NBCT high school teacher Stuart Egan reports on the passage of HB514 by the General Assembly in North Carolina, which he predicts will set the state back by decades.
North Carolina has a regressive legislature that has dedicated itself to gerrymandering, transgender bathroom bills, charter schools, vouchers, and every ALEC-inspired legislation imaginable since it gained a majority in 2010. The new legislation may well spur the growth of “segregation academies.”
North Carolina, before 2010, was known as the most progressive state in the South.
Since the Tea Party takeover, it has systematically starved its public schools and shown preference for charters and vouchers.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This bill is a stalking horse for expansion of charter schools beyond the four communities named in the law. The law also has features promoted by ALEC, see https://www.alec.org/model-policy/environmentally-sustainable-charter-school-admissions-act/
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Utter contempt for the people!
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What a shame that they did no productive work on behalf of the public schools in the state.
Oh, well. Maybe next session, right? Unless it’s time to lobby for expanding vouchers. Then public schools will be neglected for another year.
People in North Carolina should consider hiring some public employees who work on behalf of public schools.
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Meanwhile, let’s take a peek at what’s happening in the North Carolina public schools 90% of kids attend:
ttps://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/06/05/us/school-funding-north-carolina.html?rref=collection%2Fbyline%2Fdana-goldstein&action=click&contentCollection=undefined®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=collection
Ed reformers gutted their funding. So ed reform’s sum total contribution to the public schools in that state was to gut their funding?
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Here’s an Indiana charter school that isn’t even open yet but has every element of corruption and self-dealing already embedded:
https://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/in/2018/05/31/indiana-agriculture-technology-school/
It is absolutely inevitable this will end badly. It’s rife with conflicts and opportunities for theft and fraud.
Full speed ahead! Rubber stamp that application!
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Will NC Governor veto this bill?
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It’s a local bill and thus does not require the governor’s signature. He can’t veto it.
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I’m having a little trouble making sense of this news. If charters could only be authorized, funded and run by local districts, that would be a good thing, I think. But this seems to be something entirely different. Are these towns really just neighborhoods that are part of a bigger district? Why is part of the law “allowing” towns to raise taxes to fund their own schools – don’t they do that already? And how is the new paradigm any different from the countless areas where residential segregation means you have wealthy majority-white towns raising oodles for excellent local public schools vs the opposite?
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SICK. Such LIES. North Carolina WAKE UP! Follow the $$$$$.
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