I challenge the editorial board of the News & Observer to provide empirical evidence that “poor reading skills reflect NC’s poor school funding.”

You made the claim.  You must provide the evidence.

Predictably, you failed to do so in their February 5 editorial, which calls for “more investment in the conventional, mainstream public schools to which most North Carolina families send their children.”  That is because uncritical consumers of media allow you to make unfounded claims of causal relationships without consequence.  I won’t.