Stop extending massive tax cuts to corporations and wealthy people. Maybe we as a state should not keep extending more corporate tax cuts for businesses and people who make significantly more than the average North Carolinian. We haven’t really seen the trickle-down effect from that here in our schools. Refund Unused Opportunity Grant Money. The money that … Continue reading Before a Policy Maker Claims That “We Will Have To Raise Taxes On People To Fully Fund NC Schools,” Tell Him To Consider These Measures First

The following screen capture is from Speaker Tim Moore's webpage (dated August 21st): There is over $900 million dollars in "surplus," or to put it another way, there is $900 million dollars that the NCGA decided not to use for the people in North Carolina by not investing in our schools and infrastructure. Oh, and … Continue reading If The NCGA Wants To Prolong The Budget Process, They Should Meet In An Elementary School Trailer

Dear public school teachers, administrators, support staff, and education personnel, You can’t really be measured. In fact, those who are measuring you do not have instruments complex enough to really gauge your effectiveness. If you are a public school teacher / professional in North Carolina, you are always under a bit of a microscope when … Continue reading No School Performance Grade Can Truly Tell Us What Schools Do

If the NCGA wants to argue that the current school performance grading system is a just and fair way to assess school achievement and school effectiveness, then it might be worth looking at the schools under the guise of the education "reforms" that the same NCGA wants to tout as solutions. There are two virtual … Continue reading Using The School Performance Grading System On The NCGA’s “Educational Reforms” – Looking At Virtual Charters, ISD, and Other Charters

Last year when DPI released the school performance grades for the state not included in the report was a data table that showed a correlation between poverty levels and school letter grades received. Until last year, it had been. Maybe there was a trend that Mark Johnson's office did not want to publicize. Here’s a … Continue reading The Most Important Data Chart Concerning The 2018-2019 State School Performance Grade Report

Today school performance grades for the 2018-2019 school year will be released. The only positive about those school performance grades in relation to last year is that the NCGA kept the scale at a 15-point scale instead of what was planned for this year: making it a 10-point scale. From Public Schools First NC (PSFNC.org) … Continue reading School Performance Grades Come Out Today – The Gerrymandered NCGA’s Continued Use Of Poverty To Drive “School Choice”

Today's ruling in the Common Cause vs. David Lewis lawsuit over district lines drawn for state legislative races could be one of the greatest victories in the almost nine-year fight against the education reforms that have been tearing away at NC's public education system. It's 357 pages and can be found here - 2018-09-03_Common Cause … Continue reading 357 Pages That Could Change North Carolina Public Education – For The Better

As Hurricane Dorian moves through the Bahamas toward the southeast coast of the US, Mark Johnson sent an email with a video link to help spread the word about ReadyNC.org and urge North Carolinians to prepare for severe weather. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXFZ6GeSKQ8&feature=youtu.be Many North Carolianians have suffered through many hurricanes in the past few years and the … Continue reading The State Superintendent Just Sent An Email About Preparing For Hurricanes – Here’s What He Can Do To Prepare

Follow school-reform history and public school advocacy and you will come across the name and hopefully the work of Pasi Sahlberg, a professor of education policy at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. He has devoted a lifetime of study in how different countries run public education and why some do it … Continue reading Why Our State Superintendent Could Never Work In Education In Finland

When a product that supposedly has already been purchased and is now "working for free" has to buy a full-page ad in the Sunday edition in the state's most circulated newspaper (N&O and Charlotte Observer are owned by same company and share content), then it should say something about the doubt surrounding its procurement. But … Continue reading The Absolute Karmic Irony of iStation’s Full-Page Ad In The N&O Today