Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools leaders will begin to build a case for a bond referendum this fall—but the issue may be dead on arrival with Mecklenburg County commissioners.
The House Select Committee on Achievement School Districts heard yesterday from experts who presented a less-than rosy view of Achievement School District (ASD) success in Tennessee.
As I mentioned in my last column, the leadership of the General Assembly likes to tout that they have increased funding for K-12 public schools even though the categorical funding available to meet the needs of the state’s 1,449,515 students (as of last school year) is really decreasing. Let’s examine just how much the funding for various categories has decreased since 2008-09.
Higher education and K-12 educators said Wednesday that more needs to be done to recruit and retain North Carolina teachers at a time when fewer students want to enter the profession and those who are in the classroom are less experienced.
Enrollment at the 15 UNC schools of education has dropped 30 percent since 2010, according to Alisa Chapman, UNC system vice president for academic and university programs. The UNC system provides 37 percent of the state’s teachers, so any decline in the education programs makes it more difficult for districts to recruit teachers.
Star Christian Academy, a K-12 private school, occupies two rooms in the back of New Generation Christian Church in Smithfield. According to a former student, it has just three teachers for the 13 grades, and they provide minimal active instruction. The school is run by a husband-and-wife team with a long history of personal bankruptcies and failure to pay state and federal taxes.
A day in the classroom was as much a lesson for state Rep. Phil Shepard as it was for the students he visited.
Shepard, R-Onslow County, spent Monday at Southwest High School in Jacksonville, where he was a guest teacher for three history and civics/economic classes.
