Education

Raleigh News & Observer: The NC legislature’s actions are discouraging teachers

By Eleanore Wood / June 29, 2017 /

The General Assembly had the opportunity to change how they grade public schools on an A-F scale that typically reflects the level of poverty at the school, rather than their performance. However, the General Assembly did not change this system to reflect the actual level of the educators at the school. In 2014, the General…

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North Carolina Health News: Budget Benefits Current State Retirees, But Dings Future Ones

By Eleanore Wood / June 23, 2017 /

Hidden in the NC GOP’s budget is a line that will end teacher/state employee retirement health benefits for new hires after 2020. This means new teachers are going to flee to other states with better benefits and will greatly affect our middle and elementary students who will still be in school when this goes into…

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Trump Proposes Slashes to Financial Aid for College Students

By Eleanore Wood / May 24, 2017 /

Trump’s budget was released Tuesday and there are some huge budget cuts to education. Included in the education portion of Trump’s budget is a huge cut to federal financial aid for college students. UNC’s former President Molly Broad came out and spoke on the budget cuts, stating that these huge cuts to financial aid will…

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Education in NC? Far From Adequately Funded

By Eleanore Wood / May 19, 2017 /

North Carolina has some of the best universities in the country, however, their tuitions are costing more and more each year. When you calculate for inflation, state spending for public universities has decreased 15.6% while tuition has increased 55%. This means students are spending more and leaving college with more debt and their colleges. North…

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Trump Releases First Education Budget Plan….And it Funds More Private than Public Schools

By Eleanore Wood / May 18, 2017 /

Trump has finally released his first full education budget…and the outlook is not good. He and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’s budget plan includes cuts to work-study programs, public-service loan forgiveness, and funds for mental illness and advanced courses. So where is all this money going? They’re planning to spend $400 million on school choice, meaning…

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NCGOP Cuts Education Funding in the Middle of the Night

By Eleanore Wood / May 15, 2017 /

Thursday night the NC Senate debated budget amendments well past midnight. Now out of spite, the Republicans in Raleigh want to cut science and math education programs for low-income students in rural NC. At 3AM Thursday night, Republican Senators introduced a new budget amendment that strips education funding from Democrats’ districts all because Democrats were speaking out against…

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