Sometimes its just depressing… Last week, Susan and I attended our local Board Advisory Council meeting (in Wake County, each school board member has a BAC made up of parent representatives and the principals of all of the schools in his/her district. They meet periodically to discuss issues important to the school system). The topic …
Well, here we are. Election Day eve. To the millions of North Carolinians who have already voted, congratulations and thank you! If you haven’t already voted, I would like to lead you with a few closing thoughts: This Democracy thing; it’s hard. It’s a system of government that demands a lot of its citizens. We …
A child died today in North Carolina, shot at his own school. As of right now, I do not know the circumstances surrounding the shooting, and it would be irresponsible for me to speculate. But I can say, with certainty, that it is a tragedy that a child — any child — had access to …
Early voting is in full swing, so I’m taking a break from the Amendments (Nix all Six!) to talk a little bit about how to spot pro-public education candidates, from state level legislators down to school board. Nobody (well, almost nobody) ever comes out and says “I do not support public education.” So in general, …
Wow, this past week really flew! And now I’m finally getting around to the post I teased last week, about one of the amendments on the ballot that inspired all living former NC governors and all living former chief justices of the NC Supreme Court to oppose it: the judicial appointments amendment. First, a quick …
Folks, tonight’s post is just a teaser — we moved last week and I just unearthed my computer today, so I won’t have a real post up until tomorrow. But for tonight, I want you to ponder what potential Constitutional changes could be so bad that it inspired all of the living former NC governors, …
Today, we’re talking about one of the more head-scratching amendments up for a vote in November: the Hunting and Fishing Amendment. If the amendment is approved, it will add the following language to the Constitution: “The right of the people to hunt, fish, and harvest wildlife is a valued part of the State’s heritage and …
If you read my post last week, you know that there are six Consitutional amendments on the NC ballot in November, and that I believe we should vote all of them down. Today, I’ll tackle one of the most controversial and sticky ones: the Voter ID Amendment. Voters will be asked to approve adding the …
First off, I hope everyone here in NC is weathering this storm ok, especially our friends at the coast and in the eastern part of the state. Here in Cary, we have wind and rain, but thankfully, power (for now). As we get deeper into election season, there are lots of claims going around about …
Sometimes I struggle with the fact that this is an education-focused blog, because our state (and our country) are facing so many issues that seem inextricably intertwined with educational issues, and to focus strictly on education means telling only part of the story. This is particularly true in the case of the upcoming election, where …