Page 12 - Terry Stoops News Today

A majority of North Carolina public school students failed to pass end-of-course tests in fall 2020, according to new data from the N.C. Department of Public Instruction. The results were discussed at a state Board of Education meeting Wednesday, March 3. The data suggest learning losses for students due to school closures and remote-only learning brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Public schools have been operating in either an exclusively virtual format or a hybrid approach for a year now. ...

Carolina Journal is the source for daily news and commentary on state and local government, in digital & print, covering politics and public policy.

Left is damaging public education

John Hood RALEIGH — “One of the most unhappy series of events in the state’s history began in 1835,” stated a textbook used in elementary schools across North Carolina. “As more and more white people came into their territory the Cherokee Indians had been driven further into the hills, but white settlers looked with greed on all their territory.” The book went on to explain that only “a small group of Cherokee” signed a treaty to sell their land and move west. But the federal go...

RALEIGH — A new national study says that it appears safe to reopen schools for in-person instruction in counties with lower rates of COVID-19 hospitalizations. The study, conducted by the National Center for Research on Education Access and Choice, is the first of its kind to analyze data from all U.S. counties. As a gauge for safely reopening schools, researchers used a threshold of 36 to 44 new hospitalizations per 100,000 people per week. Under the study’s rationale, some North Car...

RALEIGH — North Carolina’s lawmakers are moving to advance school choice. Republicans on Thursday, Jan. 28, introduced House Bill 32, Equity in Opportunity Act, to reform the Opportunity Scholarship program. The bill would expand low-income students’ access to scholarships, integrate state funding, streamline the program for students with special needs, and boost outreach to low-income families. The push to expand access to Opportunity Scholarships comes during national School Ch...

Carolina Journal is the source for daily news and commentary on state and local government, in digital & print, covering politics and public policy.

New poll shows strong support for school choice in North Carolina by Nyamekye Daniel, The Center Square  | January 29, 2021 10:00 AM Print this article A majority of North Carolinians support school choice, according to a new Civitas poll, which was released Thursday in conjunction with National School Choice Week. Civitas surveyed 950 bipartisan voters from various parts of the state. The survey results showed 82% of North Carolinians believe parents should ...

A N.C. State Board of Education meeting Wednesday, Jan. 27, became a flashpoint in the national debate over racism and American identity. Some Republicans complained proposed social studies standards were full of negativity, identity politics, and social agendas. Democrats argued that systemic racism exists, saying children should learn multiple perspectives on their country’s history.  The proposal changes three words — “systemic racism” to “racism,” “gender identity” to “id...

The coronavirus pandemic has created a window of opportunity for school choice, says a panel of experts at a John Locke Foundation Shaftesbury.  School choice advocates want to upend education funding. They hope to tie funding to students instead of public-school systems, and they believe historic levels of learning loss could fuel their reforms.  They hope to use education savings accounts — or publicly funded savings accounts that pay for government-approved education expenditures — to ...