Among the new bills introduced in the legislature this week is a cap on the motor fuel tax (HB399). The flat tax rate on a gallon of gas is 17.5 cents. The variable wholesale rate is 3.5 cents per gallon or 7 percent of the average whosesale price, which slides upward with that price. The new [...]
Education Archives
AdvancED report lectures Wake school board; but retains accreditation
Board members joined forces with current Board member, Ron Margiotta, to launch a premeditated act that resulted in destabilizing the school system and community That’s the sentence that hit my eye as I scanned the AdvancED report issued yesterday on the accreditation status of the Wake County Public Schools. Premeditated act? Destabilizing? My question: Is a [...]
charter school bill advances
Republicans on the House Education Committee defeated several Democratic-sponsored amendments to a new Proposed Committee Substitute (PCS) to SB – 8, a bill to expand the number of charters and changes how new charter schools are governed. The bill now moves on to the House Finance Committee. The new PCS approved by the committee contains a number of [...]
Cutting “high weeds” in the education budget
Should North Carolina taxpayers fund professional development programs for accountants , doctors, plumbers or electricians? I’m sure my question prompts a roll of the eyes and a matter of fact, “no”. Then, I wonder why taxpayers continue to foot the bill for various teacher development and recruitment programs like the NC Teacher Academy ($4.7 million); Teaching [...]
NCAE and teacher salaries
This morning’s News & Observer runs a story about an upcoming NCAE report chronicling teacher and staff job losses and the slippage in educational quality — or at least the slippage as perceived by national groups that attempt to measure such elusive categories. The story includes a graph showing how NC average teacher salaries have lost ground relative to other [...]
