The Wake County public schools’ recently scrapped forced busing policy returned to the headlines this week. Supporters used new test data to decry the Wake school board’s decision to end forced busing. Terry Stoops, John Locke Foundation Director of Education Studies, offered an alternative view in a News & Observer article (in print and on the WakeEd blog) about the flap. Education Week picked up that story. Stoops also wrote a Fayetteville Observer op-ed this week about the legal challenge a Moore County charter school faces while trying to keep its doors open. Speaking of charter schools, Stoops and Carolina Journal Radio Co-Host Donna Martinez served as panelists during a session of this week’s N.C. Alliance for Public Charter Schools conference. Stoops discussed the politics surrounding the charter school movement, while Martinez focused on effective messages charter advocates can present to skeptics. The Heritage Foundation’s most recent Insider Online also promoted Stoops’ recent research on questionable test questions included on North Carolina’s public school end-of-course exams. Speaking of new research, Vice President and Resident Scholar Roy Cordato released a new report this week focusing on the basic principles of real sales tax reform. Lockwood Phillips of WTKF Radio interviewed Cordato about the new research and other hot news topics. Meanwhile, the Southern Pines Pilot reprinted a column from Michael Sanera, Director of Research and Local Government Studies, that examined alternatives to traditional county jail operations. Sanera continued work with Wake County’s Sustainability Task Force this week, and an environmental education graduate-level class from Goshen College in Indiana interviewed him by phone. The News & Observer printed a letter this week from Daren Bakst, Director of Legal and Regulatory Studies, debunking N.C. WARN’s claims about the benefits of solar power. The 24-7 PressRelease.com and EIN News websites cited Bakst in discussing North Carolina’s DNA collection legislation. Joseph Coletti, Director of Health and Fiscal Policy Studies, joined Chad Adams on WLTT Radio to discuss the new state budget and the recently completed legislative session. Coletti also spoke to the Charlotte Observer about health insurance options for people younger than 26. Carolina Weekly quoted Coletti for an article about the potential impact of federal legislation on the unionization of local government workers. In other news, a High Point Enterprise letter writer cited the John Locke Foundation’s annual By The Numbers report.