John Locke Updates: 2021

Last week South Dakota became the ninth state to pass universal license recognition since 2019. Bill language introduced last year before the General Assembly would offer a way for North Carolina to join those reform states.

The lack of oversight created “an increased risk that providers whose actions posed a threat to patient safety” continued to practice, and the audit also identified nearly $120 million in reimbursements to providers who potentially should not have been enrolled in the program.

North Carolina's archaic certificate-of-need laws leave the state with significant deficits in psychiatric hospitals and substance abuse facilities — and higher prices. North Carolina should join the 15 other states that eliminated certificate-of-need laws.

Program Evaluation Division has served a useful purpose, but it was limited in what it could recommend. Partisan staff can more easily identify solutions, provide strategic advice, and answer “why” questions.

Gov. Roy Cooper's business shutdowns and restrictions amount to a regulatory taking depriving business owners of the use of their property. Lawmakers should reform eminent domain to include compensation for regulatory takings.

Learning loss from pandemic-driven loss of in-person instruction in public schools is a serious problem, and its impacts vary by race, income, and geography. Education Savings Accounts offer an alternative that may be better for many families because they give parents the ability to address their children's specific educational needs.

During the 2020 election, early voting observers reported a glaring example of improper voting “assistance” Election observers and officials often do not know who is going into the voting booth…

In the end, Gov. Cooper’s supplemental budget recommendations signal his affinity for the education establishment, disregarding long-standing infrastructure needs and supporting antiquated employee compensation practices that do little to improve the overall quality of education in North Carolina.

Regulatory dark matter are "rules" we don't know are rules — policies, guidelines, interpretive statements, etc. that state agencies enforce against people as if they were rules. There's no telling how much regulatory dark matter there is in North Carolina. Legislators should require agencies to identify regulatory dark matter and either repeal or formally adopt them, and they already have the language to do so.

A Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools teacher was told to have middle-school students complete a "Privilege Self-Assessment." Not only are such assignments outside of state standards, but also they may well violate a 1978 law that requires parental consent to collect personal information from families.