Education

1. North Carolina superintendent trips over state laws, critics say North Carolina’s massive purchase of tablets, intended to boost tech for elementary literacy, came and went quietly in June, but the events preceding state Superintendent Mark Johnson’s move did not.

North Carolina state law would seem to provide just two options for Wayne County school leaders, close or accept the state’s takeover of a Goldsboro elementary school following last week’s reluctant vote by the State Board of Education. But, in an interview with Policy Watch Wednesday, Wayne County Superintendent Michael Dunsmore wouldn’t rule out a third option: File a lawsuit that challenges state officials’ handling of the Innovative School District selection process.

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As the UNC Board of Governors prepares to take up the fate of the Silent Sam Confederate monument Friday, one board member says he's skeptical of a controversial $5.3 million plan to build a history center that would house -- and protect -- the divisive statue.

As UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Carol Folt addressed a tense Faculty Council meeting Friday, a group of students interrupted her defense of a controversial plan to return the Silent Sam Confederate monument to campus.

Michael Dunsmore, superintendent of Wayne County Public Schools, has one question for members of the State Board of Education as they mull a bitterly controversial proposal to seize control of a struggling Goldsboro elementary.

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The UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees unveiled its plan for the Silent Sam Confederate monument Monday: a new, $5.3 million University History and Education Center.

If North Carolina goes forward with the recommendation to allow a private charter operator to take control of a Goldsboro elementary school, they should expect a protracted resistance, the school’s principal told Policy Watch Wednesday.

The following set of figures comes from the Center on Budget & Policy Priorities' new report: Unkept Promises: State Cuts to Higher Education Threaten Access and Equity.

The UNC Board of Governors is changing the process by which it selects chancellors for UNC system schools. The new process will be more confidential, include more rigorous background checks.

Long after the presidents, and the governors, and the press conferences cease, and the swollen rivers of our state subside, will North Carolina be there for those students displaced by Hurricane Florence?

A controversial website touting Superintendent of Public Instruction Mark Johnson may have broken North Carolina law, a Policy Watch investigation has found.

When N.C. Superintendent of Public Instruction Mark Johnson announced a $6.6 million purchase of iPads to support early grade literacy in August, it seemed welcome news for North Carolina school districts that have long complained of inadequate state resources.

Public school demographics in the United States are shifting, but, based on emerging national data, there’s reason to believe public schools are struggling to keep up with the changes.

When State Board of Education members Bill Cobey and Becky Taylor step down next month, it’ll mark the third time in six months that members of North Carolina’s top school board depart before their term is up.

“Show me the money!” Minnie Forte-Brown, president of the N.C. School Boards Association (NCSBA), which advocates for local boards statewide, is standing in a cramped computer lab at George Watts Elementary in Durham with a handful of reporters and school advocates.