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Education

Senate bill funds Khan Academy AI tutors

Legislators returning to Raleigh this week from their Memorial Day holiday will find a docket that includes an omnibus reform bill for the state’s K-12 schools. Senate Bill 1006 is scheduled to receive its first committee review on Wednesday. Its lead sponsor is Senate Majority Leader Michael Lee, R-New Hanover,...

By Ray Gronberg

June 1, 2026

N.C. A&T trustee resigns

Mark Copeland, vice chair of the N.C. A&T State University board of trustees, resigned from that post last week. Copeland’s resignation on April 24 came a day after State Auditor Dave Boliek issued a report that said the university “improperly directed $5 million to students as financial assistance without evidence...

By Ray Gronberg

May 11, 2026

Stein floats idea for funding job training

Within Gov. Josh Stein’s budget request for fiscal 2026-27 is a proposal to set up a new program called the “Strategic Workforce Training” fund to underwrite job training and similar services. Stein and his aides would fund it by assessing employers a fee tied to what they pay each year...

By Ray Gronberg

April 24, 2026

Boliek asks SBI to probe N.C. A&T student-fee diversions

State Auditor Dave Boliek has asked the SBI to probe what he calls “gross misconduct” at N.C. A&T State University involving its use of about $5.1 million in student-fee money. Between the summers of 2017 and 2025, campus officials channeled the money into “financial assistance for students,” handing it out...

By Ray Gronberg

April 24, 2026

UNC Chapel Hill: We’re not investigating students

UNC Chapel Hill officials have walked back a vice provost’s statement that they’re investigating the student group Hill After Hours over a video lampooning attitudes toward the South Campus dorms. “Please be assured that we are not investigating any student or student group” in connection to that, or to The...

By Ray Gronberg

April 13, 2026

UNC workforce report sees big gap in engineering-grad numbers

North Carolina’s public universities mint lots of new engineers every year, but a UNC System analysis says they’re still not turning out enough. But that doesn’t exactly make engineering unique. The system’s new Workforce Alignment Report says the state’s economy can use … well, more of everything. “North Carolina has...

By Ray Gronberg

April 13, 2026

Carolina’s getting FIREd

UNC Chapel Hill is in trouble with one of the country’s top free-speech advocacy groups. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression — more popularly known as FIRE — wants campus administrators to retract their criticism of The Daily Tar Heel’s April Fools edition. They’re also calling on them to...

By Ray Gronberg

April 13, 2026

UNC ups nurse production; legislators unsatisfied

The UNC System says its universities are on track to produce 707 more nurses a year by the 2029-30 school year. Trouble is, that doesn’t fill the 12,459-nurse gap in supply versus demand that UNC Chapel Hill’s Sheps Center for Health Services Research sees coming by 2033. Members of a...

By Ray Gronberg

April 9, 2026

UNC’s new provost introduces himself

Wednesday’s trustee meetings featured the first appearance in that venue of UNC Chapel Hill’s new provost, Magnus Egerstedt. The native of Sweden is an expert in what he calls “swarm robotics,” which focuses on how to control dozens or hundreds of drones at a time. It’s a field that these...

By Ray Gronberg

March 26, 2026

Duke rolls out “HomeGrown” program

Duke University and Duke Health say they’ll channel $203 million over three years into an effort to expand economic opportunity in Durham and the Triangle region. What they’re calling the HomeGrown initiative focuses on four areas where Duke says it can directly impact economic mobility: employment pathways, construction opportunities, local...

By Ray Gronberg

March 19, 2026

A three-way stab at examining education

Gov. Josh Stein, Senate leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Destin Hall have announced the formation of a Blue Ribbon Commission on Public Education The 28-member group is directed to examine teacher training and student advancement, administrative operations, educational leadership, and accountability. Stein, Berger and Hall jointly appointed the panel’s...

By Ray Gronberg

March 11, 2026

Dorm plans at UNC flagships to cost about $1B

Plans for close to $1 billion in new dormitory construction at UNC Chapel Hill and NC State merit more scrutiny from UNC System officials, a Board of Governors member says. Swadesh Chatterjee says this should occur via a “separate session” of the BOG so it can quiz officials from the two...

By Ray Gronberg

February 27, 2026

Project Kitty Hawk grads to date: 96

To date, 96 people have graduated from the online degree programs some of the UNC System’s campuses are offering through Project Kitty Hawk. That includes 73 from N.C. Central University and 22 from East Carolina, according to data Project Kitty Hawk chief Andrew Kelly’s presenting to the system Board of...

By Ray Gronberg

February 24, 2026

NCSU involved in “Golden Dome” anti-missile project

NC State has a chance to participate in a $151 billion federally funded R&D program designed to bolster the country’s defenses against missile attacks. The Defense Department’s Missile Defense Agency in December and January qualified 2,440 companies and universities to compete for grants under what it’s calling the “Scalable Homeland...

By Ray Gronberg

February 10, 2026

School vouchers: More used in blue counties

Two UNC Charlotte professors have published a study that suggests K-12 school vouchers aren’t as heavily used in the places where they’re likely the most politically popular. Writing in the Journal of School Choice, professors Samatha Schuerman and Jason Giersch say they found “a significant negative association” in usage here...

By Ray Gronberg

February 3, 2026

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