When a state keeps lowering the corporate tax rate and the amount of state taxes placed upon wealthier people, that affects how much money comes into the state coffers. And look at the amount of money NC now has allocated for Opportunity Grants after the recent veto override in the latter part of 2024. Put … Continue reading NC Can Fully Fund Our Public Schools. (If It Wanted To).

The GOP-led NC legislature’s 2013 decision to end graduate degree pay bumps for new teachers entering the teaching profession was not only misguided, but another wave in the assault on public education that continues here in the Old North State. And the very person who has influenced more policy on public education since 2013, Sen. … Continue reading NC Should Restore Graduate Degree Pay

She's there for one reason: to eliminate as much of the Department of Education as possible under the way that the current law is being allowed to be interpreted. And then some. On a recent Fox News show with Laura Ingraham, newly confirmed Secretary of Education Linda McMahon could not even remember what IDEA stood … Continue reading When The Secretary Of Education Has No Idea What IDEA Is

This is a real life, current cross-curricular lesson that involves economics, climate, and politics. Think of it as a lesson that combines science, personal finance, civics, and social studies. Maybe since North Carolina is pushing AP courses for high schoolers, it could be a lesson for those students who take AP Environmental Science, AP Government … Continue reading When AP Environmental Science, AP GoPo & AP Econ Collide In Real Life Here In NC

The most current numbers for the following: Average Gas Price Average Milk Price Average Egg Prices Average Bread Price Federal Interest Rate Dow Jones Index Inflation Rate NC Tax Rates NC Minimum Wage Unemployment Rates Unemployment Benefits Number of People Who Enrolled in ACA coverage Number of Students in NC Public Schools (K-12) Number of … Continue reading Near The “Ides of March” 2025- Numbers To Consider

Apparently, offices for the Department of Education will be closed tomorrow. And just reported by CNN.com: Stephen Sawchuck, assistant managing editor for Education Week, offered some insight as to what these cuts will do. It's that "understaffing" part that seems the most deliberate. Any teacher in NC (or the country that matter) knows how an … Continue reading It’s Happening. Starting Wednesday.

From October, 2022: Also recently before the last election: And now we get this: Roughly $660 million that schools and child care facilities were counting on to purchase food from nearby farms through the Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program in 2025 has been canceled, according to the School Nutrition Association. From Carolina Farm … Continue reading Now Even Less Money For Food In Public Schools

... even the bare minimum of respect for the teaching profession for those who have been teachers or would ever want to be teachers to feel valued inside of a North Carolina classroom. And that lack of respect comes from the top which is ironic when it comes to the ideology of those in power … Continue reading There Really Is No Teacher Shortage. There’s A Shortage Of…

One of the better political cartoons in the past few years that still pertains to today’s political environment came from Dennis Draughon at Capitol Broadcasting in the fall of 2019 around Thanksgiving. It represented a Thanksgiving dinner where teachers and schools are sitting at a smaller table waiting to see what they will be given … Continue reading Before Someone Claims That “We Will Have To Raise Taxes On People To Fully Fund NC Schools,” Tell Him To Consider These Measures First

There is a reason why we read serious works of literature. And others can say why much better than I can. “I cannot remember the books I’ve read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me.”― Ralph Waldo Emerson “We read to know we are not alone.”— William Nicholson (often … Continue reading A Reading Assignment For Every Politician (But Not Every Politician Is A Reader)