Teacher's Desk  

Our guest contributor, Delma Blinson, explores the machinations of the Beaufort County Board of Education paradigm, and the effects of State and Federal policy upon the local education process.

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But as much as we are biased in their favor, I'm not convinced that it is sound public policy for the government to provide pre-school education for all children.
Readers will recall that when the Republican-controlled Legislature was working on the budget for this year there went up a huge hue and cry from the education community, the union reps and Governor Perdue that the public schools were being devastated by the cuts the Legislature was making.
We used to think conspiracy theorists were kooks. But in recent years we've seen too many examples of crazy stuff being done by our government. Here's just another one of them.
A new report published this week by the National School Boards Association says that American students spend as much or more time in school as their counterparts in other developed nations.
I would take this occasion as a former professor of School Law to suggest that this is the kind of school story we need to learn to read with a careful eye. I don't believe Mr. Bostic was forced to resign because he suspended a 9-year old student for calling his teacher "cute."
There is a scam being run on the people of North Carolina, and the college students specifically. It is the debate about raising tuition in the UNC system next year.
In that piece I shared a new report that detailed the changes in modern college and university curricula away from required foundational courses more toward a smorgasbord that ignores the classics of the liberal arts curriculum.
How shall they learn unless they are taught? The corollary to that is: How shall they learn what they need to know unless they are taught what it is they need to know.
Newly elected School Board chairman Mac Hodges failed his first major test in that new position. He did so by sitting by allowing the board to flounder in the redistricting process.
Good academic researchers have known for a long time that the best research is that which shows what you thought you already knew was correct.
The News & Observer is reporting that House Speaker Thom Tillis has said that cutting the N. C. Teaching Fellows program was a mistake. Moreover, it is reported that he has said he has asked his staff to find a way to keep the program going.
While we strongly support the idea of parents being able to choose where to send their child to school we would like to propose for debate another idea.
The UNC system in North Carolina is adapting itself to a roughly 16% budget reduction from the last session of the General Assembly.
Even though almost everyone's experience and common sense tell us differently, we have build the idea of equality, specifically equality of results, into virtually everything about our public schools. It remains one of the major reasons that there is so much opposition to giving parents choice.
We know of no one more in favor of reducing government spending and lowering taxes than are we. But there is a point sometimes beyond which we should never go.
Neither they nor we contend the list is a true reflection of the best and worst of the nation's high schools, but what it does do is reflect those schools that make a concerted attempt to prepare their students for college.
Back when we were in our teacher training program in college one of the assigned readings was a book entitled "The way it spozed to be."
I recently wrote a Teacher's Desk piece in which I said that there is little evidence that pre-school programs have much of a lasting effect on the success of students in later years.
I had the opportunity recently to observe the NC Senate Education Committee debate S 423 which, if it passes, will create a Joint Legislative Oversight Committee to study "teacher tenure."
There's a lot of talk these days about teachers. More specifically, what kind of compensation should teachers receive and whether they should receive "tenure."
Essentially this bill, if it becomes law, would eliminate the end-of-course tests in US History, Civics & Economics, Algebra II and Physical Science.
Thousands of teachers are on strike as this is being written. And what they are striking for is the biggest threat to America we have ever faced.
A high school in Pennsylvania, McCaskey East High School, is in the news as a result of intentionally segregating students by race and gender.
The largest amount of time was spent on awards and recognitions followed by a discussion of revisions in the student dress code.
The State of North Carolina and every school system in the state, including Beaufort County, is going to be in for a rough financial ride next year, and every year until the economy improves. The prob
This article is offered not as news but as documentation of how our school board violates the spirit of running our schools in a transparent manner.
This edition of the Teacher's Desk is a reprint of an article by John Hood in the Carolina Journal. It is posted in its entirety here.
Relative to other nations, the United States slipped further down the list in the latest results of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA).
The Beaufort County Board of Education, meeting in its regular monthly meeting announced a change in its practice of releasing personnel information to the public.
On top of all that Beaufort County is about out of money, and facing a crisis with its hospital. The 5 member liberal voting block on the County Commission has been spending more than it has taken in.
The Beaufort County Board of Education approved joining a legal consortium led by the NC School Boards Association to challenge or "clarify" recently adopted changes to NC's public records
Suspended N. C. students can go unschooled. It was a story on the NC Supreme Court's rulings in two cases that came from Beaufort County.
There were no (zero) upset citizens protesting the new sex ed. curriculum when the School Board adopted the program last week. Chalk one up for the new superintendent, Dr. Don Phipps.
Meeting in its regular monthly meeting on September 21, 2010 the Beaufort County Board of Education gave approval for a rather unique "fundraiser" at John Cotton Tayloe School.
George Will, writing in Sunday's (8-29-10) Washington Post highlights one of the most vexing problems our nation faces…the waste of human capital.
Governor Perdue came to town Friday. It was embarrassing. Her handlers couldn't have done a much worse job, all the way around.
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