EdNC. Essential education news. Important stories. Your voice.

Search ednc.org

Hometown debates on public education

Share this story

Our republishing policy

EdNC is a nonprofit, online, daily, independent newspaper. All of EdNC’s content is open source and free to republish. Please use the following guidelines when republishing our content.
  • Our content must be republished in full. If your organization uses a paywall, the content must be provided in full for free.
  • Credit our team by including both the author name and EdNC.org in the byline. Example: Alex Granados, EdNC.org.
  • If republishing the story online, please provide a link to EdNC.org or a link to the original article in either the byline or credit line.
  • The original headline of the article must be used. Allowable edits to the content of the piece include changes to meet your publication’s style guide and references to dates (i.e. this week changed to last week). Other edits must be approved by emailing Hannah Vinueza McClellan at [email protected].
  • Photos and other multimedia elements (audio, video, etc.) may not be republished without prior permission. Please email Hannah Vinueza McClellan at [email protected] if you are interested in sharing a multimedia element.
  • If you republish a story, please let us know by emailing Hannah Vinueza McClellan at [email protected].
Please email Hannah Vinueza McClellan at [email protected] if you have any questions. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Canonical tag

Please include the following canonical tag in the <head> of the republished story.

<link rel="canonical" href="https://www.ednc.org/hometown-debates-on-public-education/">

HTML content

This includes the title, byline, content, and tracking pixel required for republishing this story.

Copy & paste HTML
This story is tagged:
Loretta Boniti moderates a debate with Sen. Michael Lee and Sen. Jay Chaudhuri. Screenshot Mebane Rash/EducationNC, content via Spectrum News

Nov. 13-17 is American Education Week.

In celebration of the importance of public education, I wanted to lift up a collaboration that this year has sparked debate and conversation about our schools, our state, and our future.

In its eighth year, the Hometown Debate Series is a collaboration between the Institute of Political Leadership and Spectrum News.

This year, Higher Ed Works and BEST NC served as advisors for the series, and Loretta Boniti moderated the debates, which focused on education.

What will Opportunity Scholarship expansion hold for N.C.?

In this debate held on Oct. 10 in Sanford, state Sen. Benton Sawrey; state Rep. Zack Hawkins; Dr. Lauren Fox of The Public School Forum of North Carolina; and Marcus Brandon of CarolinaCAN discuss “various aspects of school choice, from charter schools to opportunity scholarships and everything in between” with a look at “the benefits, potential challenges, and impact on educational equity.”

You can watch the debate here.

Read the article by Higher Ed Works here.

What changes to N.C. teacher pay and recruitment are needed?

In this debate held on Oct. 24 in Raleigh, state Rep. Ashton Wheeler Clemmons; Brenda Berg of BEST NC, Jill Camnitz, a State Board of Education member; and Dr. Deanna Townsend-Smith of The Dudley Flood Center for Educational Equity and Opportunity discuss teacher pay and licensure.

“Teacher compensation has long been debated in our state, which ranks 46th in the country for average teacher pay,” according to Spectrum News. “Now, education leaders are working to increase pay and recruit and retain teachers, which includes proposals for new licensure standards.”

You can watch the debate here.

Read the article by Higher Ed Works here.

Is N.C. spending enough on public education?

In this debate held on Nov. 1 in Benson, state Sen. Michael Lee; state Sen. Jay Chaudhuri; Mitch Kokai of The John Locke Foundation; and Alexandra Sirota of The N.C. Budget and Tax Center discuss how much money North Carolina spends on public education, if it is enough money, and what it is spent on.

You can watch the debate here.

Read the article by Higher Ed Works here.

Share this story