SANFORD (October 10, 2023) – Is North Carolina’s dramatic expansion of vouchers for private schools – with no limits on family income – an effort to find what’s best for each child? Or an effort to undermine and divert funds from public education? A debate on those questions at the Dennis A. Wicker Civic &… READ MORE
7% over two years? Simply not enough.
RALEIGH (September 22, 2023) – It’s simply not enough. At a time when North Carolina children started school with 3,500 teaching positions vacant and with more than 20% of state jobs vacant,1 state legislators approved a budget today – almost three months late – that provides teachers and state employees raises of 4% this year… READ MORE
Teachers in peril
CHAPEL HILL (August 31, 2023) – If the killing of a professor by one of his students Monday at UNC-Chapel Hill tells us nothing else, it tells us how treacherous teaching has become in this country. We still don’t know the shooter’s motives. We still don’t fully know whether the shooter intended to kill more… READ MORE
Why do we let our General Assembly dismantle public education?
By John Tate III CHARLOTTE (August 23, 2023) – Why do we let our General Assembly dismantle K-12 public education as we have known it, to the detriment of our community’s kids and our economy? It is our fault, you know. We are empowered as a people to change those who govern. We either just… READ MORE
NC teacher pay: ‘Simply not competitive’
CLICK HERE to view the full webinar on Fair Pay for NC K-12 Teachers RALEIGH (June 8, 2023) – When she won a North Carolina Teaching Fellows scholarship to become a teacher in 1998, Rachel Frye felt valued by the state of North Carolina. But after 21 years in teaching, Frye says in webinar on… READ MORE
Lawmakers show what they mean by school choice
RALEIGH (June 1, 2023) – State legislators are moving to dramatically expand vouchers to attend private schools this year, lifting income limits on who qualifies and raising state spending on vouchers to more than half a billion dollars a year by 2032-33.1 Make no mistake – budgets are about choices. And state legislators are choosing… READ MORE
Vouchers: The privatization of NC public schools
By Don Martin and David Rice RALEIGH (May 5, 2023) – News Item: Average teacher pay in North Carolina public schools ranks 34th in the nation this school year, up from 36th last year. And North Carolina ranks 46th in starting teacher pay.1 How’s that for North Carolina pride? Let’s hear it for 34th! And… READ MORE
What to do with an extra $3B?
RALEIGH (March 1, 2023) – North Carolina will finish the current budget year with $3.25 billion – 10.7% – more revenue than it budgeted for the year, state economists reported last month. The consensus report from economists for the General Assembly and the Governor’s Office attributed the additional funds to a smaller-than-expected decline in individual… READ MORE
Our hopes for 2023
RALEIGH (January 4, 2022) – With the elections and the holidays behind us, Higher Ed Works has some hopes for the new year. North Carolina is not investing in public education to keep pace with its No. 1 business climate1 ranking. The state ranks 49th for the percentage of its gross domestic product it devotes… READ MORE
2022: An anxious year
RALEIGH (December 29, 2022) – 2022 has been an anxious year for North Carolina. As the nation stumbled out of a pandemic, inflation spiked, interest rates rose, shortages in the state’s teaching workforce grew larger and battles over budgets – both in the legislature and in court – grew more sharply partisan. And leadership in… READ MORE