The percentage of teachers passing state licensure exams has fallen to 80 percent, leaving some members of the State Board of Education (SBE) to wonder if students are being shortchanged by ill-prepared teachers. A report shared with SBE members this week showed the passing rate on state teacher exams falling from 96% percent in 2014 to 80.2% in 2018.
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In addition to historic cemeteries and archaeological resources, state is concerned about asbestos, drinking water pollution Rubbie Francis Wade entered this world in 1921. She left it eight months later, in the summer of 1922. A descendant of the enslaved, Rubbie was not considered by whites important enough to document.
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WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is failing to ensure that all military families have access to safe, quality housing, according to a new government watchdog report. The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) oversees private-sector developers who build, renovate, manage and maintain military housing.
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North Carolina Republicans officially ran out the clock – at least legally – when they enacted a new Congressional map just weeks before candidate filing. A three-judge state Superior Court panel ruled unanimously Monday that the map can go forward and set aside its prior injunction postponing congressional candidate filing.
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A momentous clash over gun rights is headed to the U.S. Supreme Court. The high court is slated to hear oral arguments on Monday in a case over a New York City handgun regulation. It marks the first major gun control dispute to reach the Supreme Court since its ideological shift with the appointment of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and legal observers are billing it as the biggest Second Amendment case to come before the high court in years.
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Text messages and emails point to questionable claims, promises and motives in rogue investigation of former ECU interim chancellor If you’ve been following Policy Watch’s ongoing coverage of the recent East Carolina University controversy, you may be having some trouble keeping it all straight.
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WASHINGTON — A long-simmering feud between U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and congressional Democrats over student loan forgiveness is heating up as hundreds of thousands of borrowers continue to wait for help on loans they claim were fraudulent. DeVos narrowly avoided a congressional subpoena earlier this month after a lengthy fight with the U.S. House Committee on Education and Labor.
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Dennis Gaddy missed out on the opportunity to elect the nation’s first African-American president because of his criminal record, despite re-entering society, paying taxes, taking care of his children and being a responsible and respected citizen. After losing the right to vote for seven years, he’s now a lead plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging the statute that took away that “sacred” right, even after he served his time and “fully returned to society.”
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A state Earned Income Tax Credit is a common-sense solution to address North Carolina’s poverty-related public health crisis. Reinstating North Carolina’s Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) as a refundable credit at the national average of 20 percent of the federal credit has the potential to improve life for the 900,000 North Carolinians who are working for low wages that erect barriers to their economic security and health.
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DEQ cites Greensboro and Reidsville for illegal discharges of 1,4-Dioxane into Haw River and its tributaries
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The Southern Environmental Law Center plans to sue the City of of Burlington for discharging perfluorinated compounds — PFAS — and 1,4-Dioxane from its two wastewater treatment plants into the drinking water supply, unless state regulators intervene first.
...Last week, education policymakers, researchers, foundations and corporate executives gathered for a national summit on adult literacy in Washington, D.C. The inaugural gathering hosted by the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy was designed to look at evidence-based best practices for addressing the nation's literacy crisis.
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