School Choice

People overwhelmingly favor parents being in charge of their children's education, and Opportunity Scholarships had strong, bipartisan support. These findings should spur legislators to help parents by giving them more control over their children's education.

Friedman’s ideas have helped to fuel an education revolution in North Carolina and across the country. Choice empowers parents to make educational decisions, challenges monopolies, and calls out bureaucracies. Choice expands personal freedom but also highlights that accountability comes in different forms. In so doing, choice has helped to shift the public discussion of education from a focus on how much money is spent to how well money is spent.

There’s always been overwhelming support for programs offering school choice opportunities for disadvantaged and special-needs children assigned to underperforming or unsafe public schools. Modest investments in school choice programs can…

The race is a dead heat even though Mangrum maintained a 6-to-1 fundraising advantage thanks to hefty contributions from the North Carolina Democratic Party, Lillian’s List, and the NCAE PAC. Notable individual donors included former governor James Hunt, documentary filmmaker Barb Lee, retired executive director of the National Education Association John Wilson, and Silicon Valley megadonor Karla Jurvetson.

What accounted for the extraordinary net decrease in public school students? A cursory review of the data offers few patterns or common characteristics of note.

Gov. Roy Cooper’s decision to sign the Coronavirus Relief Act 3.0 is deeply satisfying. After years of enduring his strident opposition to the expansion of school choice in North Carolina, I am delighted to see his signature on legislation that affords additional seats for the state’s two virtual charter schools and three private school choice programs.

Yesterday, Gov. Cooper released what he called a “streamlined budget much smaller than any kind of regular budget” four months late. A good teacher would hand it back to the student immediately. Lawmakers should take a similar approach.

According to survey results released by EdChoice, homeschooling is riding a wave of approval from families and the public.  Both homeschool and non-homeschool families were more likely to be…

Last week, the NC Office of Charter Schools asked the members of the State Board of Education to grant a one-year enrollment increase to meet parental demand for full-time online…

Judge Covid, should we send kids back to school? MOST IMPORTANT   Oh, I agree! SCHOOLS ARE VITAL TO KIDS’ HEALTH THE MOST IMPORTANT OPENING IS…