Opinion Roundup: Budget talks expose ed hiring rift

ALEX GRANADOS: House budget highlights tensions between education leaders (EdNC column) -- portions of the House plan released last week highlight a rift between education leaders in the state. A provision of the proposed budget would give State Superintendent of Public Instruction Mark Johnson funding to hire 10 positions that would report directly to him and would be exempt from the State Human Resources Act. When asked about it during the State Board’s Every Student Succeeds Act work session today, Johnson said the reason why he needs those employees in his office is clear. “I’d refer you to the ongoing court case between me and the State Board,” he said.

TOM KIES' Business View: ‘No Good Reason For Drilling’ (Coastal Review column) -- Tom Kies of the Carteret County Chamber of Commerce and the Business Alliance to Protect the Atlantic Coast challenges the reasons given for drilling off North Carolina’s coast.

Beneficial loans (Winston-Salem Journal) -- President Trump’s proposed budget, with its cutbacks, has many Americans uncomfortable. One of the parts that’s particularly unsettling would end a student loan program that has for years sent some of our best and brightest into the public sector.