reform

RALEIGH – North Carolina can avoid future failures like the Randy Parton Theatre, if legislators reform the rules for so-called tax increment financing, or TIF. That’s according to a new…

Tax increment financing (TIF) is a type of public-debt financing that is supposed to promote private economic development in designated districts through the development of public improvement projects.

RALEIGH — North Carolina is the only state in the nation that requires counties to pay a fixed percentage of Medicaid costs. The General Assembly’s own Blue Ribbon Commission on…

North Carolina is the only state in which counties pay a fixed percentage of Medicaid costs. Counties have no control over how they spend up to 15 percent of their general fund budget and 39 percent of their property tax revenues. Six counties spend more on Medicaid than on education. Program expansions and higher medical costs have pushed Medicaid’s share of county budgets up an average of 18 percent in five years. The General Assembly should act on the recommendation of its own Blue Ribbon Commission on Medicaid Reform to cap and reduce what counties must contribute to Medicaid.

RALEIGH — As another large state budget deficit has some urging North Carolina lawmakers to “reform” the tax code to confiscate additional hundreds of millions of dollars, the John Locke…

This fifth annual report on schools from the North Carolina Education Alliance shows that many school districts in the state made progress in 2001-02. It also shows that many of the failing school systems from 2000-01 were still performing in the failing range again last year. Official results of statewide testing are reported annually in the Department of Public Instruction’s ABCs of Public Education. End-of-grade tests for elementary students and end-of-course tests for high school students are the only exams administered statewide each year. As such, information about public schools is focused on the results of these exams. Grading Our Schools offers a different lens for studying test results and other performance data. As an additional information tool, we hope it will allow parents and taxpayers to better evaluate student performance in North Carolina’s public schools.

RALEIGH — The textbooks used to teach physical science in North Carolina’s middle schools “contain factual errors and irrelevant information,” according to a study published today by the North Carolina…

All middle school teachers in North Carolina have to teach physical science, which is required for middle school students in NC public schools. Unfortunately, over 80% have never taken a physical science course and many of those who have, have taken a course that is of no help to their students. Naturally, with their limited backgrounds, they hare heavily dependent on the materials they are given to teach from. In addition, in many instances these materials form the teacher’s own introduction to the subjects. It is especially important, therefore, that the textbooks and other materials that teachers and students are forced to use get it right.

RALEIGH — Former Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr will make the keynote address as the John Locke Foundation celebrates its 10th anniversary with a day-long conference and award ceremony on February…