Welcome

This week, I discuss the ongoing battle over charter schools. On a completely different note, I encourage readers to check out the new web site developed by the Pope Center for Higher Education Policy — nccollegefinder.org. See the Bulletin Board for a full description of this impressive new website.

Bulletin Board 

  • Early April marks a major milestone for college-bound high school seniors: the end of a long college search. That task may be easier in the future, thanks to a new web site created by the John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy. NC College Finder (nccollegefinder.org) provides a wide range of information on 54 accredited four-year universities in the state. Some of the information on the site is to be expected, such as tuition, acceptance rates, the SAT scores and GPAs of incoming freshmen, student/faculty ratios and graduation rates, but a lot of it is distinctly different. The site includes measures of academic quality and the political and intellectual climate at each school. For example, it reports on the political balance of professors. It also provides information on the extent to which students can exercise free speech and the level of student political involvement. Students can also find information schools might not want to publicize, like the average starting salary and student debt of each school’s graduates. The College Finder database was compiled from a variety of sources. Some data come from the colleges themselves, but other sources include the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, the College Board, the U.S. Department of Education, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, Payscale.com, and the Project on Student Debt.

  • On Thursday, April 14, the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Public Schools and the Civitas Institute of Raleigh are sponsoring a half-day education budget seminar. The seminar is open to school board members and school leaders throughout North Carolina and will be focused exclusively on current budget problems and strategies for addressing these challenges. The Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Public Schools Training Building (4801 Bethania Station Road, Winston-Salem, NC) will be the training site. Registration for the event is $30.00 and includes lunch. After April 7, registration will be $40.00. Register online at www.nccivitas.org/events or by calling 919-834-2099.

  • The North Carolina History Project would like educators and homeschool parents to submit lesson plans suitable for middle and high school courses in North Carolina history. Please provide links to NC History Project encyclopedia articles and other primary and secondary source material, if possible. Go to http://www.northcarolinahistory.org/edu_corner for further information.

  • You will find wisdom, knowledge, and purpose at our research newsletter archive.

CommenTerry

Despite the popularity of charter schools, the left continues their campaign to marginalize them. They do so at their own peril.

John Hood recently observed that Governor Perdue’s opposition to popular reforms like charter schools does not play well outside of Raleigh. He pointed out, "Within the downtown Raleigh cocoon, it might look like Perdue’s recent vetoes and veto threats have given her some political traction. Outside it, however, the governor is in huge trouble — and picking fights over ObamaCare, corporate welfare, charter schools, and the voter ID bill has only made things worse." Apparently, that lesson has been lost on her Democratic comrades, "progressive" allies, and remarkably loyal special interest group supporters, e.g., the North Carolina Association of Educators (see this photo, for example).

At a recent N.C. Policy Watch (NCPW) event, highly respected Duke University professor Helen Ladd argued that charter schools should be kept "on the fringe of the education system" because "expansion of charter schools would privilege the private interest over the public interest." (By the way, "public interest" is a nebulous concept used by liberals to describe activities and institutions they like.) I suspect that Ladd’s assessment played well to the NCPW crowd, but poll results, as well as the staggering demand for charter school seats, suggest that a majority of North Carolinians disagree.

Indeed, the day of Dr. Ladd’s presentation, Public Policy Polling, a Democratic firm hired by NCPW, released results from a poll that asked respondents to evaluate various education reforms and proposals, including charter schools. The poll asked likely voters if they had a favorable or unfavorable impression of charter schools. Overall, 54 percent of North Carolinians supported charter schools. Over 60 percent of Republicans and Independents supported charters, and a plurality of Democrats (45 percent favorable vs. 27 percent unfavorable) were on board. African-Americans were as likely as their white counterparts to have a favorable view of charter schools. Urban and suburban areas, which also have the bulk of North Carolina’s charter schools, strongly supported them.

The poll also asked likely voters to respond to questions about racial segregation, free and reduced price lunches, transportation, certification, and governance, but the good folks at Public Policy Polling did not ask participants if they opposed or supported lifting the 100-school cap on charters. (After all, lifting the cap is a pretty important component of Senate Bill 8: No Cap on Number of Charter Schools.) Despite this oversight, other polls suggest that the public is ready to zap the cap. A December 2010 Civitas Institute poll found that 74 percent of respondents favored removing the cap. Two months later, an Elon University Poll reported that 62 percent of respondents thought that the state should adjust or eliminate the current cap.

Popularity alone is not a sufficient reason to expand the number of charter schools and refine the laws that govern them. After all, forced sterilization was a popular idea among early twentieth century intellectuals and Progressive social reformers. Speaking of sterilization, disco was also popular at one time. The difference is that, fifteen years after the passage of North Carolina’s charter school law, the quality of the state’s charter schools continues to improve.

Arguments that charter schools are not consistent with the "public interest" may have been compelling fifteen years ago, but the public has spoken. Are Democrats listening?

Random Thought

Are you looking for love and adventure today? You’re not alone. On this day in 1614, Pocahontas married John Rolfe.

Facts and Stats

54% — the percentage of African-Americans who had a favorable view of charter schools in the latest Public Policy Polling survey of likely North Carolina voters

Mailbag

I would like to invite all readers to submit announcements, as well as their personal insights, anecdotes, concerns, and observations about the state of education in North Carolina. I will publish selected submissions in future editions of the newsletter. Anonymity will be honored. For additional information or to send a submission, email Terry at [email protected].

Education Acronym of the Week

TPS — Traditional Public Schools

Quote of the Week

"Expand charters cautiously and keep them on the fringe of the education system."
— Dr. Helen F. Ladd, "Charter Schools Presentation for North Carolina Policy Watch," March 30, 2011.

Click here for the Education Update archive.