Education Policy
Last week, public school test scores were released. In this week’s newsletter, Terry Stoops, Director of Education Studies, offers a couple of explanations for why those test scores have dropped across the board. He also wrote on the Locker Room blog about the NC Association of Educators (NCAE), the state’s teacher’s union, whose employees will receive generous pay increases regardless of any change in public school teachers’ pay. Perhaps performance pay isn’t such a bad idea after all? And there’s a photo of some highly questionable apples being served in schools.
Fiscal Policy
Sarah Curry, Director of Fiscal Policy Studies, used her newsletter this week to look at November’s local elections and their fiscal impact. On the blog, she looked at the state’s occupational license fees, something we’ve written about extensively here at the Locke Foundation. She found that receipts from these fees amounted to over $8 million last year!
Health Care Policy
Katherine Restrepo, Health and Human Services Policy Analyst, wrote this week in the Health Policy newsletter about enrolment problems and policy cancellations associated with Obamacare and it’s disastrous roll-out. She also blogged about the announcement late this week that some of those cancelations will now be delayed by a year. What a mess!
Regulatory Policy
Jon Sanders, Director of Regulatory Policy Studies, wrote more about iPod government, enrolment and cancellation numbers for Obamacare, and about the president’s broken promise that you could keep your plan.
And of course, there is a lot more on the John Locke Foundation’s Locker Room blog.
If you aren’t currently receiving the research division’s newsletters, you can sign up for them here. They, along with the blog, are a great way to stay informed about what’s happening in North Carolina public policy.