Progressive Voices

Editor's note: Kim Mackey is a social studies teacher with Wake County Public Schools. She recently wrote an open letter to State Superintendent Mark Johnson, because she says her ticket to his special event this Tuesday had been "revoked." In an email, a copy of which was shared with Policy Watch, Johnson wrote that the event was "at capacity."

The United States sees an average of 22,000 firearm suicides and 14,600 firearm homicides, including 300 deaths in mass shootings, each year. In at least 42 percent of mass shooting cases, shooters put up “red flags” – maybe even blatant threats on social media – before opening fire.

Legislation introduced last week to expand Medicaid should be welcome news to the hundreds of thousands in North Carolina who currently can’t see a doctor when they need one. House Bill 5 was introduced by lead sponsors Reps. Gale Adcock, Carla Cunningham, Verla Insko, and Jean Farmer-Butterfield, and Senate Bill 3 was introduced by lead sponsors Sens. Ben Clark, Dan Blue, and Gladys Robinson – all Democrats. A Republican-led bill is expected soon in the NC House.

As we commemorated the 45th anniversary of the historic Supreme Court decision Roe v Wade last year, we were contemplating what the second year under a misogynistic, virulently anti-abortion administration might bring.

Same-sex couples in North Carolina won the freedom to marry in 2014, but LGBTQ people continue to be denied equal protection under the law in many other areas of life. North Carolina is currently the only state in the nation that prevents those in same-sex relationships from accessing protective orders for domestic violence.

Did you know that student performance in North Carolina charter schools is increasingly falling behind traditional public schools? Probably not. After all, that message was absent from state charter office Director Dave Machado’s presentation to the Board last week, nor will you find it in the related Charter Schools Annual Report submitted to...

Race continues to be the primary determinant of K-12 public education. Nikole Hannah-Jones, an award-winning New York Times Magazine reporter and former reporter for the News & Observer of Raleigh, spoke recently at Duke University in front of a large gathering to kick off the Color of Education Initiative. Hannah-Jones asserts that integration has been the most effective strategy for closing the achievement gap between white and Black students. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) conducted the research to support Hannah-Jones’ position.

On January 1st, wealthy individuals and big corporations in North Carolina got yet another break on their taxes, continuing a shift in the tax load to privilege the select few that leaders in the legislature have been pushing since 2013. Sadly, this change will continue a process of ignoring the public good and the need for investment to support a growing state.

North Carolina’s Republican-controlled General Assembly has tried every which-a-way to hamstring Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s oversight of what used to be known as the State Board of Elections and thus of how the state’s elections are carried out.

You must admit, Sen. Thom Tillis is in a tough spot. After saying time after time that the Affordable Care Act is the root of virtually all that is wrong in the world, and voting repeatedly to repeal it, Tillis now finds himself face-to-face with an electorate that supports the ACA...

This time last year, the Trump Administration and Republicans in Congress were racing to stretch ribbon and wrapping paper around a $2 trillion gift to big corporations and rich investment bankers, the optimistically named Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. With a years’ worth of evidence now in, two things are indisputably clear.

Fayetteville is my hometown more than any – I was born here to military parents, this is where my grandparents retired from the military, and I moved back over 7 years ago as a military spouse. My community has done much to improve quality of life here, but still desperately needs expanded healthcare access.

Earlier this week, the UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees (BoT) began plans to erect a statue dedicated to white supremacy. This is not a kind characterization of events, but it is an accurate one. A characterization that failed to permeate the decision-making process, and with horrifying consequence.

The North Carolina Senate Finance Committee voted yesterday to approve a bill that will almost triple the maximum amount of cash that companies receive for each individual job they create through the Job Development Investment Grant program (JDIG), North Carolina’s premier economic incentives program. Although well-intentioned, the plan still needs some work before legislators finally approve it.

Editor’s note: Gerry Cohen – former special counsel to the General Assembly – is widely understood to be North Carolina’s most knowledgeable and respected expert on state elections law. Yesterday, Cohen testified before the Joint Legislative Elections Oversight Committee regarding the controversial subject of voter ID and the proposed legislation that lawmakers are expected to adopt on the subject in the coming days.