RALEIGH – Smaller class sizes do not translate into better public-school performance. That’s the key finding in a new analysis from the John Locke Foundation. The idea behind the state’s $23 million class-size reduction program was that smaller classes would help students by giving them more access to individualized instruction. But after four years, there...
RALEIGH – The state’s largest think tank has launched a major new program, a network of North Carolina faculty and scholars interested in the classical liberal tradition and its rich scholarly history. The John Locke Foundation created the Faculty Affiliate Network to serve as an informal resource for classical liberal scholars for networking, research review...
RALEIGH – North Carolina lawmakers need to amend the state’s Constitution to give property owners more protection against governments’ use of eminent domain powers. That’s the finding in a new Spotlight paper from the John Locke Foundation. The recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in a Connecticut case — Kelo v. New London — allowed government...
RALEIGH – Gov. Mike Easley and leaders of the North Carolina General Assembly are resisting calls for halting a hike in the gas tax that took effect earlier this week, saying that the move would hamper needed highway investment. But a new analysis from the John Locke Foundation challenges the link between maintaining the tax...
RALEIGH – The Asheville Civic Center is deteriorating and has lost nearly $1 million a year since 2000, prompting the city to convene a task force to find a solution. According to two John Locke Foundation analysts, the task force should focus on the most obvious solution: selling the Asheville Civic Center to the private...
RALEIGH – The Public School Forum’s annual Local School Finance Study provides little useful information for policymakers regarding funding disparities and educational equity in North Carolina, according to two analysts with the John Locke Foundation. Lindalyn Kakadelis, a former schoolteacher and member of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, directs JLF’s school-reform project, the North Carolina...
RALEIGH – As North Carolina policymakers and analysts prepare for a major debate on reforming the state tax code, a new report from the John Locke Foundation calls into question the value of state estimates of “tax expenditures” that could be eliminated to raise additional revenue. Joseph Coletti, a fiscal policy analyst at the Raleigh-based...
RALEIGH – Two years ago President George W. Bush signed legislation that made tax-free “health savings accounts” possible. With many private businesses embracing HSAs as an alternative to traditional insurance arrangements, a new report from the John Locke Foundation urges the General Assembly to offer HSAs to North Carolina’s teachers and state employees. The cost...
RALEIGH – Business leaders in North Carolina increasingly think public policy in the state is headed in the wrong direction. That’s according to findings of a newly released survey of state business executives conducted for the Center for Local Innovation, a special project of the Raleigh-based John Locke Foundation. A majority of the 635 business...
RALEIGH — Medical providers in North Carolina must receive permission from the state — called a certificate of need (CON) — to add services such as extra hospital beds or a new testing machine. According to new research from the John Locke Foundation, these regulations restrict competition and harm consumers. Dr. Roy Cordato, vice president...
RALEIGH — North Carolina is the only state in the nation that requires counties to pay a fixed percentage of Medicaid costs. The General Assembly’s own Blue Ribbon Commission on Medicaid Reform recommended capping and reducing counties’ contribution to Medicaid. A JLF Spotlight report shows how the Medicaid requirement burdens counties. Carolina’s counties spend up...
RALEIGH — Attorney General Roy Cooper recently filed a lawsuit against a gasoline distributor for alleged price fixing, but if state officials were that concerned with restraints against trade, they would eliminate or modify state government’s many anticompetitive policies, according to a new report by a John Locke Foundation analyst. Daren Bakst, legal and regulatory...