Carolina Journal Radio No. 728: NCAA’s decision to return championships to N.C. doesn’t end debate

The NCAA has agreed to return some of its championship events to North Carolina in the coming years. The college sports organization made that decision after the General Assembly repealed the controversial House Bill 2 “bathroom law” with a compromise that blocks local governments from regulating bathrooms or enacting ordinances dealing with private employment or public accommodations until December 2020. Carolina Journal Editor-in-Chief Rick Henderson analyzes reaction to the NCAA’s decision. While Gov. Roy Cooper wants to end future state funding for Opportunity Scholarship school vouchers, some of his Democratic Party colleagues in the N.C. General Assembly disagree. A group of African-American Democrats recently scheduled a news conference at the state Legislative Building for the sole purpose of confirming their support for vouchers, public charter schools, and school choice in general. You’ll hear why these Democrats support school choice options along with traditional public schools. Lawmakers have filed a series of seven bills designed to benefit members of the N.C. National Guard. The legislation targets topics ranging from education benefits to the role of post-traumatic stress disorder in criminal sentencing. You’ll hear from the veterans who are sponsoring the bills. North Carolina will submit a plan soon addressing potential changes in the way the stay addresses high school accountability. Michael Petrilli, president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, says the state has opportunities to improve the way it gauges success for the state’s public high schools. Petrilli says an updated accountability system ought to account for student progress and for schools’ success in moving students beyond basic proficiency to an advanced level of knowledge. North Carolina has seen surpluses, rather than deficits, with its recent state budgets. The Republicans who took control of the budget process in 2011 also have placed more restraints on spending growth. Joe Coletti, senior fellow at the John Locke Foundation, points to small institutional changes in the budget process that can have significant effects. Coletti discusses those changes and discusses others that could improve the budget process moving forward.