teacher assistants
The conservative war on NC public school teachers neatly summarized
In case you missed it over the weekend, the good people at the Public School Forum of North Carolina produced an excellent response to the cheapskate teacher pay plan that the General Assembly produced and Gov. Cooper rightfully vetoed. This is from the statement: Today, Governor Roy Cooper vetoed a ‘mini-budget’ bill passed by the […]
With class size bill stalled, job losses announced in Guilford County Schools
With a state House-approved fix to North Carolina’s imminent class size controversy seemingly stalled in the N.C. Senate, it’s worth noting that promised job losses have begun in one of the state’s largest school systems. Fox8 News in High Point is reporting that 50 teacher assistants are being laid off in Guilford County Schools, with promises of more […]
A few recommendations for N.C.’s teaching assistant problem
While we’ve heard plenty of back and forth already about teacher pay in 2016, there’s been very little open discussion of teacher assistants. Given the legislature’s propensity for slashing T.A. jobs in the last few years, that silence might be a blessing, some would say. But yesterday on EdNC, Kerry Crutchfield, longtime budget director for […]
N.C. House Speaker watches a teacher assistant at work
Legislators visit schools all the time, and as a longtime reporter, I can tell you that it’s typically uneventful stuff. But here’s a fairly interesting report from Wednesday’s Wilkes Journal-Patriot of N.C. House Speaker Tim Moore’s visit this week to an elementary school in Wilkes County, during which the speaker apparently got a chance to view a […]
North Carolinas’s ongoing war on teachers
In case you missed it, yesterday’s lead editorial in the Fayetteville Observer did a fine job of summing up the continuing war on public school teachers being waged by the state’s political leadership: After decrying the large teacher shortages that plague school systems across the state and some recent national surveys that put the state […]
Editorials blast ideological attacks on public education
Today is the first day of the 2015-16 school year in lots of places throughout North Carolina and editorial pages across the state this past weekend welcomed back the return of teachers and students with some harsh words for the political powers that be. The Winston-Salem Journal minced no words in an editorial entitled “Teacher […]
Citizen-Times: Lack of budget causing big headaches for WNC schools
“I feel like our kids are being held hostage by the General Assembly’s lack of a budget.” That’s the word from Yancey County Schools’ superintendent Tony Tipton, who says that lawmakers’ failure to reach a deal on a two year state budget means students haven’t been able to learn how to drive over the summer. […]
McCrory: Let local schools decide if they want teacher assistants
As House and Senate lawmakers continue to fight over whether or not to fully fund early grade classroom teacher assistants for the upcoming school year, Governor Pat McCrory told education advocates and members of the business community at a NC Chamber of Commerce conference on Thursday that he wants to get the entire debate out of Raleigh. “What I […]
Budget a month overdue, Rep. Stam says no worries
Rep. Skip Stam (R-Wake) told WPTF on Thursday that despite stalled budget talks that have kept the state waiting a month past the deadline for a deal that spells out how the government should run its schools and other agencies, North Carolinians should take heart — everything is running smoothly. “Every other time I’ve been […]
Rep. Pendleton: Eliminating retiree health benefits “should have been done a long time ago.”
In a meeting Wednesday where House lawmakers discussed key differences between the two chambers’ 2015-17 budget proposals, Rep. Gary Pendleton (R-Raleigh) said he was all for eliminating retiree medical benefits for future teachers and state employees. “That’s something that should have been done a long time ago,” said Pendleton after legislative staff outlined the differences […]
The effects of gutting classroom TAs
In case you missed it, WRAL’s Tyler Dukes had a good story this weekend sorting through whether or not teacher assistants have any positive effect at all in the classroom and whether the Senate’s proposal to cut 80 percent of TA jobs over the upcoming biennium is the state’s largest layoff in history. The conclusion? […]