Funny that just a few days after Sen. Phil Berger posted this as electioneering propaganda that this report is released on WFMYnews2.com: It makes reference to a report from smartestdollar.com about teacher pay gaps in comparison to other occupations with comparable education requirements. The report lists large, small, and mid-size metropolitan areas that have the … Continue reading How About This Ranking, Sen. Berger? About The Pay Gap For NC Teachers

Senator Phil Berger's "Press Shop" recently has been parading a new post that grossly misrepresents NC's ranking in the Southeast and the nation as far as its treatment of public education, specifically the money spent on K-12 schools, money per pupil spent, and average salaries. It makes reference to this recent July 2020 publication from … Continue reading More Like Fool’s Gold: Looking At Berger’s Claims of “High-Octane Growth” Within NEA’s State Rankings

I am not the teacher I am now without the unselfish mentoring of Judy Oakley. I am not the parent I am now without the example of Judy Oakley. Most importantly, I am not the person I am now without witnessing the way that Judy Oakley lived her life. In the past couple of days … Continue reading Judy Arnn Oakley Was The Best Of Us. She Still is.

An “Opportunity Grant” in North Carolina is worth up to $4200 a year to cover (or help cover) tuition at a non-public participating school. Currently NC is on pace to give almost a billion dollars to vouchers within the next ten years. This is a system that was considered the least transparent in the entire country … Continue reading State Financed Discrimination & Homophobia: North Carolina’s Voucher System

The two largest college campuses in the state have completely gone to online instruction and asked resident students to go home for the foreseeable future. UNC - Chapel Hill did it within just a couple of weeks after school convened. When that happened, NC State was still "safe" except for a couple of clusters. At … Continue reading School Systems MUST Be Truthful About COVID-19 To Teachers & Students

Dear Rep. Horn, In the years that I and many colleagues have been in active advocacy for North Carolina's public schools, few people in Raleigh have demanded attention as much as you. Your statements, your voting record, the bills you have sponsored, the reforms you have spearheaded, and the claims you have made over the … Continue reading An Open Letter To Rep. Craig Horn About His Claim That “NC students have lost a year of educational progress”

When the North Carolina General Assembly concluded its 2019 session, it left without passing a budget. What that meant was that schools this past school year had to operate on the same amount of recurring funds that the last budget had allocated. Schools this year are still operating on that same budget. What should also … Continue reading North Carolina Must Hold Public School Budgets Harmless

James Ford's letter in response to Mark Johnson was simply power, not because he explained in no uncertain terms the lack of substance Johnson's argument had, but because he used it as a teaching tool. Ford met Johnson in the arena Johnson opened and responded by showing that the very message he is sending is … Continue reading Actually, Mark Johnson “should at the very least resign.”

On the eve of the Republican National Convention that will "take place" in Charlotte, NC (where it was originally planned to be held before it was cancelled and then rescheduled), President Trump released a list of "50 Core Priorities" for a second term if elected again. Two of those "priorities" are on education. "Provide School … Continue reading Trump’s Platform: School Choice For All And “American Exceptionalism”

This weekend Sir Kenneth Robinson passed away from a brief sickness. As an English teacher who believes that standardized tests are harmful and that our lawmakers on Raleigh seem to stifle the arts and other creative outlets for students (think Class Size Chaos), reading and observing Robinson was highly instructional. In the fifteen years I … Continue reading Rest In Creativity: Sir Kenneth Robinson