As the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board pursues a study of year-round school calendars, Dr. Terry Stoops, John Locke Foundation Director of Education Studies, is offering his kudos. The Charlotte Observer published Stoops’ op-ed on the topic. The Heartland Institute approached Stoops for analysis of North Carolina’s success in securing a federal Race to the Top education grant. Stoops also discussed Race to the Top during a chat this week with Chad Adams of WLTT Radio. Stoops and Adams discussed standardized test development and other education topics as well. Stoops spoke to the Wake County Taxpayers Association about the county’s search for a new public school superintendent. N.C. Rumors picked up today’s Carolina Journal Online Friday interview with Stoops about his study of public school end-of-course standardized test questions. In other news, the latest issue of The Freeman features Vice President for Research and Resident Scholar Dr. Roy Cordato‘s article on the value-added tax. The Mooresville Tribune published Joseph Coletti’s recent column about North Carolina’s budget woes. A Winston-Salem Journal article about the state’s $3 billion budget hole cited Coletti’s analysis of the final state budget deal. Watchdog.org highlighted Coletti’s discussion of the impact of government overspending on the state’s sluggish employment growth. Coletti also contributed a chapter on the role of the policy analyst for the Institute for Humane Studies guide Creating Your Path to a Policy Career. (JLF internships are listed now as the top job opportunity on the IHS site LibertyGuide.com.) In other news, Daren Bakst, Director of Legal and Regulatory Studies, is celebrating good news linked to the final version (PDF link) of new state rules governing pets at North Carolina restaurants. The N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources “made many of my recommended changes to the dog rule and addressed the problems I had with the rule making it impossible for restaurants to comply, thereby making the rule that ‘allowed’ dogs and cats in outdoor dining areas to be moot,” Bakst writes. “Through their fixes, restaurants should have no fear of allowing dogs and cats in outdoor dining areas.”