jerry tillman

May 15, 2015 - Bills to provide additional funding for charter schools were introduced this session at the North Carolina legislature. Most of the sponsors have benefited from campaign donations or independent spending by groups advocating school privatization.

October 15, 2014 - Baker Mitchell is a politically connected North Carolina businessman who celebrates the power of the free market. Every year, millions of public education dollars flow through Mitchell's chain of four nonprofit charter schools to for-profit companies he controls.

July 11, 2013 - More legislators in North Carolina than in any other state have signed Americans for Prosperity's pledge that discourages action on climate change. Credit for the pledge's political success goes to the billionaire brothers of Koch Industries who founded AFP -- but also to North Carolina's own Art Pope, a conservative mega-donor and longtime AFP leader.

February 22, 2013 - North Carolina banned payday lending in 2001 over concern about usurious interest rates. But now some lawmakers want to bring back the industry, which new research finds often leads to snowballing financial trouble for desperate consumers.