Carolina Journal Radio No. 765: Teacher attrition rate drops, more effective teachers stay

North Carolina’s teacher attrition rate dropped last year, and those who left the job were less effective teachers than those who stayed. Terry Stoops, John Locke Foundation vice president for research, digs into the latest data about teacher attrition and teacher vacancies. Members of the University of North Carolina system’s Board of Governors are interested in boosting intellectual diversity on campuses. They sought advice recently from Princeton professor Robert George, the founder and leader of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions. George highlighted his program’s positive impact on the Princeton campus. He also pointed to potential challenges of mirroring his program in a public university system, or even a single flagship university. It’s possible to define “conservative politics” in multiple ways. John Locke Foundation Chairman John Hood offered his definition during a recent speech to the Leadership Institute. Hood explained why his definition follows Margaret Thatcher’s maxim that the facts of life are conservative. Gov. Roy Cooper has decried Republican lawmakers’ “corporate giveaways,” meaning corporate tax rate cuts, while at the same touting targeted tax incentives that amount to real corporate giveaways. Donald Bryson, N.C. state director of Americans For Prosperity, spots the apparent contradiction. Bryson explains why his group is drawing attention to Cooper’s rhetoric on taxation of corporations. Supporters and opponents of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline are vying for Gov. Roy Cooper’s attention. The latest Carolina Journal cover story highlights the ways different interest groups are trying to sway Cooper to support their positions on the pipeline. It would extend through several eastern North Carolina counties. Editor-in-Chief Rick Henderson discusses CJ’s reporting on the topic and Cooper’s relative silence on the topic.