Carolina Journal Radio No. 704: Updated teacher turnover report sheds light on who’s leaving N.C. schools

Teachers who left North Carolina public school classrooms in the past year were “on average, less effective” than those who stayed. That’s one of the key findings of a newly redesigned report on teacher attrition prepared by the N.C. Department of Public Instruction. Terry Stoops, John Locke Foundation director of research and education studies, analyzes the changes and explains why they might prove helpful in assessing links between state public policy and teachers’ willingness to work in the Tar Heel State. Education reformers have made great strides in North Carolina in recent years. They have scrapped the state’s public charter school cap, increased funding for school vouchers targeting low-income and special-needs students, and created a new Achievement School District to boost North Carolina’s lowest-performing elementary schools. More opportunities await reformers. Lisa Snell, director of education for the libertarian Reason Foundation, says one area for potential improvement involves the way tax dollars flow from state government to local systems. New academic research confirms what conservative N.C. policymakers have predicted in recent years: State tax reform is producing sizeable positive benefits for the state’s economy. High Point University economist Stephanie Crofton recently shared highlights from her study of the impact of historic changes to state tax and unemployment laws. Colleges can pursue truth or social justice as their central mission. They can’t pursue both. That’s the assessment of Jonathan Haidt, social psychologist and professor of ethical leadership at New York University’s business school. During a recent lecture at Duke University, Haidt explained why truth and social justice are incompatible goals for institutions of higher learning. Haidt is calling for a schism that would force universities to choose between the two options. Justice Clarence Thomas has surpassed the major milestone of 25 years serving on the U.S. Supreme Court. But one of the nation’s most important legal minds has not enjoyed the accolades one might have expected for his silver anniversary. Jon Guze, the John Locke Foundation’s director of legal studies, analyzes the apparent slight of Thomas and his stellar legal record.