Education and Schools

January 25, 2013 - At the same time North Carolina is dramatically expanding the number of charter schools operating in the state, new research from Duke University finds that charter schools are much more likely than traditional public schools to be racially unbalanced -- and that can have negative educational consequences for students.

January 7, 2013 - A judge has ruled that a law passed by the Republican-controlled legislature to punish the N.C. Association of Educators by barring it from collecting dues through payroll deduction represents unconstitutional "retaliatory viewpoint discrimination."

September 27, 2012 - The Democratic-controlled Wake County School Board fires a superintendent hired by Republicans bent on ending a successful desegregation policy -- but the move may have put the system's funding in political peril.

September 25, 2012 - Still the nation's most desegregated region, the South is undergoing profound changes that are leading to greater racial and economic isolation of public school students.

September 17, 2012 - Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his administration's school leaders have come perilously close to sounding like one of those Mississippi legislators back in 1985 who dealt with a statewide teachers' strike by giving them a pay raise -- but at the cost of a provision that prevented them from ever striking again.

August 22, 2012 - Louisiana's school voucher program, meant to give low-income families greater choice, leaves fewer options for students with disabilities.

August 8, 2012 - After Katrina, New Orleans fired all 7,500 of its teachers. The firings were recently ruled illegal, but teachers won't get their jobs back. Instead, the union is fighting for teachers and students through a grassroots, social justice approach.