The N.C. Department of Public Instruction has attracted criticism because its accountability program, the ABCs of Public Education, fails to help parents and taxpayers compare North Carolina students’ performance against other states or against any objective standard. A chief critic, John Locke Foundation Education Policy Analyst Terry Stoops, recently advocated in an op-ed that the state scrap the ABCs program to make way for some more useful program. Both the Mooresville Tribune and Lenoir News-Topic recently published that piece. Stoops also offered his reaction for a News & Observer story — picked up by the Associated Press — covering Gov.-elect Beverly Perdue’s ideas for dealing with education issues. Speaking of education issues, a recent Salisbury Post editorial about college affordability quoted JLF President John Hood. (Not everyone agrees with the grades. Conservative commentator John Hood,
writing on the National Review’s Web site Thursday, called the center’s
report “bunk,” partly because it doesn’t figure the difference in
living expenses for young people in college and those in the work force
and doesn’t factor in educational tax credits and government-subsidized
student loans.)