Have you ever thought about the difference between paying rent and owning a home? When you rent, your monthly payment helps cover the cost of living there, but it usually doesn't build anything for your future. Home ownership is different. Each payment you make on a home may help build equity, which is the value you own in the property over time. As that equity grows, it can become a financial asset that may support your long-term goals.
Owning a home can also provide stability. You have a place that's yours where you can build memories, establish roots, and truly make the space your own. And the good news is that many people are surprised to learn there are programs designed to help first-time homebuyers get started, including grants and assistance programs that may help with down payments or closing costs. Learning about your options is the first step toward making an informed decision about your future. Visit ToolsForHomeOwnership.com.
It's 5.05 and welcome in to a Monday edition of the Carolina Journal News Hour on Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM, WBT. I'm Nick Craig. Good morning to you.
Well, Saturday marked one year since the brutal murder of 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee Irina Zarutska. She was aboard the Charlotte Lynx Blue Line, and as that killing drew national attention, sparked criminal justice reforms in North Carolina, and placed the Charlotte Area Transportation System, also known as Cats, under intense scrutiny. The Zarutska family filed a lawsuit against the city of Charlotte on Friday. We'll get to those details as we work through our story. Zarutska had fled to war-torn Ukraine in search of safety in the United States.
It all came to fate on August the 22nd, 2022, when she boarded the Lynx Blue Line and sat in front of DeCarlos Brown Jr. Surveillance footage showed Zarutska keeping to herself before Brown allegedly attacked her without warning, stabbing her three times in the neck and killing her. Brown was arrested and charged with first degree murder. His extensive criminal history quickly became a central part of the debate surrounding the killing, as records showed previous convictions, including armed robbery, felony larceny, breaking and entering, and shoplifting. One year later, Brown has yet to stand trial as a federal judge recently found Brown incompetent to stand trial, putting the federal prosecution against him on hold.
U.S. District Judge Kenneth Bell determined Brown is suffering from a mental disease that prevents him from understanding the proceedings or properly assisting in his own defense. Brown's attorneys recently submitted a statement in which he claimed to suffer from a, quote, body emergency involving someone having, quote, full access to and control over his body as DeCarlos Brown Jr. obviously suffering from significant mental problems. His state murder trial also has been delayed six months with the next state hearing scheduled coming up on October the 27th.
We'll be keeping a close eye on the details on that. The killing of Irina Zarutska did draw very significant national attention. President Donald Trump condemned the killing and focused attention on Brown's lengthy criminal record and previous releases from custody. Back last year, the president took to True Social to say the perpetrator, referring to DeCarlos Brown Jr., was a well-known career criminal who had been previously arrested and released on cashless bail in January. Referring to January of 2025, a total of 14 times.
What the hell was he doing riding that train and walking the streets? Criminals like this need to be locked up. U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy criticized Charlotte officials and warned that public safety needed to remain a top priority for communities that receive federal transportation dollars, of which Charlotte does, and of which Katz, the Charlotte area transportation, does as well. In September of 2025, U.S.
Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina Russ Ferguson announced federal charges against Brown under a statute covering violence against mass transportation systems. Ferguson said at the time, this brutal attack on an innocent woman simply trying to get to her destination is an attack on the American way of life. Federal charges carry a potential maximum punishment of life imprisonment or the death penalty, as Attorney General Pam Bondi said at the time, that federal prosecutors would seek the maximum available penalty. She wrote at that time: Irina Zarutzka was a young woman living the American dream. Her horrific murder is a direct result of failed soft-on-crime policies that put criminals before innocent people.
We now move to some of the reaction here in North Carolina, and perhaps the most significant response came from the North Carolina General Assembly. Within weeks of Zarutska's death, lawmakers passed House Bill 307, known as ARENA's Law, a sweeping package changing North Carolina's pretrial release and some criminal justice laws. The House approved the measure in an 81-31 vote after the Senate passed it 28-8 with Governor Josh Stein signing the legislation into law October the 3rd, 2025, with many of the major provisions of that legislation taking place December the 1st of last year. The law restricts the use of unsecured pretrial release for many violent and repeat offenders and requires judges and magistrates to consider a defendant's complete criminal history when determining release conditions. Defendants accused of violent offenses can face requirements, including things like secure bond, house arrests, or GPS monitoring.
The law also creates procedures for mental health evaluations when defendants have recent histories of involuntary commitment or when judicial officials have a reason to believe that they present a danger. Mecklenburg County Sheriff Gary McFadden criticized the law, arguing it created additional costs and logistical challenges for local law enforcement. That was a pivotal debate when Sheriff McFadden was hauled in front of a House Oversight Committee earlier this year to discuss ongoing crime in Charlotte. We turn to a more recent state audit as the North Carolina State Auditor's Office recently released an audit of CATS. That's the Charlotte Area Transportation System, finding that fare evasion cost the system an estimated $5 to $6.5 million per year, and major security concerns exist within the system.
CATS analysis estimated approximately 45% of bus and light rail passengers were not paying fares and an estimated light rail fare evasion rate was even higher at 60%. As reports indicated that DeCarlov Carlos Brown Jr. did not pay a fare the night of the murder aboard the Charlotte Lynx Blue Line. The audit also revealed that at the time of Zarutska's murder, there was no direct connection between Katz surveillance cameras and the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department's real-time crime center. Katz reported that the systems were connected and put together on October the 10th, 2025.
Auditors raised additional concerns about Katz exclusion list, which contained 175 people banned from the transportation system as of February of this year. A suspect accused in another light rail stabbing in December of 2025 was already on that list, leading auditors to conclude that the enforcement of the bans appeared largely insufficient and did not work as intended. That report from the North Carolina State Auditor's Office recommended additional Charlotte Mecklenburg police officers to be assigned to the transit security and called for stronger coordination between police and Katz. The most recent update in the arena Zarutska story is a civil lawsuit filed late last week as Zarutska's uncle, Frank Haskell, filed a lawsuit against the city of Charlotte and Professional Security Services, PSS. That is the group that Katz contracts with to provide.
Yeah. Security services on their systems across Charlotte. According to the complaint, it reads defendants, referring to the city of Charlotte and PSS, operated and controlled and provided security for the Cats light rail system. Long before Arina Zarutska boarded the train, defendants knew that violent crime had repeatedly occurred on and around the Blue Line and the Charlotte Transportation Center. Despite that knowledge, defendants failed to use reasonable and available safety measures, including fare enforcement, physical access barriers, adequate staffing, effective security deployment, monitoring, and passenger warnings.
Defendants were responsible for protecting lawful passengers from known and foreseeable dangers, and their failures caused the fatal stabbing of Arina Zarutska inside the train.
So as we cross this one-year mark and highlight all of the things that have gone on, all of the changes that have taken place here and in North Carolina, including some of the reaction that civil lawsuit against the city of Charlotte and professional security services has been fighting. Filed. We'll be watching the next stop, unfortunately, of this story play out here in the judicial system. We'll keep you up to date with the details over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. And as always, right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour.
Have you ever thought about the difference between paying rent and owning a home? When you rent, your monthly payment helps cover the cost of living there, but it usually doesn't build anything for your future. Home ownership is different. Each payment you make on a home may help build equity, which is the value you own in the property over time. As that equity grows, it can become a financial asset that may support your long-term goals.
Owning a home can also provide stability. You have a place that's yours where you can build memories, establish roots, and truly make the space your own. And the good news is that many people are surprised to learn there are programs designed to help first-time homebuyers get started, including grants and assistance programs that may help with down payments or closing costs. Learning about your options is the first step toward making an informed decision about your future. Visit ToolsForHomeOwnership.com.
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Create your first Monday agent in minutes at monday.com. It's 5:20. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM. WBT, some good news on your Monday morning during a press conference last week. Democrat Governor Josh Stein stated that DMV wait times have decreased almost 90% compared to the summer of 2025.
One year ago, the governor said during that press conference, headlines from last summer, of which we covered over at the Carolina Journal, about people waiting in line for hours at the DMV, often outside in heat, struggling to find appointments online. One year later, we have made a ton of progress. I'm proud that our team in the DMV is providing excellent customer service throughout this summer rush. There's always an uptick in demand at the DMV in the summertime. In-office wait times are down almost 90% since last year, with the average customer waiting only 22 minutes, which compares to an average time of nearly three hours in the summer of 2025, a significant decrease there.
Digital tools are contributing to the decrease in wait time as implemented by Senate Bill 245, which the governor signed into law last year and authorizes the remote renewal of driver's license. More than 337,000 customers have completed services online without a trip to DMV. Not only can these customers complete services at home at their convenience, but they also don't have to clog the queue at DMV for customers who are in a position where they need to make a physical appointment. For example, updating to a real ID. In 2025, on average, there were approximately 3,900 people in line each morning with about 2,000 scheduled appointments across North Carolina.
North Carolina state auditor Dave Bollick said in 2025 he saw a T V news report showing a line of people who had been waiting. At a DMV office in Raleigh since 4 a.m. and called that totally unacceptable. The Carolina Journal reported in 2025 that the average wait time from check-in was an hour and 15 minutes, up 15% since 2019. 13.8% of visits in fiscal year 2025 were over two and a half hours.
That was up 70, almost 79% since 2019. And 47.5% of transactions occurred outside of the customers' closest offices as individuals were driving hours across the state of North Carolina just to try and get in and out of a DMV office. More than a thousand appointments are available across the state each day compared with March of this year, according to the governor. Additionally, more than 70,000 customers have uploaded documents such as proof of insurance from their phones rather than bringing a physical copy to a DMV office with them. While scheduling appointments online is easier than previously and in years past, walk-ins are not only welcome but encouraged.
Appointments are not needed for DMV business, according to the governor. To choose the best available office for a visit and check live wait times, which you can do, the DMV said, visit their website dmv.nc.gov. That's dmv.nc.gov. Also noted that arriving at the DMV before opening to get in line is also not necessary. The governor said that once someone is checked in at the DMV and has given them a cell phone number, they can wait at a different location of their choice and will get a call when they are close to being near the front of that line.
The governor also said during the press conference last week, we also want to be clear as we have made a lot of progress, but we know that the job is not done. We are not satisfied with the 22-minute wait time. The DMV is now opening a number Of new and renovated offices around the state, hiring more examiners and modernizing its IT system.
So, some significant increases from what we've seen over the last 12 or 24 months here in North Carolina within the Department of Motor Vehicle. You can read more on this story. We've got a full copy of everything that we talked about, including some of the reports from last year, all those details available over on our website. CarolinaJournal.com. Look for the story with the headline, DMV wait times down 90% since summer of 2025.
In some other statewide news that we are tracking across North Carolina this morning, on the education front, here's an interesting story for you. Nine of North Carolina's 10 best public schools are schools of choice, not schools that students are assigned to. This is according to rankings released August the 18th by U.S. News and World Report. The state's top 10 schools include four early colleges, three magnet schools, and two charter schools.
The lone traditional public school on the list is Green Level High School in Kerry, which ranks number eighth in the state. Number 317th nationally. The annual best high school list is one of the most widely watched reports on American public education. As U.S. News and World Reports evaluates about 27,000 public high schools and ranked nearly 18,000 of them on measures, including college readiness, test performance, and graduation rates.
The early college at Guilford holds the state's top spot for the fourth consecutive year. The Greensboro School, where students can graduate with two years of college credits from Guilford College, ranks number 26th in the nation this year of all public schools. In 2023, U.S. News and World Report named it the number one public school in America. Early college land in the next three spots as well: the STEM Early College at NCAT, number two, Onslow County Early College in Jacksonville, and number Number three, Wake NCSU STEM Early College High School, which is also in Kerry.
And at number four, the Raleigh Charter High School rounds out the top five. Magnet schools in Asheville, Greensboro, and Gastonia also took three of the more slots there in the top 10. With Dr. Bob Lubke, the director of the Center for Effective Education at the John Locke Foundation telling the Carolina Journal that charter and magnet schools did so well in the recent U.S. News rankings is not surprising.
I would have been surprised if they hadn't. The ability to match a student to the academic environment that is best for them propels both the students and the schools to success. The rest of the rankings show a similar pattern. 57 of the state's 100 best high schools are ones that families opt into rather than getting assigned to. That list includes 27 charter schools, along with a mix of early college, magnets, and other application-based schools.
Traditional, what are typically called neighborhood high schools, fill the other 43 spots in the top 100. North Carolina's 211 charter schools currently enroll about 161,000 students or about 10.5% of public school enrollment, according to the state's most recent charter school annual report. Yet charters account for more than one in four of the state's 100 best schools. Raleigh Charter ranks number 41 amongst charter schools nationally and number 34 on the U.S. News list of top STEM schools.
Another 59,000 students sat On charter waitlists at the start of the 25-26 school year, showing some pretty heavy demand for these kinds of educational institutions. Charter schools have been fixtures near the top of the list for years. When Carolina Journal examined the rankings in 2022, eight charter schools placed in the state's top 25, seven made the cut this year. The statewide picture is more interesting as North Carolina ranks 24th among states, with 152 of its 604 ranked schools, roughly one in four, placing in the top 25 nationally. U.S.
News and World Report built its rankings on six indicators using a methodology developed with RTI International and a research triangle-based nonprofit. The rankings drew from the data from the 23-24 school year, which has been completely finalized and published in all of the states in which they dug into this data. And so some good continued news for North Carolina's education system. System. You can view the full list, see where your local schools rank.
We've got those rankings over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. Look for the story rankings. Only one traditional high school cracks a top 10 in North Carolina. When you head on over there, you'll see a link to the rankings from U.S. News and World Report.
You can scroll through that and find out where your local schools are ranked. Have you ever thought about the difference between paying rent and owning a home? When you rent, your monthly payment helps cover the cost of living there, but it usually doesn't build anything for your future. Home ownership is different. Each payment you make on a home may help build equity, which is the value you own in the property over time.
As that equity grows, it can become a financial asset that may support your long-term goals. Owning a home can also provide stability. You have a place that's yours where you can build memories, establish roots, and truly make the space your own. And the good news is that many people are surprised to learn there are programs designed to help first-time homebuyers get started, including grants and assistance programs that may help with down payments or closing costs. Learning about your options is the first step toward making an informed decision about your future.
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Call 1-800-GRANGER, clickgranger.com, or just stop by. Granger for the ones who get it done. It's 5.37. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk 107.9 FM. WBT, I'm Nick Craig.
Good Monday morning to you. Over the last year and a half, at both the state and federal level, there has been a lot of discussion about waste fraud and abuse. We've covered a lot of different angles of that, both at the federal level and here in North Carolina.
However, this morning, we've got a new report over at CarolinaJournal.com highlighting some details about North Carolina joining a Southeast, a regional anti-fraud enforcement group that walks through some of those details. Teresa Opaca, CarolinaJournal.com, joins us on the news hour. Teresa, this has been a lot of messaging predominantly from the Republicans and the GOP, both at the federal level and across a variety of different states dealing with waste, fraud, and abuse. We're on the fraud angle this morning. What's the latest that you're following?
Sure, good morning, Nick. Thanks for having me.
So, yeah, this is a unique partnership. You've got different people from North Carolina, prominent names: Attorney Jeff Jackson, and Attorney General Jeff Jackson, rather, and state auditor Dave Bollick, and different attorneys for different districts, including Dan Bishop. A all joined with uh the Other officials across the Southeast last week for the launch of the Southeast Fraud Enforcement Federal State Partnership.
So, states including North Carolina is South Carolina, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi. And they met at a round table in Columbia, South Carolina, and that was hosted by the US Department of Justice's National Fraud Enforcement Division.
Now, what they discussed is strengthening the different working relationships between federal and state agencies to. basically root up fraud involving taxpayer money. And they also discussed significant fraud enforcement actions being taken across the seven states involving seventeen cases. And we mentioned a few of those from North Carolina in the story.
So pretty important partnership that was put together. Yeah, and you highlighted the group of individuals there. You've got state auditor Dave Bollick, a Republican, Attorney General Jeff Jackson, a Democrat, and then, of course, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina and Ellis Boyle. It's an interesting kind of marriage there, Teresa.
Typically, on a lot of the other political issues that you and I discuss and the rest of the Carolina Journal team, it's typically the Republicans on one side of the issue, the Democrats on the other.
Some nice bipartisan on an issue that seemingly has pretty broad appeal, cutting out kind of fraud as it relates to government. Yes, absolutely. You're mentioning about that. Yeah, there's a lot of talk about partisanship these days. We've seen that quite a bit over the last several days with Governor Stein and mentions with the General Assembly.
So, yeah, this is a nice change. And it affects everybody, regardless if you're a Republican, Democrat, Independent, affiliated, whatever you want to call yourself or what you are registered to vote. It affects everybody. Fraud is a big, big, huge factor, taking billions of dollars each year, stealing taxpayers' money. And basically, that's what they were talking about, the fraud epidemic in the country.
This is what Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald of the National Fraud Enforcement Division of the USDOJ said. He says, defeating the fraud epidemic in our country requires an all-hands on deck from our federal and state partners nationwide. And he said, whether that's sharing intelligence, data personnel, or priorities partner. With state agencies strengthens the ability to identify those who are stealing taxpayer dollars.
So yeah, it's a partnership that it's just a really good thing on both sides of the aisle. Yeah, no question about that. And we've seen some relatively high-profile situations over the last year or so, Teresa. Probably the largest as it relates to fraud was the major story right around Christmas of last year and into the early parts of this year, that major daycare and child center ring out in the state of Minnesota kind of really blowing the gates open on the insane and the high level of fraud that exists. And unfortunately, a lot of states across the nation seems like there's been a lot of emphasis on this from the federal level, kind of trickling down to the states once that story broke late last year.
Right. Yeah, that was huge. I mean, they're still talking about it, looking into it. And if you're focusing on a state level here in North Carolina, one of those cases involves two Romanian brothers that were illegally in the U.S. pleading guilty to wire fraud.
They were charged with orchestrating a fraud scheme involving SNAP benefits affecting victims across multiple states, not just here in North Carolina. That cost nearly $766,000 in loss. And that case. We also have another case led by U.S. Attorney Bishop.
That involved a man pleading guilty as a member of a money laundering ring involving proceeds of various fraud schemes, including false applications for different economic injury disaster loans and false applications for unemployment benefits. He cost nearly $1.7 million in loss. Finally, the last case, led by Boyle. Was a Robinson County woman along with seven co-conspirators who she was the owner of a North Carolina tax return preparation business. She pleaded guilty to conspiring to prepare false returns, claiming fraudulent refunds based on COVID-19 tax credits.
And this caused, get this, nearly $25 million in loss.
So those are just some of the cases here in North Carolina that were discussed. Yeah, that's a lot of money, taxpayer money at risk. Yeah, and it's a lot of money, Teresa. And these are only a couple of the stories that we know about now that have concluded and are no longer an active investigation where things are still, of course, sealed and cloaked under some level of anonymity and secrecy while the investigation is ongoing. It seems like you can't go a week without seeing a major DOJ report, a couple of them from across the nation busting some of these major fraud rings.
And we're not just talking about, as you noted, a couple of hundred dollars here, a couple thousand dollars here. Many of these cases are in the hundreds of thousands, tens of millions, or even hundreds of millions of dollars. And this stuff is happening pretty consistently. Oh, yeah. I mean, it's almost like every day, you know, and it's just, I mean, it basically is.
I mean, and you're looking, one was a tax preparer. I mean, who would think? I'm not saying I'm singling out tax preparers, but I mean, you have to be vigilant. And I'm glad that there is this partnership that they are vigilant in trying to catch people who are committing all this fraud. It's just, it's just, it's.
You know, you know, I'll quote Jeff Jackson what he said. This is what a united front looks like. This is what he said in his press release. And basically, the fraudsters become more sophisticated. They have to step up their enforcement actions, use new tools, and work across jurisdictions to take them down.
And rightly so, that was perfectly said by Attorney General Jackson. I mean, and just get really creative ahead of those fraudsters. Yeah, there's no question about that, especially with the advent of technology and everything being in the digital realm, Teresa. It can be a lot easier for individuals to commit some of these fraudulent actions. As we round up the conversation here, let's zoom out a little bit.
This has been a big push over a variety of different years up in the federal level, up in Washington, D.C. And we've consistently seen polling, obviously, and I don't think this should be a surprise to anybody in our audience, there's not a wide variety of people that are in favor of fraud being perpetrated across the United States. This is something, obviously, that folks would want to cut down on. And so we look at this strong bipartisan support on an issue that seemingly everybody, regardless of political affiliation, says, yeah, this is not a good thing. Right, right.
Like you mentioned, it's a nice change of pace from hearing all the partisan talk on both sides of the aisle. It's just become so prevalent these days, whether that is local, state, or federal, and looking at federal and just seeing what the Trump administration is trying to work and getting this taken care of. As you mentioned, going to Minnesota and having the feds investigate that, but also on the state level, having, you know, we have the Democrat Attorney General, we have the Republican state auditor, and different, you know, it doesn't matter what political party you're from, at least they are trying to work together to make this work, working across the aisle and taking a look at all of that and seeing that being prevalent on a national scale. Because just look at the dollar amounts that we were talking about. Like you said, it's not a couple hundred, couple thousand dollars.
It's millions and probably adds up to billions of dollars over the years. And this is all taxpayers. Money. This is money that you and I and your neighbor were all paying into the system. And it's good that they are working together to help root out this fraudulent activity.
Yeah, and lo and behold, Teresa, every time we watch budget negotiations take place, whether it's up in DC or here in North Carolina, there's never enough money, but there's, of course, all this fraud swinging around. This is the Southeast Fraud Enforcement Federal and State Partnership, including Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and North Carolina. We'll continue to keep an eye on this group's progress. You can read some more information and detail over on our website this morning, CarolinaJournal.com. We appreciate the update.
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Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk 107.9 FM, WBT, and some other education news this morning. Charter schools in states with expansive school choice initiatives are losing students to those programs, and many of their leaders expect the losses to continue, according to a news survey from the American Enterprise Institute. The report released back on August the 19th surveyed 285 charter school leaders in Arizona, Florida, and Utah. All three states offer education savings accounts or ESAs that let families spend dollars on private school tuition and other approved expenses. While North Carolina was not surveyed, it is a top 10 charter law state, as recently ranked by the Centers for Education Reform's 2026 charter.
Law rankings and a universal voucher program entering its third year. It very much fits the profile of states that were surveyed. According to the new report, nearly half of the charter school leaders in Arizona said that students had already left to use ESA funds. Arizona has the nation's oldest universal ESA program with 58% of Arizona respondents expecting the ESAs to shrink their enrollment. In Florida, 28% said the same.
In Utah, 32% felt the same way there. One Arizona charter leader told researchers, quote, we are losing students faster than we can get them in.
Some of these same charter leaders are even considering a switch. 38% of Arizona respondents and a quarter of Utah respondents said that the ESA program made them more likely to open a private school or a micro school instead of a charter school like now. Nearly two-thirds of charter leaders surveyed said that they want relief from regulation and bureaucracy. Other priorities included funding equality and facility support cited by 58% and special education and compliance relief cited by 42% in the survey. Report authors include Ian Kingsburg of the Education Freedom Institute and David Marshall of Auburn University write that charters are now, quote, focused forced rather to compete against nimble, less regulated ESA-funded providers while operating under heavier compliance and resource constraints than traditional districts are.
That dynamic may already be taking shape here in North Carolina as lawmakers removed income limits on the Opportunity Scholarship Program in 2023. And in the second year of universal eligibility, private schools added some 2,800 students at 67 schools across the state, the largest. One-year jump in school count in more than four decades. That was according to Carolina Journal reporting back in the month of July. With that, charter schools added roughly 4,500 students in that same time period.
Daniel Buck, the director of the AEI network that produced the report, said that the findings point to a larger question than enrollment. In an August 20th commentary for the Thomas D. Fordham Institute, Buck asked whether charter schools still have a place in a universal choice landscape. The question he asked: should charter schools even continue to exist? Or should reformers let creative destruction work and replace an antiquated model with a new era of ESAs?
If the sector dies with a whimper, those within it suggest that it will come through over-regulation, not its own failures. Nevertheless, the pressure. is unlikely to ease. Beginning in 2027, the new federal education freedom tax credit, which North Carolina opted into in June over Democrat Governor Josh Stein's veto of the legislation, will fund school choice opportunities through a second stream of money separate from the Opportunity Scholarship Program. The AEI survey drew respondents from 285 of more than 1,000 charter school leaders that were invited to participate, a response rate of about 27% as that research was conducted and those surveys were gathered.
Between June of 2025 and January of 2026, this very much falls into, of course, the big-time discussion taking place here in North Carolina and the rest of the nation as it relates to school choice. You can read more on this report from the American Enterprise Institute. We've got a full link to that survey over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. Look for the story with the headline, Report. Charter Schools Losing Students to Universal School Choice.
Well, that's going to do it for a Monday edition of the Carolina Journal News Hour. WBT News is next, followed by Good Morning BT. We're back with you tomorrow morning, 5 to 6, right here on Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM, WBT. For most kids, math class moves at the wrong pace.
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