I’ve never been a big fan of study commissions organized by politicians. They are almost always easy ways out for politicians looking to avoid having to take a tough stand on a controversial issue.
Published: Friday, February 20th, 2015 @ 7:35 pm
By: Brant Clifton
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Wake County Public Schools finds itself in the middle of a book controversy. Concerned parents at Highcroft Drive Elementary School have voiced concerns about the use of highly questionable books by fourth graders at the school. A blogger named NC Citizen, who wishes to remain anonymous, wrote...
Published: Friday, February 20th, 2015 @ 11:11 am
By: Civitas Insitute
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In North Carolina, left-wing nonprofit advocacy groups for decades have wielded an alarming amount of power in the media, state politics, and government. They work together, both in loose coalitions and organized networks, to influence and control public policy.
Published: Sunday, January 25th, 2015 @ 2:52 pm
By: Civitas Insitute
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It's now official: Beginning with the 2015-16 school year, all North Carolina public high schools will be on a 10-point grading scale. Last week the State Board of Education approved the plan to have schools throw out the standard A-B-C-D-F system in favor of a new scale that widens the grade...
Published: Tuesday, January 13th, 2015 @ 10:49 pm
By: Civitas Insitute
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Naughty and Nice: North Carolina had plenty of both this year. Here is our list!
Published: Sunday, January 4th, 2015 @ 12:01 pm
By: Civitas Insitute
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We will offer this allotment of three with more to come; some old, most new, but all quite informative, and, moreover, necessary to understanding that in North Carolina, there is a wiser path to govern ourselves and our People.
Published: Tuesday, December 30th, 2014 @ 11:43 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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When state legislators created a new commission last summer to review North Carolina's participation in Common Core standards for elementary and secondary schools, they made an excellent decision.
Published: Saturday, December 27th, 2014 @ 10:10 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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Reporter Lynn Bonner and the News and Observer showed us once again why people have stopped buying newspapers: Reporters keep trying to make the news, not report it.
Published: Saturday, December 6th, 2014 @ 4:12 pm
By: Civitas Insitute
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The commission that's charged with investigating a replacement for Common Core in North Carolina has a money problem. It doesn't have any. When a bill passed the General Assembly setting up the Academic Standards Review Commission, lawmakers left a funding source out of the legislation.
Published: Friday, November 21st, 2014 @ 10:42 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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Billionaire Bill Gates, who has spent millions advocating for and implementing the Common Core Standards in 44 states and thousands of public schools across the United States, sends his children to a private school where it's hard to find any mention of the increasingly unpopular Common Core.
Published: Thursday, November 13th, 2014 @ 11:28 pm
By: Civitas Insitute
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We've had judges try to tell us that Jefferson, Adams & co. all created a right to taxpayer-funded abortion when they drafted our Constitution.
Published: Friday, October 10th, 2014 @ 7:20 am
By: Brant Clifton
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Why on God’s green earth would you have someone campaign for you who so fundamentally disagrees with you on the issues?
Published: Sunday, September 28th, 2014 @ 3:56 pm
By: Brant Clifton
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The NC Department of Administration announced the 11 members of the Academic Standards Review Commission and provided notice of its inaugural meeting.
Published: Sunday, September 21st, 2014 @ 8:09 pm
By: Stan Deatherage
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When the Common Core state standards for K-12 were rolled out in 2009, few foresaw the impact on higher education. Alarms about the takeover of the entire educational system with the new national standards and tests in math and English language arts were often dismissed.
Published: Friday, September 19th, 2014 @ 10:34 pm
By: John William Pope Center
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On Friday morning September 5th US Congressman Walter Jones released through his chief of staff a resounding endorsement for Mattie Lawson for NC House of Representatives for District 6.
Published: Thursday, September 18th, 2014 @ 6:08 pm
By: Stan Deatherage
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Welcome back! I trust everyone had a good summer. We all need breaks and I hope you had a chance to unplug. You say that you were following Common Core until school let out. And now, well, you have no idea what's happened these last few months. No problem. It's time for a quick recap.
Published: Thursday, September 4th, 2014 @ 2:07 pm
By: Civitas Insitute
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Kay Hagan and her comrades in the drive-by media want to talk about education in terms of "cuts", how much is and is not being spent on various government programs, and how evil Republicans are toward the "lil' chil'ren."
Published: Tuesday, August 19th, 2014 @ 5:53 pm
By: Brant Clifton
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As students head back to high school this fall, they and their parents will quickly discover that much of traditional American history taught in Advanced Placement (AP) courses for college credit is being rewritten with a distinctive left-leaning bias.
Published: Friday, July 25th, 2014 @ 2:39 pm
By: Civitas Insitute
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Governor Pat McCrory signed legislation this morning that protects health care personnel who work with or near hazardous materials and antineoplastic agents (chemotherapy drugs) from disease and injury caused by exposure. House Bill 644 requires the North Carolina Department of Labor, by...
Published: Wednesday, July 23rd, 2014 @ 11:35 pm
By: Chris Downey
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While House and Senate leaders remain at odds over the state’s $21.1 billion General Fund budget and teacher pay increases, they have found common ground on another subject — replacing Common Core standards.
Published: Sunday, July 13th, 2014 @ 10:39 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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The News and Observer has come up with another delusion about Common Core State Standards: that the only explanation for opposition to the standards "is that [NC] GOP leaders are being led around by tea party extremists."
Published: Wednesday, July 9th, 2014 @ 10:58 pm
By: Civitas Insitute
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I have numerous pieces of legislation, including the state budget, on my radar, but here are a few key ones.
Published: Sunday, July 6th, 2014 @ 2:27 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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Much of the policy debate over education these days has been dominated by teacher pay.
Published: Saturday, July 5th, 2014 @ 9:52 am
By: Civitas Insitute
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At last week's government relations committee meeting for the Wake County School Board, school board member Jim Martin called current legislative efforts to correct Common Core problems "very much a political overreach." According to news reports, Martin then fired this shot...
Published: Thursday, July 3rd, 2014 @ 5:10 pm
By: Civitas Insitute
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Senator Jerry Tillman (R-Randolph), that chamber's majority whip and leading voice on education policy, has stepped up in defense of Core legislation he shepherded through the Senate.
Published: Friday, June 27th, 2014 @ 7:16 pm
By: Brant Clifton
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It's graduation season. Public and private schools across the country are turning out freshly-indoctrinated young people into the workforce.
Published: Thursday, May 29th, 2014 @ 9:16 am
By: Brant Clifton
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Think that the quality of political debate in North Carolina is low and declining? I agree. For a recent, telling example of the problem, consider the debate about North Carolina's participation in Common Core.
Published: Saturday, May 24th, 2014 @ 3:29 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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Earlier this month the News & Observer ran three opinion pieces on Common Core State Standards. Find them here, here and here. The authors are respected and accomplished individuals, which makes it all the more surprising that they would defend Common Core with arguments that are silly and...
Published: Wednesday, May 21st, 2014 @ 5:20 am
By: Civitas Insitute
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The state legislature is back in session this week. The consensus around the state capital is that this year's "short session" will live up to its name. But just because legislators won't be in town for very long doesn't mean they shouldn't address some important issues.
Published: Friday, May 16th, 2014 @ 12:43 pm
By: Civitas Insitute
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Lieutenant Governor Dan Forest today announced his intention to create the North Carolina Education Endowment aimed at supplementing teacher pay in our public schools.
Published: Monday, May 12th, 2014 @ 2:42 pm
By: Stan Deatherage
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Today, Lieutenant Governor Dan Forest, responding to legislative action to replace Common Core State Standards in North Carolina, issued the following statement
Published: Wednesday, April 30th, 2014 @ 7:21 pm
By: Stan Deatherage
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Last year, the General Assembly passed a comprehensive law to require a photo ID at the polls and to reform North Carolina's outdated election code, which hadn't been changed in decades.
Published: Wednesday, April 23rd, 2014 @ 7:22 pm
By: Bill Cook
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The meeting will allow Sen. Cook to hear from his constituents on the recent implementation of Common Core Standards in the N.C. Public School System.
Published: Wednesday, April 16th, 2014 @ 1:24 am
By: Stan Deatherage
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