Tag: ncga

Charter school expansion bill on Senate floor this afternoon

July 2, 2013 at 10:04 amCategory:Uncategorized

by

The bill that would allow charter schools to expand the grades they offer without prior approval from the State Board of Education will be on the Senate floor this afternoon. The bill has already passed the House.

HB 250, Charter School Enrollment and Charter Revisions, was originally intended to address only charter school enrollment procedures. Last week, NC Policy Watch reported that the director of Arapahoe Charter School, Tom McCarthy, decided to work with his local lawmakers, Sen. Norman Sanderson (R-Carteret, Craven, Pamlico) and Rep. Michael Speciale (R-Beaufort, Craven, Pamlico) to craft legislation that would allow his school to get around a State Board of Education decision to deny Arapahoe’s request to expand to a K-12 school. The resulting bill would allow all public charter schools to expand their offerings, within certain limits, without State Board of Ed approval.

At a Senate Education Committee hearing last week, lawmakers briefly debated the new language – language that the House never even saw – and offered a favorable report for the bill, even as Leanne Winner, director of governmental relations for the North Carolina School Boards Association, explained to the committee the devastating effect it would have on rural school districts.

“We already know that passing this provision would immediately threaten the very existence of Pamlico County’s lone public high school,” Winner told NC Policy Watch.

The law currently requires public charter schools to gain State Board of Education approval in order to expand their offerings. The requirement is in place to mitigate any potential adverse impacts on local school districts resulting from public charter school expansion.

Click here for more background on the Arapahoe Charter School and the bill that hits the Senate floor today.

TFA vs. NC Teaching Fellows

June 12, 2013 at 10:11 amCategory:Uncategorized

by

WUNC’s Dave DeWitt has a good story this morning comparing Teach for America in NC to the 30-year old NC Teaching Fellows program.

The NC Teaching Fellows program awards $6,500/year scholarships for tuition at an in state college to North Carolina high school students interested in teaching. In return, students must teach for four years in North Carolina after graduation.

According to DeWitt:

The Teaching Fellows program has had a transformative effect on the profession in North Carolina: currently more than 4,000 teachers are Teaching Fellows. And more than three-quarters stay on as teachers past five years.

Despite these results, the Republican-controlled Legislature abruptly cut the program two years ago.

Teach for America, on the other hand, is gaining momentum in North Carolina:

Teach For America will place more teachers in eastern North Carolina than ever starting this fall, and TFA’s political influence has grown here has, as well. Governor Pat McCrory recently named a former TFA teacher as his new education advisor. Nationally, Teach For America has a budget of around $300 million, drawing donors like the Bill and Melinda Gates and Walton Family Foundations.

Fast forward then to last month, and the State Senate’s proposed budget (pdf). For the third straight year, the Teaching Fellows annual budget of $13 million went unfunded, as it did in the Governor’s version of the budget.

Teach For America, meanwhile, is poised to get a new initial allocation of $6 million in the Senate budget.

While the House budget restores the Teaching fellows program, the Senate is on track to support TFA over the native program that trained and retained such a large percentage of its participants over the years.

The House’s final vote on its budget comes this afternoon.

House committee members vote to include $50 million in budget for private school vouchers

June 11, 2013 at 4:35 pmCategory:Uncategorized

by

Members of the House appropriations committee gathered today to debate their proposed budget for 2013-15.

The budget includes all of the language from the school voucher bill, or HB 944 Opportunity Scholarship Act, which would siphon $50 million over two years from public education and funnel that money to private schools.

Rep. Chris Whitmire, a Republican from Transylvania County, put forth an amendment that would have removed the school voucher language from the budget, calling the voucher bill a “Trojan horse” that would have brought the government into private settings and had not been fully vetted by the entire House. Read More…

What’s happening in education this week

April 29, 2013 at 3:33 pmCategory:Uncategorized

by

I’ve learned that when the General Assembly is in session, there’s a lot to keep track of – especially this time around. Here’s a roundup of what to expect this week in Raleigh if you’re following education news.

State Board of Education Monthly Meeting
The State Board of Ed meets Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning in the 7th Floor Board Room, Education Building, 301 N. Wilmington Street, Raleigh. Click here for Wednesday’s agenda and here for Thursday’s. Some highlights include:

  • College and career endorsements for HS diplomas;
  • Revocation of charter for Children’s Village Academy;
  • Recommendation to deny charter school enrollment increases; and
  • Presentation from graduate students of Duke’s Terry Sanford School of Public Policy on how to restructure teacher compensation.  Read More…

Is Handwriting a Fundamental Right?

April 25, 2013 at 3:49 pmCategory:Uncategorized

by

The cursive bill just passed its third reading in the Senate and it’s on its way to passage.

Is Zaner-Bloser, the firm linked to the bill, is now feeling a little less worried about the possibility of  ”a world without handwriting?”

YouTube Preview Image

After watching this video, I was left to wonder if my son would never be able to communicate with Santa. With this bill, does he have a better shot at getting what he wants for Christmas?