In this issue:
1. The last best chance for North Carolina’s public schools
A few years ago, I reserved a room at the North Carolina Association of Educators Building in Raleigh for a large public luncheon. When our team arrived a half hour before the event to get set up, however, we encountered a troubling surprise.
To our alarm, we discovered that there had been a scheduling mix-up and the large room in question was occupied by a sizable assemblage of teachers who were in town for some kind of training session. Tables, chairs and materials were scattered across the room.
What to do?
Gingerly but urgently, I approached a couple of the teachers and informed them of the fast-impending crisis.
To my enormous relief and everlasting appreciation, they instantly sprang to action. “No worries!” one of the teachers replied pluckily as she and her colleagues gathered their stuff, helped rearrange the meeting room, and departed quickly for a much smaller and, undoubtedly, less adequate space. [Read more…]
2. U.S. Senate to try again on abortion rights after bombshell disclosure of draft opinion
WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Democrats on Tuesday pledged a new vote codifying the right to an abortion after publication of a draft court ruling that showed the Supreme Court on track to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion decision.
Democrats, who likely won’t have the votes to advance that bill, also predicted that abortion will emerge as a major issue in the upcoming midterm elections for members of Congress.
Their comments came as abortion rights supporters across the United States reeled in reaction to the disclosure of the initial draft U.S. Supreme Court opinion, led by Justice Samuel Alito and leaked to Politico. While the court ruling is not final until published, the draft states that earlier abortion decisions “must be overruled.” [Read more…]
3. ‘I have never known a world in which we didn’t have the right to choose.’
Senate Dems: Women have the power to fight against future reproductive restrictions
“I am 38 years old, and I have never known a world in which we didn’t have the right to choose.”
Senator Natalie Murdock (D-Durham) said Wednesday that she has serious concerns that that autonomy over one’s own body may be at risk if the U.S. Supreme Court moves forward and strikes down Roe v. Wade, the nearly 50-year-old ruling that guarantees the right to obtain an abortion.
“At this point it seems much more like an illusion than a reality to say we truly believe in freedom after this draft opinion was leaked,” Murdock said.
Murdock said in 2013 the Republican-controlled North Carolina General Assembly sought to restrict women’s reproductive rights in a motorcycle safety bill.[Read more...]
4. Overturning Roe could be an election “game changer,” Duke experts say
Overturning the constitutional right to abortion has the potential to shake up North Carolina elections, Duke University experts said Tuesday.
The Supreme Court’s abortion decision could transform the U.S. Senate race in North Carolina and focus national attention on legislative races this fall, they said.
Politico reported on a draft opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito that overturns the 1973 landmark decision Roe v. Wade. The opinion concerns a Mississippi abortion law that would ban the procedure after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
The draft opinion puts women’s reproductive freedom at center stage in an election year where the economy, inflation, and gas prices are top issues, said Deondra Rose, an assistant professor at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy.[Read more…]
Bonus read:
5. Overturning Roe would hand power over abortion to states. Many would ban it.
Cooper joins other governors in calling for passage of federal protections
A U.S. Supreme Court ruling striking down a nearly 50-year-old right to abortion would lead to strict restrictions or bans by states across nearly half the country almost immediately.
The court is poised to overturn the landmark 1973 case Roe v. Wade, as well as a subsequent ruling on fetal viability, according to an initial draft of a majority opinion in a pending abortion case published Monday by Politico.
The draft is not final, and could change before the court issues a ruling, but the revelation ignited a push among Democrats — including a group of 17 governors — to codify abortion protections under federal law.
If made final, the court opinion would create a patchwork of legal abortion access across the country by leaving policymaking to the states, 26 of which are poised to immediately ban the procedure or place severe restrictions on it, according to an analysis from the Guttmacher Institute, a pro-reproductive rights research group. The states are concentrated in the South and Midwest.[Read more…]
6. Meredith Poll: Majority in NC support legal access to abortion, more divided on other “culture war” issues
As the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to overturn Roe v. Wade, a new Meredith College poll shows more than half of North Carolina registered voters surveyed support keeping Roe’s provisions in the state or expanding access to legal abortion.
Just over half of those surveyed (52.6 percent) said they want to see a state law preserving the level of access to abortion under Roe or expanding it further. Just under 40 percent said they want a law that severely restricts access or makes it illegal in all circumstances.
Just 10 percent of respondents said they would like to see abortion made illegal in all cases and 9 percent said they would like to see it severely restricted, making it illegal after 15 weeks. A larger number – 20 percent – said they would like to see it made illegal unless a pregnancy endangers a woman’s life or the pregnancy is the result or rape or incest.[Read more…]
7. State Board of Education terminates Torchlight Academy’s charter. School will close for good June 30.
As was expected, the State Board of Education on Thursday unanimously agreed to terminate Torchlight Academy’s charter due to ongoing concerns about the school’s finances and governance.
The board’s decision means more than 500 K-8 students from Wake and surrounding counties will be forced to find new schools in the fall. The school will close on June 30.
State Board member Amy White, chair of the board’s Education Innovation and Charter Schools Committee (EICS), said the committee considered recommending the immediate closure of the school, which had been managed by Raleigh businessman Don McQueen through his Education Management Organization (EMO), Torchlight Academy Schools LLC.[Read more…]
8. Lottery funded grant awards to aid school construction projects in ‘economically distressed’ counties
More than two dozen school districts in “economically distressed” counties will share a $400 million state lottery windfall to replace and repair aging school buildings, the NC Department of Public Instruction announced Tuesday.
The grants are awarded under the Needs-Based Public School Capital Fund. They will help to build 14 new or replacement school buildings, including four high schools, a Career and Technical Education Center and a pre-kindergarten through 12th-grade school.
The grants represent the largest annual allocation under the program, created by the General Assembly in 2017 from state lottery revenues. The grants are in addition to the state’s lottery-supported Public School Building Capital Fund, from which all districts receive an allocation each year.[Read more…]
9. Weekly Radio Interviews and Audio commentaries: