RALEIGH (March 1, 2023) – North Carolina will finish the current budget year with $3.25 billion – 10.7% – more revenue than it budgeted for the year, state economists reported last month. The consensus report from economists for the General Assembly and the Governor’s Office attributed the additional funds to a smaller-than-expected decline in individual… READ MORE
Will the NC Chamber walk the walk?
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK (August 11, 2022) – There were lots of nice words at the NC Chamber’s annual Education and the Workforce Conference last week – lots of great ideas shared. Which made it that much more difficult to square with the Chamber’s actions the week before. First, though, some of those ideas: Durham Tech… READ MORE
Don Martin: A middle ground on teacher pay plan?
EDITOR’S NOTE: With school set to resume soon across North Carolina with thousands of teaching positions still vacant1 and a new pay plan being floated for K-12 teachers, Don Martin, retired superintendent of the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools, shares his views about the plan. WINSTON-SALEM (August 10, 2022) – In 2020, the Forsyth County Commissioners asked… READ MORE
NC business leaders: Fund the Leandro plan
(August 4, 2022) RALEIGH – More than 50 North Carolina business leaders asked the NC Supreme Court last week to uphold a lower court’s order last fall directing state officials to transfer more than $700 million to improve the state’s public schools. The “friend of the court” brief1 is part of the 28-year-old Leandro case… READ MORE
A pay cut
RALEIGH (July 6, 2022) – With the 2022-23 budget they unveiled and adopted last week, state legislators simply aren’t taking care of their people – our people. The state has a $6.5 billion revenue surplus this year. Let that sink in: $6,524,141,444.00.1 Yet this state continues to systematically underfund public education. By one estimate, the… READ MORE
$6.2B NC surplus: Make education a priority again
RALEIGH (May 18, 2022) – As the NC General Assembly reconvenes today with a $6.2 billion state budget surplus, it’s time to make education a priority again in North Carolina. Officials announced last week that the state will take in $4.24 billion more than projected in the budget year that ends June 30 – a… READ MORE
Buck Goldstein: The partnership is broken
By Buck Goldstein CHAPEL HILL (October 28, 2021) – In North Carolina, the relationship between the flagship public university and the state seems to be broken and getting worse. And that’s despite the good intentions of the chancellor, the chair of the faculty, and the leader of the Board of Trustees. Trust is at the… READ MORE
Support community colleges to make it happen
RALEIGH – To lead North Carolina’s economic recovery, the state’s community colleges will need support from the General Assembly and Gov. Roy Cooper, the NC Community College System’s president says. In the accompanying video, System President Thomas Stith III lays out what he calls a “moderate” agenda for this year’s legislative session. First and foremost,… READ MORE
41st? Support community college faculty, staff
RALEIGH – Raises for faculty and staff are at the top of the NC Community Colleges’ legislative agenda this year. “We’re the third-largest system in the country, yet our faculty and staff – those individuals that day in and day out provide educational instruction to our students – rank 41st in the nation (in pay),”… READ MORE
Hans: ‘We’ve got to reach more adult learners’
CHAPEL HILL (April 28, 2021) – Birth rates dropped during the Great Recession – many families weren’t sure of their futures. And 13 years later, colleges and universities are preparing to face the consequences. The population of 18- to 24-year-olds nationwide is projected to decline in coming years, with precipitous drops in the Northeast and… READ MORE