Education

A hearing to decide whether to allow one of the state’s two virtual charter schools, N.C. Connections Academy, to sever ties with its management firm turned ugly this week during a Charter School Advisory Board meeting.

Superintendent Mark Johnson can’t seem to win for losing. Johnson was part of big press conference Wednesday at the state Legislative Building during which he and State Sen. Andy Wells, (R-Catawba) partnered to announce their proposal of a new program to give the state’s 94,000 licensed teachers $400 a year each to buy classrooms supplies.

When Cecil Staton announced his resignation as chancellor of East Carolina University this week, it had an air of inevitability. Not because of Staton’s performance since his hiring in 2016.

Citing a pattern of low performance, the State Board of Education on Thursday voted to close Charlotte Learning Academy, one of 32 schools across the state whose charters were up for renewal this month.

Two new bills filed by state lawmakers take the heated debate over gun rights and safety to one of its most controversial battlegrounds: the classroom. House Bill 216 - The School Self-Defense Act - would make it legal for teachers and staff members to carry concealed handguns on school grounds “to respond to acts of violence or imminent threats of violence.”

The divide between leadership of the state House and Senate over how to pay for billions in school construction needs widened significantly Thursday when House Republicans filed a bill calling for a $1.9 billion education bond. Under House Bill 241, $1.5 billion in bond money, pending voter approval, would be earmarked for K-12 construction and renovation projects.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Mark Johnson on Tuesday released a lengthy list of education priorities he contends will ensure North Carolina’s public schools are the best for teachers and students by 2030. The list of priorities includes...

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UNC-Chapel Hill’s new interim chancellor wants the “Silent Sam” Confederate monument moved off campus – a position the interim UNC system President said Thursday he also shares.

The State Board of Education holds its monthly meeting this Wednesday and Thursday. Members will discuss the findings of a new statewide report on the State of the Teaching Profession in North Carolina. The following numbers examines teacher turnover across our Local Education Agencies (LEAs) and charter schools.

Last week the UNC Board of Governors voted to release an “after-action report” on last year’s toppling of the Silent Sam Confederate monument. Nearly a week later, the report has yet to be released.

State Senate leaders on Wednesday released a plan to pay for school construction and renovations without voter approval in a statewide bond referendum.

There has been much written about the impact charter school growth has had on some of North Carolina’s larger, urban school districts. But the impact might be greater on some of the state’s smaller, rural school districts where the loss of students, and the funding that follows them, are felt more profoundly.

The Public Forum of North Carolina has called for a moratorium on increased funding to the state’s Opportunity Scholarship Program until lawmakers pass legislation that provides more “robust’ financial oversight and evidence that students who receive the vouchers are performing better academically in private school settings.

With the resignation of both UNC System President Margaret Spellings and UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Carol Folt, the university finds itself at a crossroads. Both leaders stepped down in the last few months after years of conflict with the UNC Board of Governors.