Displaying items by tag: schools

RALEIGH — Virtual learning is taking a toll on Chloe Dixon’s children.

When Democrat Jen Mangrum and Republican Catherine Truitt first filed to run for state superintendent of public instruction, neither could have expected that the central issue of the 2020 race would be whether to allow public schools to provide in-person instruction to North Carolina children.

North Carolina is already the homeschooling capital of the United States. Now the attraction of this education option is soaring higher than ever — thanks not to the actions of its proponents but to the antics of its opponents.

RALEIGH — About half of North Carolina’s school districts are closed for in-person instruction, while the other half have students alternating between learning in the classroom and attending school online throughout the week. Starting Oct. 5, school districts can choose to let elementary schools fully reopen.

RALEIGH — School districts can allow elementary grade students to return to the classroom next month, Gov. Roy Cooper announced during a Sept. 17 news conference, but middle and high school students won’t have the same opportunity.

Over the course of the past 30 years, the need to keep the schools “safe” from drugs and weapons has become a thinly disguised, profit-driven campaign to transform them into quasi-prisons, complete with surveillance cameras, metal detectors, police patrols, zero tolerance policies, lock downs, drug sniffing dogs, school resource officers, strip searches, and active shooter drills.

RALEIGH — Gov. Roy Cooper’s budget proposal would seize millions from school choices programs and divert it to public schools.

RALEIGH — North Carolina’s largest teacher organization is suing to kill a program helping low-income families send their children to private schools.

RALEIGH — Every North Carolina student, from kindergarteners to post-graduates, will have new health and safety rules to follow this fall.

RALEIGH — Gov. Roy Cooper’s school reopening plan creates confusion when parents and kids need a clear path forward, one education expert says.