommended keeping the 100-school cap. While the report addresses some important issues, the proposed legislative study ideally would build on this report by recognizing the diverse range of measures of success that are appropriate for charter schools.
-
Middle-class Welfare: The House Budget and Education
Remember this number: $10.7 billion. This figure represents how much North Carolina expects to spend on education in the $20.1 billion state budget currently under consideration in the House. While state residents have always been willing to dig deep to support the basic costs associated with K-12 and higher education, recent history suggests that politicians in Raleigh are asking taxpayers to pay for more than reading and writing. Indeed, the long-term impact of some of these programs will be to institutionalize the expansion of government services to a larger, wealthier segment of the population.
-
Should North Carolina Raise the Compulsory Schooling Age?
North Carolina is among a slim majority of states with a compulsory schooling age of 16, meaning that a student can choose to leave school on their 16th birthday. Nine states have a compulsory age of 17 and 15 states have a compulsory age of 18. In the southeast, South Carolina and Tennessee have compulsory ages of 17 and Virginia has a compulsory age of 18.
-
Does N.C. Inflate Student Test Scores: The Need For Federal Testing
Since the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) in 2001, the federal government has encouraged improvement in reading and math curriculums by holding states accountable for their public schools' performance. Since the federal government began holding states answerable for their progress there has been an outcry of debate from the states arguing that their tests are unfair. Critics claim the tests are not geared towards individual students of every state and that there should be minimal federal control over state education. Based on dismal gaps between state and federal testing results, one thing remains clear: some states' schools continue to fail in their fundamental mandate to teach children to read, write and solve basic math problems. The real question is — are these concerns rooted in solid principle or are the states crying foul because they are afraid of the accountability testing holds?
Weekly Newsletter
@NCCivitas
- NC to Seek Federal Waiver to Pursue Medicaid Reform http://t.co/Uj6pBnDUwF #ncpol
- Why do liberals hate eagles? http://t.co/xCfCb058GK #nccivitas #eaglekillers http://t.co/SSFob4zRCc
- House unveils tax plan – less significant than the Senate plan. http://t.co/7HACM0Q1gx #ncga #ncpol
Loading ...