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Well, this week, the state of North Carolina, specifically the Department of Public Instruction or DPI, released data showing trends in school testing and proficiency across North Carolina. And while there is some positives and negatives in the report, public school students increased proficiency scores and reading and math compared to recent years.
However, these results still lag behind some of the high watermarks earned prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. This is according to that data from DPI. The data presented to the State Board of Education this week indicates improved performance in 12 out of 15 math and reading assessments statewide, with third grade reading, English 2 and North Carolina Math 1 the only exceptions not seeing those improved performance numbers. As for standardized test results, the average composite score for eleventh graders taking the ACT increased to 18.2 in the 24-25 school year after slightly dipping to 18.1 the previous year. Additionally, the four year cohort graduation rate climbed to 87.7 percent, which is, I'll note, the highest in a decade, up from eighty seven point zero percent in the previous year.
The superintendent of public instruction, Mo Green, said in a statement, quote, I am proud of our students and educators who have worked hard to improve these metrics even as we acknowledge that our students are more than test scores. While the progress and growth shown in these reports deserve praise, we must continue our work to promote excellence for all students. Our plan is to achieve academic excellence for every child in North Carolina, and we have the best public schools in the nation. I am eager to see this data continue to improve as we work to implement our strategic plan. English language learners have also shown significant progress as well, with 35% of students meeting progress targets or exiting English learning status in 24-25, up 27% from where that number was last year.
School performance ratings also improved as well with increases in schools earning an A, B or C as an overall grade and a decrease in those earning a D or an F. Approximately seventy one percent of schools met or exceeded growth expectations in the twenty four twenty five school year, resulting in nearly fifty fewer schools labeled as low performing and sixty fewer continually low performing compared to last year. Dr. Bob Lubke, the director for the Center for Effective Education at the John Locke Foundation, told the Carolina Journal: quote, Even if we're talking about incremental improvements, the result is less than half of our eighth graders demonstrate preparedness to be successful at the next grade level in math, and only 30% are on track to be prepared for college. Neither has there been substantial progress in closing the performance gap for minority students.
Reading and math scores for black and Hispanic students are still not where we want them to be. While the numbers offer a few reasons to celebrate, The overall trajectory of test scores over the last few years has been very concerning. Ending the quote there from Dr. Bob Lubke at the John Locke Foundation. In commenting on the new test results, Amo Green, the superintendent of public instruction, pointed to a new five-year strategic plan that we talked about a couple of weeks ago, noting, quote, The goal of the strategic plan is that North Carolina's public schools will be the best in the nation by 2030.
The measures and actions in our joint strategic plan with the State Board of Education provides us with the roadmap to build on the incredible hard work and diligence of students and educators across the state of North Carolina. The new numbers build on progress from last year when DPI released the numbers in September looking at the previous, which would have been the 23-24 school year. We have some additional details, and we'll have a story up just a couple hours over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. The headline story over there, student testing data improves, but still lags behind pre-COVID highs. In some other statewide news this morning, the United States Department of Justice, that's the DOJ, as well as the North Carolina State Board of Elections, filed joint motions on Wednesday seeking a court order to end federal litigation over incomplete voter registrations across North Carolina.
This case, if you'll remember back earlier this year, the DOJ brought this case in May, alleging that the state of North Carolina, and more particularly the state board of elections, failed to comply with section 303A of the Help America Vote Act, also known as HAVA. That requires voter registration records to include either a full driver's license number or the last four digits of a social security number or some sort of other state-issued unique identifier, which in that case would be a state-issued driver's license. If approved by U.S. Chief District Judge Richard Myers, that order would remain in effect for a couple of years and would really show that the state of North Carolina and the state board is doing everything that they can to get those voter registrations cleaned up. At the start of the litigation back in May, about 100,000 registrants across North Carolina lacked some of that required federal HAV-AD.
Data. As of September the 2nd, just a couple of days ago, the number had dropped to 81,810 and is continuing to decline.
So the state board has gotten already almost 20,000 or so individuals to get those records cleaned up. This case overlaps with Republican litigation from 2024 when both the National RNC, Republican National Committee, and the North Carolina Republican Party challenged some 225,000 registrations linked to some of those disputed forms, seeking to remove affected voters or restrict them to provisional ballots. Courts at the time declined that request due to how close it was to the 2024 presidential and general election. But I will note that the same issue reappeared in the 2024 state Supreme Court race where Republican candidate Jefferson Griffin contested ballots and then ultimately conceded. After the court ruled votes would count, that, of course, was a major political topic here in North Carolina for quite some time.
And as we watch that Griffin lawsuit unfold, we continue to hear some of the commentary from Jefferson Griffin and folks on that side of the political aisle and fighting for Griffin about these have a numbers, about these voter registration data missteps and miscues with not having this data correctly imported or required over the last decade or so as folks were, in fact, registering to vote in North Carolina. Again, this was brought by the Department of Justice in May. And reading directly from the lawsuit, it reads, quote, State board defendants are subject to the requirements of Section 303A of HAVA, which requires, among other things, that voter registration applications for federal office may not be accepted or processed by a state. If an applicant has not been issued a current valid driver's license or social security number, the state must assign a special identifying number for voter registration. This is definitely an interesting legal challenge to follow.
We've got some additional details and coverage this morning over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. That story's headline: Justice Department, North Carolina Election Board files joint motion to end voter registration suit. Again, you can read those details over at CarolinaJournal.com. When you bundle renters and auto with Progressive, you can save while protecting your most valuable possessions, like your priceless vinyl collection. Sure, you sleep on a futon because the money most people would have spent on a bed you spent on more records.
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Some good news for those that drive across the state of North Carolina. The state now ranks 11th in the nation for the highest gas tax, according to a new report out from the Tax Foundation. This is a slight improvement from last year, dropping two places from 9th. And in this case, when you're looking at the highest rate, dropping and ranking from 9th to 11th is good news. The average gas price in North Carolina for the added gas tax is 40.55 cents per gallon, down from last year's 68.10 cents per gallon.
That's a price drop of more than 15 cents per gallon, as Alaska remains the state with the lowest gas tax, holding steady from last year at just 8.95 cents per gallon, with California having the highest in the nation at a whopping 70.92 cents, followed by Illinois at 66.4 cents. According to the Tax Foundation, California, Oregon, and Washington all have environmental programs, making those state gas prices outliers. The gas tax operates as a user fee at most states across the country, requiring drivers to pay for the construction and upkeep of roads that they travel on. User fees ensure that government services are required by those who directly benefit from them rather than taxpayers who might not use those services. This structure, the Tax Foundation says, is especially well suited to transportation, where the link between usage and benefit is direct and measurable.
In North Carolina, the tax revenue goes to the highway and highway trust funds under the North Carolina Department of Transportation, where they use that money for road maintenance and construction. Joseph Harris, the fiscal policy analyst over at the John Locke Foundation, told the Carolina Journal, North Carolina has the 11th highest gasoline tax in the nation.
However, the funding model is outdated, with Harris noting that motor fuel tax is no longer a reliable way to fund our roads as vehicles become more fuel efficient and electric cars grow in numbers. noting that even after fee increases, E V drivers pay less yearly than most gasoline powered drivers contribute through the gasoline tax, leaving a growing hole in road funding. Harris said that lawmakers should replace this outdated system with a vehicle mile travel tax that ensures every driver pays their share and provides a stable long-term solution for maintaining our highways, ending the quote there from Joseph Harris. The emergence of electric vehicles allows many to sidestep this so-called user fee and not pay for their share of wear and tear on the roads. To close this loophole, many states have considered implementing that vehicle mile travel tax or a VMT or a mileage-based user fee, also known as an MBUF.
The gas tax downturn would continue to accelerate if former Governor Roy Cooper's goal of increasing electric vehicles to 1.25 million by 2030 is met. It is noted that if that goal is met, EVs would account for fourteen percent of North Carolina's vehicular fleet by twenty thirty, according to a John Locke Foundation report called Lighting the Path. Also, the report reads, quote, such an outcome is unlikely.
However, even before considering costs, it would require the number of new E V s to double every two years, but zero emission vehicle registrations have been recently slowing, not increasing. The annual registration fee for an electric vehicle in North Carolina is $214.50, and that overall generates about $50 less revenue for the state than a typical driver of a gasoline-powered vehicle that is paying at the pump every time they are filling up and paying that gas tax per gallon every time they are filling up their vehicle. This report is available over on our website this morning, CarolinaJournal.com, the headline story report. North Carolina drops in rankings of highest gas tax in the state. Again, that article available over at CarolinaJournal.com.
Turning our attention up to Washington, D.C. this morning, Congressman Brad Knott, who represents North Carolina's 13th congressional district, joined members of the Republican Study Committee in Washington earlier this week to spotlight President Donald Trump's push to crack down on crime in the nation's capital. This is what Knott had to say earlier in the week. My name is Brad Knott. I'm from North Carolina and before my time in Congress, just a short while ago.
I was a federal prosecutor. I investigated violent criminals. I investigated cartels. I investigated human traffickers wherever they were all over this country. And it became very clear to me.
when I was working with law enforcement that if you don't fight crime. If you don't attack it. If you don't. work hard for long sentences. Crime will flourish.
And that's exactly what we've seen here in Washington, D.C. for the last couple of years. And from my time as a federal prosecutor, I know some of the federal agents who have been called to serve in Washington as part of the president's initiative. And since their arrival, I have been astounded as I have stayed in touch with them. at the amount of contraband, the number of dangerous people, Whether it's drugs, whether it's gangs, whether it's illegal firearms, whether it's human trafficking, whether it's South American cartels, you name it, it is right here in Washington, D.C.
The soft on crime policies of the Democrats has unfortunately allowed Okay? It's a great idea. Weather in DC or elsewhere around the country. Unfortunately, we are seeing the Democratic Party and the far left portions of this country protect the criminals rather than backing law enforcement. We've seen city after city spiral out of control and decay right in front of our eyes.
including Washington, D.C. I applaud the president for saying The simple truth, it does not have to be this way. It does not have to be this way. And regardless of who you are, when you come to Washington. It's a safe city now.
Businesses are thankful. Families are thankful. Citizens, tourists, We are all thankful. It's time to stop turning a blind eye for crime, wherever it is. Wherever it is, we must investigate, we must prosecute.
And we must protect the law-abiding citizens of this country. As you heard there from Brad Notton, not everybody agreeing with the president's policies to clean up crime in Washington, D.C., as protesters decided to yell and scream during the press conference, talking about the fact that there's not been a murder in the District of Columbia since the president did, in fact, deploy federal agents to that and take over the Metropolitan Police Department. More than 800 National Guard troops were deployed to tackle crime. They have been doing so since early in August. Fox News recently reported that since the President's declaration of D.C., authorities have made more than 1,669 arrests, including 16 gang members tied to MS-13 and Trendearagua.
Recent Carolina Journal polling shows crime is a top concern for voters here across North Carolina with more than 63% saying it is somewhat or very concerned concerning issue in their communities when voters were also asked which of the following issues related to public safety do you consider the most pressing in your area. Drug-related issues at 43.4%, property crime at 36.1%, and violent crime at 25.8%. Crime continues to be a major national topic and discussion. Obviously, a lot of the emphasis revolving around D.C., the District of Columbia, right now, but it is an issue in every state across North Carolina. You can read some additional comments there from Congressman Brad Knott, including some of the details in our most recent Carolina Journal poll over at our website this morning, CarolinaJournal.com.
That story's headline, NC's Brad Knott, highlights Trump's efforts to tackle D.C. crime. When you bundle renters and auto with Progressive, you can save while protecting your most valuable possessions, like your priceless vinyl collection. Sure, you sleep on a futon because the money most people would have spent on a bed you spent on more records. But forget the fact that you can stream just about any song ever created for a few dollars a month.
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News Talk 11:10-99-3WBT tracking some news across North Carolina this morning. Public school students increased proficiency scores in reading and math. Compared to recent years, however, the results are still lagging behind.
Some of those marks and those proficiency ratings prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, when so many students were ripped out of the classroom, sent home and learned on Zoom and other sorts of virtual learning for multiple years. This is all according to new data released by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. The data presented to the State Board of Education yesterday on September the 3rd indicates improved performance in 12 out of 15 math and reading assessments that are used for this report statewide. The only exceptions, third grade reading, English 2, and North Carolina Math 1, the only exceptions where improvements did not take place out of the 15 assessments. As for standardized tests across the state in those results, the average composite score for 11th graders taking the ACT increased to 18.2 in the 24-25 school year after a slight dip to just 18.1 the previous year.
Additionally, the four year graduation rate climbed to eighty seven point seven percent. That's great news. It's the highest number in a decade, up from eighty seven point zero percent in the previous year. Mo Green, who is the superintendent of public instruction, said in a press release, quote, I'm proud of our students and educators who have worked hard to improve these metrics, even as we acknowledge that our students are more than test scores. While the progress and growth shown in these reports deserve praise, we must continue our work to promote excellence for all of our students.
Noting that he is eager to see this data continue to improve as the State Board of Education and DPI works to implement a strategic plan to continue to provide academic excellence across North Carolina. School performance ratings also improved in this study with increases in schools earning an A, B or C grade and decreasing those earning a D or F. Approximately 71% of schools met or exceeded growth expectations in the 24-25 school year, resulting in nearly 50 fewer schools labeled as low performing and 60 fewer continually low performing compared to last year.
However, Dr. Bob Lupke, the director for the Center for Effective Education at the John Locke Foundation, says there's a lot more work to be done. He told the Carolina Journal, even if we're talking about incremental improvements, the result is less than half of our eighth graders demonstrate preparedness to be successful at the next grade level in math, and only 30% are on track to be prepared for college. Lubke also pointed out that there's also not been substantial progress in closing the gap for minority students, noting that reading and math scores for black and Hispanic students are still not where they need to be across the state. While the numbers offered a few reasons to celebrate, Lubke says the overall trajectory of test scores over the last few years has been very concerning.
The state of North Carolina, more predominantly DPI, has rolled out a five-year strategic plan to make North Carolina's public schools the best in the nation. You can read some additional details on that five-year plan by 2030 from DPI and this new report. It's available, it'll be available over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. The headline story there: student testing data improves but still lags behind pre-COVID highs. It's now 5:40.
You're listening to the Carolina Journal News Hour. Earlier this year, the United States Department of Justice sued the North Carolina State Board of Elections over concerns that they were not maintaining voter records properly. This goes back to a federal act passed in the early 2000s known as HAVA. Getting some additional details this week. It looks like both parties, the State Board of Elections and the United States Department of Justice, are looking to end that legal battle to get us up to date this morning.
Mitch Gokai of the John Locke Foundation joins us on the Carolina Journal NewsHour. Mitch, this is a pretty significant legal case here in the state of North Carolina. Concerns about voter registration records dating back more than a decade or so. What's the latest out of the courts?
Well, the latest is there appears to be a deal in the offing between the Justice Department and the State Board of Elections. And that should not be terribly surprising for people who have followed this case. This lawsuit was filed in May, and that was around the same time that the State Board of Elections changed substantially. It changed from a 3-2 Democratic majority to a 3-2 Republican majority, thanks to some new appointments from the state auditor Dave Bollock, who took over control over the state board of elections. And that new board fired the old state elections director and hired a new one, Sam Hayes.
And so, around the time that this lawsuit was filed, you had this new election infrastructure that was already concerned about this issue. And the issue, as you mentioned, deals with the Help America Vote Act or HAVA and its requirement that voter registration lists include either the last four digits of a person's social security number or a drive. Driver's license number. And there was concern that tens of thousands or more than a hundred thousand, or back some time ago, there was a claim of maybe more than 200,000 voters on North Carolina's rolls did not have that information. It was the source of a lawsuit that the national and state Republican parties filed in summer of 2024.
And then it was the big piece of the case that Jefferson Griffin. Filed when he was challenging the 2024 state Supreme Court election, which he ended up losing. But the issue didn't go away of these incomplete voter registrations. And so, just at about the same time the new state board of elections was coming into power, the U.S. Justice Department filed this suit.
Right after that happened, Sam Hayes, the new elections director, said, This is an issue we know about. It's something we want to address. We saw that the State Board of Elections came up with this plan to repair registrations. It was called the Registration Repair Project. You've talked about it on your program with Teresa Opeca.
And so, this is something that has been moving forward. And now, The U.S. Justice Department, its civil rights division, and the North Carolina Justice Department lawyers who represent the State Board of Elections have come to an agreement about ending this lawsuit. And basically, what they are saying is they are asking U.S. Chief District Judge Richard Myers to sign off on this deal.
And if he does, that would end the suit. There is another wrinkle in here because it's not just. These two parties, the Justice Department and the State Board of Elections, who are trying to take part in this case, some outside groups. The Democratic Party NAACP, Legal Women Voters of North Carolina, and a group called the North Carolina Alliance for Retired Americans, or Retired Workers, which is a group that's working with the Democratic operative Mark Elias' law firm. They all want to be involved in this case as defendants because they are not quite sure about this North Carolina repair, registration repair project, and how it's going to operate.
So they want to be involved in the case. This latest court filing says to Judge Myers. Don't Allow these folks in as parties in the case. If you want to hear from them, Have them file an amicus or friend of the court brief and give them a couple of weeks to do so. You can get their input and then you can decide whether this is an order that you can accept or not.
But they're basically hoping to get this thing resolved relatively quickly so that the lawsuit would end and this registration repair project can move forward as it is already playing out.
Well, let me ask you about that. We're talking this morning about both parties saying, okay, we're ready to kind of put this thing to a close. Mitch, there's still tens of thousands of voters throughout the state of North Carolina that the state board is still trying to collect either the last floor of their social security number or a full driver's license number. Is this case being ended because the state board has put an action plan in place to work on correcting some of these registrations? Is that why we're seeing both parties say, okay, we've satisfied some of the issues here, we can move forward?
Yes, I think from the Justice Department's perspective, they only wanted to ensure that the state was doing something about this. When this lawsuit was filed, I think there was some interest within the Board of Elections and its new staff to do something about this, but there was not a plan in place at the time. The Justice Department filed suit. After the Justice Department filed suit, the State Board of Elections came up with this plan and started acting on this plan. We know that when it started, there were more than 100,000 of these incomplete voter registrations.
As of the filing of this latest court document, that number was down just a little bit over 81,000. And there are plans in place to do some mailings to try to get some of this additional information. One of the other things that's spelled out in the deal is that if anyone who was targeted for one of these mailings goes and fills out the information, goes to vote in an upcoming election, and the information is complete, they will vote a regular ballot. If they do not provide the information, they would have To vote a provisional ballot and then provide the information for their ballot to count. One thing that's also spelled out in here is that nothing, as part of this deal or as part of this project, will remove someone from the voter rolls, which is one of the complaints that was raised by the Democratic and Democratic Align groups: they were worried that what would happen is that this project would be used to remove people from the voter rolls.
The agreement that's put forward before Judge Myers makes clear that nothing would remove someone from the roles. All it would do, if you don't have the complete information, is force you to vote a provisional ballot until your information can be checked out and it's clear that you are eligible to vote. There's a lot of information over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com, and on the State Board of Election website, where you can check if your name is one of those voters that has potentially an incomplete registration, all of the different ways that you can correct it, whether that be through the MyDMV portal, showing up to your local state, your local county board of election office, all of those different ways are spelled out, and the state board's done a really good job at providing that information. We appreciate the legal update this morning. Mitch Kokai from the John Locke Foundation joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour.
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Girl, you are not 37! I would have guessed 27. You guys are too sweet. Sure. Dewey skin.
Terrific. Um, is something wrong, Ned? Why would you ask? Just because today marks my 10th anniversary without a car accident or even a speeding ticket? But somehow, tonight's all about your skincare.
Wow. With Snapshot from Progressive, you can get a personalized rate based on how you drive. And that's all the validation you need. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliate Snapshot not available in California from all agent Sir Charge Possible for Unseat Driving. Progressive knows we all crave validation.
Girl, you are not 37. I would have guessed 27. You guys are too sweet. Sure. Dewey skin.
Terrific. Um, is something wrong, Ned? Why would you ask? Just because today marks my 10th anniversary without a car accident or even a speeding ticket? But somehow, tonight's all about your skincare.
Wow. With Snapshot from Progressive, you can get a personalized rate based on how you drive. And that's all the validation you need. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliate Snapshot not available in California from all agents surcharge possible for unseat driving. Coming up in just a couple of hours, it's time for the sixth annual WBT Little Heroes Blood Drive this Thursday, today, September the 4th.
WBT and the One Blood Big Red Bus will be at the Dog House in Uptown Charlotte. From 10 a.m. until 3 p.m., and we're encouraging you to make a life-saving blood donation. It's the sixth annual WBT Little Heroes Blood Drive today, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
at the Dog House in Uptown Charlotte. Visit WBT.com for location details and register your appointment this morning. It's now 5.54. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, News Talk 1110-993 WBT.
Some relief for drivers across the state of North Carolina as the state now ranks 11th in the nation for the highest gas tax, according to a new report out from the Tax Foundation. And this is an improvement from last year where the state had the 9th most expensive gas tax anywhere in the nation. The gas tax in North Carolina average is 40.55 cents per gallon, down from last year's 68.10 cents per gallon. That's a price drop of more than 15 cents. Alaska remains the state with the lowest gas tax at 8.95 cents per gallon.
And California remains at the highest with 70.92 cents. According to the report, the gas tax operates as a user fee, requiring drivers to pay for construction and upkeep of roads that they travel. User fees ensure that government Government services like a road repair and maintenance are the responsibility of those who directly benefit from them rather than taxpayers who might not use those services.
However, as that unfolds, there are concerns over electric vehicles and other sorts of cars on the road that are not paying into the gas tax, or at least not as much. Here in North Carolina, the tax revenue goes to the highway and highway trust funds under the North Carolina Department of Transportation. That money is used for road maintenance and construction. Joseph Harris, a fiscal policy analyst over at the John Locke Foundation, told the Carolina Journal: quote, North Carolina has the 11th highest gasoline tax in the nation.
However, that funding model is outdated. The motor fuel tax is no longer a reliable way to fund our roads as vehicles become more fuel efficient and electric cars grow in numbers. Even after fee increases, EV drivers pay less yearly than most gasoline-powered drivers contribute through the gas tax, leaving a growing hole in road funding. Lawmakers should replace this outdated system with a vehicle mile travel tax that ensures every driver pays their share and provides a stable long-term solution for maintaining our highways. And quote there from Joseph Harris, the emergence of electric vehicles allows many to sidestep that user fee and not pay for their share of wear and tear on the roadways.
To close this loophole, many states have considered implementing that vehicle mile travel tax or a mileage-based user fee across the country. With this, the annual vehicle registration for an EV is $214.50 across the state, which generates about $50 less in revenue for North Carolina and DOT than the typical driver of a gasoline-powered vehicle who, of course, is paying that fee, paying that tax every time they head on over to the pump and fill up. We've got some additional details on this report and some of the concerns about EVs and more fuel-efficient vehicles over on our website this morning, CarolinaJournal.com.
Well, that's going to do it for a Thursday edition. WBT News is next, followed by Good Morning BT. We're back with you tomorrow morning, 5 to 6, right here on News Talk 1110 and 99.3 WBT.
