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  • NC Parents Come Out the Winners on School Lunches

    Posted in Education by Matt Willoughby on May 29, 2012

    (RALEIGH) – After a national outcry over  lunch inspections at a pre-K program in Hoke County, the North Carolina Childcare Commission got the message. The commission reinstated a rule allowing homemade lunches to be exempt from nutrition guidelines. The Childcare Commission had previously considered making “parental preference” an exemption to nutrition standards at previous meetings [...]

  • Documents: Hoke County School Administrators Balked at Cooperating in Lunch Inspections Probe

    Posted in Education by Matt Willoughby on May 15, 2012

    (RALEIGH) – Public documents obtained by the Civitas Institute show some school officials didn’t want to cooperate after a mother in Hoke County complained about her daughter’s homemade lunch being inspected by school officials. The girl was then told to eat cafeteria food because her homemade lunch didn’t meet nutrition standards. An article about the [...]

  • Bringing Perspective to the Budget Wars

    Posted in Education by Bob Luebke on May 7, 2012

    The debate over the State budget’s impact on public education has generated much heat  and little light in the last few weeks. Democrats point to large budget reductions, personnel losses and talk of the devastating long-term consequences on students and the public schools. Republicans dispute the claims, saying that funding was actually increased to add [...]

  • “Chicken Nuggets” Teacher Breaks Down in Tears Under Questioning Before Resignation

    Posted in Education by Matt Willoughby on March 22, 2012

    (RAEFORD) – The pre-K teacher involved in the “chicken nuggets” incident in Hoke County changed her version of what happened after undergoing three separate interrogations. Margaret Maynor was brought to tears in the third session. She submitted her resignation soon after. In a highly unusual move, the Hoke County School System released documents from the [...]

  • NCLB Waivers: The Means to Another End

    Posted in Education by Bob Luebke on March 9, 2012

    Twenty-six states and the District of Columbia have requested waivers from the Federal government for No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation. The waivers free the states from changes required of schools and states who fail to meet the goals outlined in NCLB.  Nearly all states have failed to meet the goals outlined in the legislation. [...]

  • Parents Upset “Chicken Nuggets” Teacher in Hoke County Suspended Over the Incident

    Posted in Education by Matt Willoughby on March 7, 2012

    At least two families were sent letters from Hoke County Assistant Superintendent Bob Barnes informing them their children’s pre-K teacher, Margaret Maynor, was suspended while the infamous “chicken nuggets” incident is investigated. Update: Mrs. Maynor has now resigned her position. On January 30 some pre-K students at West Hoke Elementary School were told their homemade [...]

  • NC Commission Deleted Exception for Parents to School Lunch Nutrition Rules

    Posted in Education by Matt Willoughby on February 23, 2012

    Lawmakers May Move to Require the Exception (RALEIGH) – School lunch inspections, such as the one at West Hoke Elementary School that garnered national attention, could be avoided in the future if the NC Child Care Commission doesn’t ignore a recommendation from the General Assembly and its own attorney. The NC Child Care Commission is [...]

  • Father of “Chicken Nuggets” Pre-schooler Says School’s Version of Events Not Accurate

    Posted in Education by Matt Willoughby on February 16, 2012

    Rules Lead to Waste and More Changes are on the Way (RAEFORD) – Hoke County Schools Assistant Superintendent Bob Barnes is telling the media the pre-K student who was forced to supplement her homemade lunch with chicken nuggets must have been confused when she went through the school lunch line. The girl’s father says his [...]

  • NCAE Continues to Muddy the Waters

    Posted in Education by Bob Luebke on February 16, 2012

    There they go again: The North Carolina Association of Educators (NCAE) continues to pump out misleading claims about Civitas and the state’s public school system. Last month’s Civitas article Behind the DPI School Personnel Numbers analyzes changes in North Carolina school personnel over the past year using data provided by the North Carolina Department of [...]

  • State Inspectors Searching Children’s Lunch Boxes: “This Isn’t China, Is It?”

    Posted in Education by Matt Willoughby on February 14, 2012

    A mother in Hoke County complains her daughter was forced to eat a school lunch because a government inspector determined her home-made lunch did not meet nutrition requirements. In fact, all of the students in the NC Pre-K program classroom at West Hoke Elementary School in Raeford had to accept a school lunch in addition [...]

  • NCAE Misses the Mark, Again

    Posted in Education by Bob Luebke on February 8, 2012

    The February 6 Daily Political Briefing by the North Carolina Association of Educators (NCAE)   resorts to misleading statements about teacher pay in an  unsuccessful  attempt to refute a March 2011 Civitas Institute article about why North Carolina should find a better way to pay teachers. NCAE charges that teacher pay is decreasing because salaries attributed to [...]

  • Behind the DPI School Personnel Numbers

    Posted in Education by Bob Luebke on January 23, 2012

    The Department of Public Instruction has released the final public school personnel [1] figures for 2011-12. Last week we posted preliminary school personnel data on the Civitas web site. How accurate was the preliminary data?  The percentage difference in annual staff changes by funding source (i.e., local, state and federal) between the preliminary and final [...]

  • Gov. Perdue’s Tax Increase for Schools: A Bad Idea at a Bad Time

    Posted in Education by Bob Luebke on January 19, 2012

    Yesterday, Gov. Perdue released a statement supporting a three-quarters-of-one- cent increase in the state sales tax to stop what she says are “deep and unnecessary cuts to public schools.” I agree with Gov. Perdue’s assessment that education is key to our future. However, I cannot agree with her proposal to raise taxes.   The proposal is [...]

  • Preliminary DPI Personnel Data Shows Increase in State-Supported Education Jobs

    Posted in Education by Bob Luebke on January 17, 2012

    Preliminary DPI Personnel Data Shows Increase in State-Supported Education Personnel Preliminary public school personnel data from the Department of Public Instruction shows that the number of state-supported public education personnel increased by 4,720 over the previous year. (Preliminary-DPI-School-Personnel-Data-2012)  The data stands in stark contrast to Gov. Beverly Perdue’s claims Republican state budget cuts have resulted [...]

  • NCAE: A Giant Chasm Between Rhetoric and Reality

    Posted in Education by Bob Luebke on January 9, 2012

    NCAE: A Giant Chasm Between Rhetoric and Reality    Last week the North Carolina General Assembly successfully overrode Gov. Perdue’s veto of SB 727- No Dues Checkoff for School Employees. The legislation ends the practice of the state collecting dues check off payments for members of the North Carolina Association of Educators (NCAE). The reaction from [...]

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