Free Republic

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Two more former employees were indicted Tuesday in a multi-million dollar fraud investigation involving the Wake County Public School System's transportation department, just weeks after three other suspects in the case pleaded guilty to related charges. Angela Malloy-Sanders and Pamela Stewart were charged with accessory after the fact in the suspected scheme to funnel millions of taxpayers' dollars. According to the indictments, they lied to investigators to cover up the fraud. Investigators said the two women began cooperating in the investigation months ago and have agreed to pay back the money they are accused of taking. Malloy-Sanders...

"Our estimates imply that students in North Carolina do less well in charter schools than they would have done in traditional public schools and that the negative effects of attending a charter school are large," the study's authors wrote.DURHAM, N.C. -- State exam results indicate that most students at North Carolina's charter schools would perform better if they stayed in traditional public schools. The data is compiled in a new study co-authored by a Duke professor. It argues that, on average, students who attend charter schools are being academically harmed. "Our estimates imply that students in North Carolina do less...

School Calendar RALEIGH, N.C. -- The state's top teacher lobbying group may be ready to let the General Assembly mandate when the school calendar starts and ends in local districts. Member surveys by the North Carolina Association of Educators show at least 60 percent of those polled statewide support legislation that would require schools to start no earlier than Aug. 25 and end by June 10. The measure also would cut in half, to 10, the number of teacher workdays -- days when students are not in session. NCAE, with 70,000 members, strongly opposed a bill last year that would...

MOUNT AIRY, N.C. -- A local high school teacher who watched the beheading of Nicholas Berg in class with some of his students was suspended for two days. Mack Hodges teaches social studies at Mount Airy High School and also coaches baseball and football. Hodges recently told his class that he could not find the Web site carrying the video of the beheading, a school official said. In the video, Nicholas Berg is seated on the ground while five armed men disguised by head scarves and masks stand behind him. A man in the middle identified as terrorist Abu Musab...

RALEIGH — A lack of education and vocational training — specifically in technology, science, and biotechnology fields — has left the North Carolina public school system lagging in the competitive race of building a competent workforce to attract new corporations and businesses to the state. Martin Lancaster, president of the North Carolina Community College system, said the NCCC is doing its best to bridge the gap across the state through tech prep and other programs, but he thinks the state is on a collision course with disaster in preparing the workforce for the future. Problem begins in high school “Forty-eight...