Tag search result

State Board of Education Chairman Bill Harrison writes in his blog that more school employees will lose their jobs if the state does not replace the $258 million in federal "edu-jobs" money that school districts are using to pay their employees.

Districts must spend all their federal stimulus money before the end of this year.

Harrison is responding Senate leader Phil Berger's comments Wednesday that replacing federal money with state money is the wrong approach.

Gov. Bev Perdue's budget replaces that federal money and does more, using revenue from a proposed 3/4-cent sales tax increase to add $562 million to the K-12 budget. The added money would bring K-12 spending to about $8 billion.

The State Board of Education passed a resolution today opposing the constitutional amendment on marriage by a vote of 5-4.

Board member John Tate of Charlotte proposed the resolution because, he said, passing it will cause disruption in families that will hurt children's classroom performance.

The amendment, which would ban same-sex marriage and civil unions, will cause some people to lose health insurance, will weaken domestic violence protections for unmarried couples, and may hinder business recruitment, Tate said.

The State Board of Education wants to weigh in on the issue of school spanking with the aim of making recommendations for a new law next year.

Child advocates for years have pushed the board to oppose school spanking, but members have been reluctant to wade into a local policy issue. That appears to have changed.

"I just think it's wrong," state school board member John Tate said today.  "I think it's an instance that we have to stand up for what's right for kids and say stop this nonsense."

A report earlier this year shows that three counties - Robeson, Columbus, and McDowell - did 87 percent of the spanking in 2010-2011.

Seventeen districts used corporal punishment a total of 891 times, according to the state Department of Public Instruction report.  Ten of those districts have since banned school spanking, the report said. Most local school districts don't spank students.

Boys, disabled students, and minority students - particularly American Indian students - received a disproportionate amount of physical discipline at school.
Eighty percent of the students spanked were boys. Twenty-two percent of the children spanked were disabled, though disabled students make up 8 percent of the student population.

American Indian students make up nearly 43 percent of Robeson's enrollment, and that district spanked more children than any other by far.

Bills attempting to outlaw spanking have failed, but the legislature has moved cautiously to restrict the practice.

State budget cuts have damaged the quality of education offered in public schools across North Carolina, school superintendents said during a five-hour gathering Tuesday, where they shared stories and sounded alarms about financial woes that have worsened during the past three years. Read more here.

Other headlines:

--The Council of State takes action to close Dix Hospital. More here.

--The UNC system continues its push to remove university workers from the state personnel act. Read an interview with President Tom Ross here.

--Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who will chair the Democratic National Convention, took his first look at Charlotte’s convention venues Tuesday, and took the chance to reach out to the city’s Hispanic community. Read Jim Morrill's story here.

The wrangling over NC Pre-K continues.

Bill Harrison, chairman of the State Board of Education, has weighed in with a blog post that takes aim at Republican efforts to privatize the state's pre-kindergarten program and narrow the population that qualifies for pre-k services.

On Thursday, the House Select Committee on Early Childhood Education will meet to finalize recommendations about NC Pre-K.

A draft piece of legislation by the committee spells out that pre-k would be offered only in private child centers, Harrison writes, which is "clearly not in the best interest of the students and families the program was designed to serve."

Funneling taxpayer dollars to for-profit day care centers would reduce the number of licensed pre-k teachers "to unacceptably low levels," Harrison writes. Public school pre-k teachers are fully licensed, he said, compared to 30 percent of those in private centers.

"Some of these organizations are focused more on the bottom line then the children served," Harrison adds. "To keep profits coming in, some private centers will cut corners and sacrifice the high quality academic program all NC Pre-K programs should provide."

Harrison said 51 percent of children in the state program are served in public school settings.

Harrison asked readers of his blog to contact members of the committee to communicate their concerns about the future of NC Pre-K. "The futures of thousands of North Carolina’s youngest, at-risk learners could be at stake," he writes.

Former state senator Eddie Goodall is forming a new charter school organization after a split a few weeks ago with the charter alliance he ran as president.

Goodall, who was  president of the N.C. Alliance for Public Charter Schools, said he is starting the N.C. Public Charter Schools Association. He will be the new group's executive director.

This was a big year for charters. Legislators voted to erase the 100-charater cap and form a new charter advisory council that reports to the State Board of Education.
Goodall was a constant presence at the legislature during debates on the charter law. He asked the state school board to start the "fast-track" charter approval process that would have new charters open in 2012.

"Despite the overall early successes of the Alliance, in recent months much of the direction of the board leadership was at odds with the fundamental principles behind charter school education success in North Carolina. This post-cap era is a time of much needed broad, transparent, and especially principled leadership," Goodall said in a statement.

In a posting to its website, the alliance said it is moving to de-centralized approach, opening regional offices instead of having a "Raleigh-centered operational structure" and maintaining a full-time staff.

The gun on the "fast track"  charter school applications sounds tomorrow, when the new Public Charter School Advisory Council begins considering the 27 applications for schools that could open in Fall '12.

Council subcommittees plan to review the applications tomorrow and report the results of their reviews to the full committee Wednesday. The committee will decide which applicants to invite for January interviews before reporting its recommendations to the State Board of Education.

These schools are the first entries into the state's charter school applicant pool since the legislature decided this year to eliminate the 100-school charter cap. It's also one of the first tests of the advisory council and how it interacts with the state board.

No one knows how many people are planning to put in applications for the regular approval cycle for schools that would open in 2013.

But if the interest in the fast track is an indication, the state could see charter options expand significantly.

The State Board of Education today postponed a vote on whether to allow local school districts to opt out of adding five instructional days to the school year, as required by a new law.

State Board leaders say they support the longer 185-day school year, but it will be difficult to implement given the limits on start and end dates that are already mandated by law. Lengthening the school year from 180 days to 185 days will also add costs to already-trimmed transportation budgets.

"I believe wholeheartedly in the 185 days, that doesn't change," said State Board Chairman Bill Harrison, who earlier this week said he was inclined to deny the local districts' requests for waivers. "But I think it's a legislative issue. I wholeheartedly support part of what they did, but they didn't address some things that really need to be addressed."

One thing is certain about the state Republicans' impact on education - they have succeeded in renaming a high school history course.

The state Board of Education is set to rename a high school U.S. history course "American History I - The Founding Principles" as a new law requires.

The GOP-led legislature passed a law this year requring schools teach a course that includes: "The Creator-endowed inalienable rights of the people; structure of government; separation of powers with checks and balances; frequent and free elections in a representative government; rule of law; equal justice under the law; private property rights; federalism; due process; individual rights set forth in the Bill of Rights, and individual responsibility.

Under the law, students must pass the course to graduate.

The state Department of Public Instruction says the curriculum the board adopted last year for courses in civics and economics and U.S. history includes instruction on all the principles legislators want taught. Staff has gone through the curriculum to note the points in the history course where teachers can emphasize  these principles.

The selection process for the 2012 Governor's School will move ahead, though the size of the program won't be known until the school foundation's November fundraising deadline.

A task force recommended to the State Board of Education that the school continue next year, at a minimum, with 300 students on one campus, maintaining tuition at $500. That would be greatly downsized from the program that has operated on two campuses (Meredith College and Salem College) with 400 students apiece.

The six-week summer program for gifted high school students, founded in 1963 by then-Gov. Terry Sanford, has fallen victim to budget cuts. But alumni are mounting a valiant attempt to raise $1 million to keep the program going on two campuses. The group had raised $230,000 by late August; if alums raise $550,000, they could keep one campus operating.

This week, the State Board voted to approve the task force recommendation to move ahead with the selection process for 2012, using the program's $36,000 in carry-over funds for initial administrative costs.

The task force will convene again in late October to look at the fundraising totals,  analyze the financial situation and make further recommendations to the State Board.