New from EdNC
North Carolina once led the way in early childhood policy and investment. Five other states are showing us how to do it again.
Contents Highlights Thirty years ago, North Carolina was a national leader in recognizing the importance of early care and education and investing in it accordingly — but that investment stagnated in the 21st century.…
N.C. Community College System unveils new funding model, Propel NC
Contents Four months after officially beginning work in August to revise its funding model, the N.C. Community College System (NCCCS) unveiled its new plan, called Propel NC, at the State Board of Community Colleges meeting Jan.…
N.C. colleges and universities to host FAFSA Day Jan. 27, and $1.8 billion mistake will be fixed
As students and families fill out the updated Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) for the 2024-2025 school year, they will find several differences from previous forms, including fewer questions, expanded aid opportunities, and the potential glitch.
Republican leaders celebrate school choice and expansion of private vouchers
Legislative leaders and private school educators, parents, and students celebrated National School Choice Week and the expansion of the Opportunity Scholarship program in last year’s budget at a rally at the legislature Wednesday.…
Perspective | Why rural schools matter for North Carolina’s multilingual learners
I was at the launch of the Why Rural Schools Matter 2023 (WRM23) report at the National Rural Education Association (NREA) conference in Chattanooga, TN in November, 2023.…
The Editor’s Notes
Combining solutions journalism and public policy analysis, Liz Bell and Katie Dukes have conducted ground-breaking research across North Carolina and in five other states to document what is and isn’t happening in early care and education, but more importantly what must happen moving forward.
“‘Experts make the urgent case’ was a turning point in our ECE reporting in the way it so strongly linked policy with practice and with consequences, the way it laid out the broad societal effects of failures in child care, and the way it made a case for viewing child care as a public good,” notes Eric Frederick, EdNC’s editorial advisor.
After the article was released, Governor Roy Cooper sent this letter to the state’s congressional delegation.
Bell and Dukes have now identified four effective strategies other states used to move toward making early care and education a public good: advocacy from the business community, grassroots organizing, streamlining governance, and identifying/creating new funding streams.
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