Editorial Coverage

CBC OPINION
KEITH POSTON: Time is now to affirm state's commitment to public schools
Thursday, Jan. 24, 2019 -- There has been a troubling and significant erosion of our state's historic commitment to public schools. That's why we believe the Number One issue for 2019 should be to: "Renew North Carolina's Commitment to Public Schools for the Public Good."

CBC OPINION
Editorial: N.C. schools' chief sloganeering won't help improve students' achievement
Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019 -- If school children were voters, the N.C. Superintendent of Public Instruction's clever sloganeering about ending school testing would garner swoons from the electorate. But they don't vote. Their parents do pay taxes and what they don't like is students who underachieve. Merely testing less doesn't mean students will learn more. Adequate funding and high standards for all public schools will.

CBC OPINION
JUSTIN PARMENTER: School choice doesn't happen in a vacuum
Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019 -- Charter schools were originally intended as places of innovation, where educators could develop new approaches in a less regulated setting and collaborate with traditional public schools to improve outcomes for all. In some states, charter schools have been able to stay relatively true to that mission. Not so in North Carolina. The rapidly expanding charter schools siphon money away from traditional public schools and reduce what services those public schools can offer to students who remain, according to a recent Duke University study.

CBC OPINION
BARRY SAUNDERS: Charles Scott calls UNC system board's treatment of Folt 'petty'
Sunday, Jan. 20, 2019 -- "She knew what it was going to cost her when she did it," Charles Scott said, "but she (UNC Chancellor Carol Folt) felt it was such an important moral stand to take that she did it anyway. The way the board responded to her was very petty and vindictive. How is that, in any form or fashion, beneficial to the university?"

CBC OPINION
Statement from former UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees members
Saturday, Jan. 19, 2019 -- We stand together in our support of Chancellor (Carol) Folt. Regardless of one's view on Silent Sam, the Confederate monument had become a lightning rod for violence and intolerance on this campus and had to be removed. We realize taking it down quickly was controversial. It is our hope that we will not have to continue fighting the Civil War by trying to resurrect it elsewhere on campus.

CBC OPINION
Editorial: Consumers embrace renewable energy, so should N.C. legislative leaders
Friday, Jan. 18, 2019 -- Duke Energy's roof top solar rebates were gone in a flash. That should be a bright signal to North Carolina policy makers. It is past time to expand opportunities to embrace renewable energy and put the state back on the road to national leadership in growing its clean energy economy.

CBC OPINION
Editorial: UNC's stature threatened by system board's mediocrity
Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019 -- The latest turmoil over removing Chancellor Carol Folt is a clear signpost that the UNC System is headed down a path to mediocrity. It comes at great expense to the state's reputation. It damages the ability to have the best and brightest take on the challenges of the future so North Carolina citizens are positioned to prosper and thrive.

CBC OPINION
UNC'S CAROL FOLT: Leaving a campus where all are safe, welcome and can thrive
Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2019 -- "I will continue to focus on our core mission, do all I can to make sure every person on our campus can thrive and feel welcome, and push forward with Carolina's campaign and history task force. There has been too much recent disruption due to the monument controversy. Carolina's leadership needs to return its full attention to helping our University achieve its vision and to live its values. ... I have authorized the removal of the base and commemorative plaques from the Confederate Monument site in McCorkle Place. ... No one learns at their best when they feel unsafe. "

CBC OPINION
Editorial: Political spite won't advance Wake County needs
Friday, Jan. 11, 2019 -- It is one thing when public officials, acting out of principle, take unpopular stands that benefit the public good. But earlier this week a narrow majority of the Wake County Commission took an unpopular stand, not for lofty ideals, but merely to settle a political score.

CBC OPINION
TIM WHITE: In Raleigh, D.C., the times, they are a-changin' -- again
Wednesday Jan. 9, 2019 -- There is a national mood swing beginning, an awakening to the destructiveness of the bully politics that's always been a part of the game but since the Newt Gingrich era has come to be dominant political behavior. Voters now are electing people who clearly are not mean-spirited ideologues, instead choosing candidates who often refuse to hew to either party's doctrines and dogmas. They're also electing more women and minorities than ever before.

CBC OPINION
Editorial: Legislators; abandon partisan bullying and focus on state's urgent needs
Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2019 -- It is a new year and a new day at the General Assembly. The hyper-partisan atmosphere, fueled by a veto-proof majority has dissipated. We hope now that a gubernatorial veto carries some clout, legislators will think and act more cooperatively and less ideologically. Legislators need to address the needs of ALL North Carolinians - not just narrow and favored special interests or powerful partisan patrons.

CBC OPINION
JIM JENKINS: Greg Poole, a man in full
Saturday, Jan. 5, 2019 -- While hearing of Greg Poole's death at 84 was a sad blow, there was comfort in a legacy both of accomplishment and a most happy life lived in full.

CBC OPINION
Editorial: Playground antics don't help resolve real worries about election conduct
Thursday, Jan. 3, 2018 -- The performances of state Republican Party Chairman Robin Hayes and the party's Executive Director Dallas Woodhouse -- amid efforts by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper to keep state regulation of elections up and running - might easily be confused with behavior on a bad day at a pre-school child care center.

CBC OPINION
Editorial: Legislative leadership's legacy is betrayal of reforms, openness, it promised
Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2019 -- There is little to lament that the uncontested rule of Republican Senate leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore in the General Assembly is fading. Without the veto-proof majority it will be more difficult - if Democrats are organized and focused - to continue to legislate in secret, instantaneously and by ambush.

CBC OPINION
Editorial: Gov. Cooper, Atty. Gen. Stein need to probe 9th District election troubles
Wednesday, Dec. 26, 2018 -- Gov. Roy Cooper and Atty. Gen. Josh Stein need to bring together an independent, non-partisan panel to look into why there was no action to investigate the voting irregularities in Bladen and other southeastern North Carolina counties, identify real problems with current voting procedures and recommend common sense solutions to make sure our elections are clean and fair.

CBC OPINION
JOSH STEIN: Affordable Care Act protects people and must be saved
Friday, Dec. 21, 2018 -- The Affordable Care Act has clearly succeeded in helping more North Carolinians get coverage. But the benefits go much broader. Nearly 5 million North Carolinians have a preexisting condition and could be priced out of the insurance market. More than 1.6 million people in our state have benefitted from preventive care and other protections, and 1.8 million seniors are seeing about $1,000 a year in savings on prescription drugs. Those are the facts.

CBC OPINION
Editorial: Time for state's congressional delegation to protect access to health care
Friday, Dec. 21, 2018 -- The fate of the important and much-needed Affordable Health Care program rests with the Supreme Court and Congress. The Republican majority in North Carolina's delegation, has shown unwavering opposition to the program, but needs to change its tune so access to affordable health care is available to all those who need it.

CBC OPINION
Editorial: Cooper offers legislators a deal they shouldn't refuse
Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2018 -- Gov. Roy Cooper has offered GOP legislative leaders a good deal on legislation to overhaul election, ethics and lobbying oversight. The bill Cooper's desk is fatally flawed. Keeping investigations into campaign violations secret is wrong. If legislators remove those provisions Cooper says he'll sign a new bill.

CBC OPINION
Editorial: N.C. GOP, more than state Elections Board, needs transparency
Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2018 -- There are important questions to be answered before the Ninth Congressional District election is certified. Were absentee ballots cast, particularly in Bladen County, actually legitimate votes? What happened to thousands of absentee ballots that were requested but never returned? State GOP Chairman Robin Hayes, Senate leader Phil Berger, House Speaker Tim Moore and other Republican leaders routinely make demands and accuse others of failing to do their jobs and lacking transparency. They need to stop the finger pointing and start working for fair districts, fair access, and fair elections.