Free Republic

RALEIGH, N.C. -- North Carolina students had a little trouble with their reading skills, with scores on achievement tests dropping slightly in a national measure of student performance released Wednesday. Nearly 40 percent of fourth-graders and 31 percent of eighth-graders performed below a basic level of proficiency in reading, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP. But math scores held steady for both grade groups, and the North Carolina students generally performed at or slightly better than the national average in both subjects. "The trendline for North Carolina students is positive in mathematics. This year we held...

Carolina Journal Exclusives School of the Arts Audit Detailed Investigation finds "wilful, deliberate, and intentional" violations of state law RALEIGH - High-level administrators at the North Carolina School of the Arts engaged in "willful, deliberate, and intentional" violations of state law in what State Auditor Ralph Campbell described as "similar to the debacle at Enron." Campbell said the findings at the NCSA were as serious as any his office had uncovered previously. Among the findings of the State Auditor's Investigative Audit Division were: state and NCSA-affiliated foundation funds used to make car lease payments and country club dues for NCSA...

For the Catawba County (North Carolina) School District, it was three strikes and you're out. River Bend Middle School had allowed school supporters – such as tire dealers, security companies, and other churches to purchase advertising space on the school's athletic field.  When the Oxford Baptist Church asked to display a sign with the Bible verse: "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God," (1 Corinthians 10:31), their request was denied. When negotiations were fruitless, ADF attorney Gary McCaleb sued the school district in the U.S. District Court for the Western...

CHAPEL HILL, N.C., August 25, 2004 A federal lawsuit was filed today against the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) by Alpha Iota Omega (AIO), a Christian fraternity that was denied recognition by UNC because it would not agree to open its membership to students of different faiths. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), which is fighting on behalf of AIO in its conflict with UNC administrators, is now joined by the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), which brought the suit against the university. "For too long, UNC has denied religious groups the basic rights that all...

<p>HAYESVILLE - When Tami Smith's 10-year-old son got in trouble at school in February, she told the principal it was OK to spank him.</p> <p>But when she later found bruises on her son's leg, she decided principal Mickey Noe had gone too far.</p>