According to the most-recent ranking I can find, North Carolina requires state-approved licenses in more occupations (nearly 200) than most other states do. North Carolina licenses twice as many occupations as Virginia does, and three times as many as South Carolina.
Before Thomas Jefferson died in 1826, he wrote his own epitaph. Did he mention any of his political offices? No. Jefferson wanted only three accomplishments listed on his gravestone: author of the Declaration of Independence, founder of the University of Virginia, and author of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom.
I’ve long thought the North Carolina General Assembly should reform our state’s archaic and anti-competitive requirement for certificates-of-need. In the post-COVID world we are entering, however, CON reform is no longer just a good idea. It’s an imperative.
The University of North Carolina systemically discriminates by race and ethnicity in student admissions and faculty hiring. Arguably such behavior is already forbidden by federal and state law. Now a group of state lawmakers has proposed an amendment to the state constitution that would eliminate all doubt on the matter.
Why won’t North Carolina Democrats accept the results of an election? Don’t they believe in democracy?
North Carolina’s state government has a multi-billion-dollar surplus. Its enormity has multiple causes: past spending discipline, revenue growth from a resurgent economy, and gobs of borrowed federal money. Its enormity also presents North Carolina’s conservative-run legislature with a challenge.
Just about everyone has an opinion about how to improve education, and it’s usually an opinion passionately held and forcefully argued. It’s not hard to see why. After all, schools are the single-largest expenditure of state taxpayers’ funds. Educational mediocrity is the common denominator of many other social maladies. Most folks have spouses, siblings, parents, or other family members in the teaching profession. And everyone has been a student.
When demand exceeds supply, prices rise. While the problem of housing affordability has many facets and effects, that inescapable fact explains a lot about why so many North Carolinians struggle to afford the homes they’d like to buy or rent.
How much say should the public have about public education? Parental revolts against “wokeness” fads in the classroom are all the rage right now, but gaps between public preferences and the practice of public education didn’t suddenly begin a few months ago. They’ve been around for decades.
There are at least as many different ways to explain the origins of political disagreement as there are political commentators. I, for one, think such factors as cultural traditions, religious views, family background, educational experiences, and interpersonal relationships all help to shape how we choose our preferred political candidates or “sides” – and how we choose to act on those preferences.
Most students attend colleges or universities primarily to acquire the knowledge, skills, and credentials required to get a rewarding job.
For years, North Carolina conservatives and progressives argued incessantly about the effects of the state’s rightward turn. Conservatives said lower taxes and less regulation tend to boost entrepreneurship, job creation, and economic growth. Rejecting that position, progressives argued that spending more money on education and other public programs and making greater use of health, safety, and labor regulations would have net-positive results for the economy.
