Education

At least 50 North Carolina charter schools took money from the federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), created to help small businesses and nonprofits stay afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic. Because some charter schools also received COVID-19 relief money through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, critics have accused them of inappropriate “double-dipping.”

The fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic has wrecked the finances of millions of Americans: Record unemployment, the widespread closure of major companies and small businesses, and for those who have been hospitalized with the virus, medical bills. But of all the ways the virus has upended our lives, the state lottery has remained unscathed.

The UNC System is preparing for possible budget cuts of up to 50% at its 17 campuses, according to an email obtained by Policy Watch this week. The email, from UNC Board of Governors Chairman Randy Ramsey to the system’s chancellors, cites the potential impacts of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the possibility that campuses may again close after reopening next month.

Cases of anxiety and depression are spiking among young teens feeling the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, says Charlene Wong, an associate professor of pediatrics at Duke School of Medicine.  Pediatricians across the nation and throughout the world report rising cases of adolescents suffering from anxiety and depression due to pandemic–related stress and uncertainty, said Wong, who specializes in adolescent and young adult care.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper directed school districts Tuesday to reopen schools with a mix of in-person instruction and remote learning for the state’s 1.5 million public school students.  The approach chosen by Cooper is Plan B from among three that districts were asked to prepare for when developing reopening plans. 

NC State evaluators warn, however, of basic problems in the program's structure Buoyed by a favorable independent evaluation and positive feedback from teachers and parents, the leadership at Southside-Ashpole Elementary School in Robeson County likely won’t change despite reported tension between the school principal and the superintendent of the Innovative School District.

Last semester, as the COVID-19 pandemic closed all UNC System campuses, Samantha Pilot welcomed her son home early from his freshman year at UNC-Chapel Hill. At the time, she felt like the university was on her side. It was expensive and complicated to close the campuses and shift to online-only education for the balance of the spring semester. The fact that the UNC System did it anyway made her feel proud to be part of a Carolina family.

As COVID-19 cases continue to reach new record highs in North Carolina, students at UNC system schools are about a month away from returning to their dorms and classrooms to resume on-campus instruction.

Firebrand conservative academic opts for early retirement in light of latest controversies and provocations Combative, confrontational and litigious, UNC-Wilmington professor Mike Adams has long aggressively courted controversy, seeming to revel in contradictions.

While the North Carolina General Assembly tries again and again to reopen gyms and bars, there is another type of business that has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic and is struggling to rebound: child care centers. Thirty-three percent of all child care facilities remain closed, according to a presentation NC Early Education Coalition policy director Michele Rivest gave to the House Health Committee on June 24.

Governor Roy Cooper, top health officials and the Department of Public Instruction are expected to announce on Wednesday which of three plans should be implemented to reopen schools most safely this fall. Depending on the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, officials will decide on a plan that includes...

Art Pope — Raleigh millionaire, ex-state budget director, former House member and financial underwriter of controversial arch-conservative and libertarian causes — has been appointed to a seat on the UNC Board of Governors.

WASHINGTON — The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated racial inequities in education, a disparity that Congress needs to help rectify, the former education chief under President Barack Obama told lawmakers Monday. “Our education system is fraught with inequities that existed before COVID-19,” John King Jr., who served as Secretary of Education in 2016-2017, told lawmakers on the House Education and Labor Committee. He is president and CEO of The Education Trust, a nonprofit organization that focuses on opportunity and achievement gaps in education.

The UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees voted Wednesday to lift its self-imposed moratorium on the renaming of buildings and historic places on campus, setting the stage to remove the names of Confederate and white supremacist historic figures from places of honor there. The vote comes after the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, which sparked weeks of international protest against police violence against Black people and systemic racism in America.

Since Mark Jewell was first elected to be president of the North Carolina Association of Educators in 2016, he has been an outspoken leader of the 60,000-member teacher advocacy organization. He led two high-profile marches on the General Assembly that brought thousands of North Carolina educators to downtown Raleigh to demand better pay teachers and increased funding for public schools.

WASHINGTON — North Carolina Rep. Virginia Foxx voiced strong opposition Monday to calls for more federal funding to help the nation’s schools as they prepare to reopen this fall. The Republican lawmaker said it would be “irresponsible” to provide more federal education aid without first assessing the effectiveness of funds Congress has already spent.