John Locke Foundation
Higher ed advocate: Conservative commentator’s call for radical UNC System overhaul is off-base
Some folks measure the value of higher education solely by how much its graduates make. Most of us know there’s a lot more to it. In a column last week, John Hood of the John Locke Foundation contends that North Carolinians don’t receive an adequate return on what he calls a “relatively large” investment in […]
Veteran public school teacher blasts state superintendent’s decision to hire right-wing commentator
Editor’s note: The following post appeared yesterday on the popular education commentary website ‘Caffeinated Rage,’ which is maintained by veteran Forsyth County public school teacher Stu Egan. Read more of Egan’s thoughts on this subject here. —– FFS, Catherine! This DPI Hire Really Proves You Really Are Not For Public Education From today’s news: This […]
PR work for ‘Big Oil’ helped stymie climate action, U.S. House Democrats say
NC-based John Locke Foundation defends oil and gas industry WASHINGTON – Public relations firms aligned with oil and gas companies have tested the limits of their industry ethics and caused major slowdowns to federal climate change policy, Democrats on a U.S. House panel said at a Wednesday hearing. The firms’ conduct went beyond the bounds […]
North Carolina climate change deniers owe the world an apology
As you’ve no doubt noticed, our state, nation and planet are experiencing yet another summer of record heat and intense storms. As scientists have been explaining and predicting for decades, climate change resulting from carbon-pollution-driven global warming is altering weather patterns and spurring big and deeply problematic changes in the Earth’s environment.
Pope-funded “libertarian” group continues slide toward Trumpism
For decades, groups funded by conservative mega-donor and one-time Republican politician Art Pope have proudly brandished the “libertarian” label when describing the philosophy they bring to public policy debates. This has been particularly true of the biggest such organization — the John Locke Foundation — a 30+ year-old nonprofit “think tank” that has principally championed […]
Toyota deal highlights the political right’s detachment from reality on the seminal issue confronting humanity
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas in North Carolina – or, at least, the Christmas we’ve come increasingly to expect. This week’s forecast shows high temperatures will average in the 70s on multiple days. Meanwhile, across the nation and the globe, similar weather events that would have been seen as extraordinary in past decades have, increasingly and worrisomely, become the norm.
Crazy impeachment talk from the NC right wing needs to stop
Memo to the North Carolina political right: Your crazy talk of impeaching elected North Carolina leaders because you disagree with their policy decisions and/or judicial decisions needs to stop. Besides making yourselves look utterly foolish, you’re ratcheting up our already overheated political atmosphere to new and dangerous levels — something that’s particularly unsafe when so […]
Former McCrory aide, Locke Foundation staffer to help lead new, partisan oversight staff at legislature
After top Republican state lawmakers eliminated the legislature’s in-house watchdog agency, the Program Evaluation Division, in February Joe Coletti, then a senior fellow at the John Locke Foundation lauded the decision. In a Feb. 22, 2021, article that appeared on the conservative think tank’s website, he opined that a partisan staff might be more nimble in performing the oversight function and making recommendations to increase government efficiency.
Head of local conservative think tank publicly derides the concept of public education
For years in North Carolina, the advocacy groups funded by arch-conservative financier and politico Art Pope have attempted to portray themselves as champions of both private and public education. On the one hand, groups like the John Locke Foundation (and the group formerly known as the Pope-Civitas Institute that Locke recently absorbed) have never missed […]
Local conservative think tank promotes wacky and frightening conspiracy kook
The Raleigh-based John Locke Foundation has been around for a long time and, not unreasonably, is sometimes relied upon by journalists, politicians and other followers of state policy debates as one of the state’s more important voices on the ideological right. To its credit, the group employs some skilled professionals who usually make it a […]
N.C. Senate Democrats, civil right advocates worry bills claiming to expand voting rights do the exact opposite
North Carolina senators on the Redistricting and Elections Committee disagreed on steps to protect the rights of voters in a heated committee hearing on Wednesday. The disagreement revolved around the discussion of three bills — all of which essentially echo an earlier version of the “Election Integrity Act” (Senate Bill 326) a Republican proposal that […]
GOP state representative tries to have it both ways on Apple’s new plan to come to NC
There is, of course, nothing particularly new about politicians talking out of both sides of their mouths. One of the favored hypocrisies of conservative Republican elected officials, for instance, involves railing on a daily basis about the evils of big gummint spending and then making a beeline to the latest ribbon-cutting announcement of a new […]