News & Views

NewDEAL CEO Debbie Cox Bultan (Courtesy photo)

When it comes to politics and policymaking, the present era is among the most divided and rancorous in modern American history. At the national level, the U.S. seems as if it’s more divided than ever on a host of basic issues. But is this really the case?

CEO of the national nonprofit, the NewDEAL Forum, Debbie Cox Bultan, says when you dig a little past the surface, it becomes evident that, in many ways, Americans are not as divided as it might seem. Especially at the state and local levels, it turns out that large majorities are actually in agreement on many of the issues that matter most and in their desire that public officials of all parties work together to find common ground solutions.

In Part One of Newsline’s extended conversation with Bultan, we explored her group’s findings about the many fundamental issues on which large majorities of Americans agree and their shared desire that elected leaders of all stripes find ways to work together and compromise to promote the common good.

In Part Two, we learned more about how the New Deal Forum is working to lift up the notion that public service can and should remain a thoroughly honorable profession. We also discussed the importance of combating the scourge of gerrymandering and election rigging that is afflicting our politics in the aftermath of a recent Supreme Court ruling that guts the federal Voting Rights Act.

Click here to listen to the full interview with the NewDEAL Forum’s Debbie Cox Bultan.

Southern Coalition for Social Justice Senior Counsel Chris Shenton (Courtesy photo)

One of the greatest achievements of the American Civil Rights movement was the enactment more than 60 years ago of a law known as the Voting Rights Act. Though it had several provisions, the basic objective of the law was simple – it was to eliminate centuries of deep-seated racial discrimination that had infected and polluted U.S. elections by assuring that all the nation’s citizens had an opportunity to be full participants in our democracy.

Unfortunately, despite the progress the law has helped usher in and the fact that the country still has miles to travel in overcoming racial discrimination, opposition to the law and excuses for weakening it have been a constant ever since its enactment. And last month, opponents and excuse makers succeeded in convincing the U.S. Supreme Court to gut a key provision that had barred politicians from rigging elections to dilute the impact of minority voters. And recently, to get a better handle on this troubling news, Newsline caught up with Southern Coalition for Social Justice Senior Counsel Chris Shenton for a special two-part conversation in which we examined the ruling and the damage that it will cause.

Click here to hear the full interview with Southern Coalition for Social Justice Senior Counsel Chris Shenton

Photo: Clayton Henkel/NC Newsline

Last week was national Teacher Appreciation Week, a time to celebrate educators who show up for their students every day. Unfortunately, for many of the teachers in North Carolina, underappreciated – especially from state lawmakers – is the main thing they’re experiencing these days.

On May 1st, thousands of educators, advocates and allies converged on Halifax Mall behind the state Legislative Building in Raleigh to protest the lack of a state budget and scheduled corporate tax cuts that may leave school districts with even less money next year.

NC Newsline spoke with several of those attending the rally about the message they would like to deliver to legislators during the ongoing legislative session.

Click here to hear the full interview with North Carolina educators Marie Delgado, Tennille Simms, and Jane Miller.

Justin Parmenter (Courtesy photo)

Thousands of North Carolina public school teachers and their supporters converged on Raleigh this past Friday to demand that state lawmakers end their chronic lack of support for public schools. That the participants in the “Kids over Corporations” rally had a strong case to make is hard to deny. Their event took place just days after a new report placed North Carolina 46th in the nation for teacher pay for the current school year — down three spots from last year — and 39th in the nation for per pupil spending.

One expert who was there on Friday, knows the ins and outs of state education policy like the back of his hand, and indeed, lives it every day, is Charlotte-Mecklenburg 7th grade language arts teacher Justin Parmenter. And prior to the rally, Parmeter joined NC Newsline to talk about the urgent needs he sees in our schools and why he hopes so fervently that state leaders will listen and act.

In Part One of our recent conversation, we discussed the increasingly dire situation that confronts the public schools in our state and why it’s essential that state lawmakers heed the demands of educators by dramatically improving public education funding.

In Part Two of our chat, we continued our discussion of the need to better fund teacher pay in particular and public schools generally. We also discussed a pair of high-profile policy priorities of the political right – immigration enforcement and private school vouchers – that have only served to further undermine the stability, mission and morale of traditional public schools.

Click here to listen to the full interview with middle school teacher Justin Parmenter.

State Rep. Renee Price (Photo: NCGA)

One especially vexing public health issue that continues to plague North Carolina is the persistent crisis in the wellbeing of Black mothers and other moms of color. Time and again, statistics show that women of color face scandalous mortality rates that are far out of proportion with the general population.

Fortunately, studies and real-world experience confirm that there are many relatively simple and effective policy solutions that can make a big difference in combating the problem and recently NC Newsline caught up with a state lawmaker – Orange and Caswell County State Rep. Renee Price – who champions and explains them in simple, commonsense terms. Newsline also got a chance to ask her about two other important issues on which she’s pushing for action this spring – mental health services and public education.

Click here to listen to the full interview with State Rep. Renee Price of Orange and Caswell Counties.

Keith Poston, Wake Ed Partnership (Courtesy photo)

What’s more, as Newsline was reminded in a conversation this past week with the President of the nonprofit Wake Ed Partnership, Keith Poston, the situation figures to get worse and soon unless lawmakers decide to pause the regressive tax cuts that are scheduled to take effect in the near future. What’s more as Poston also noted, even the efforts of well-off counties like Wake to supplement state school funding could be in jeopardy if lawmakers follow through with a new plan to enact one-size-fits-all rules on local property taxes.

Click here for the full interview with Keith Poston, President of the nonprofit Wake Ed Partnership.

NIEER Senior Director and Founder Steve Barnett and the lead author of The State of Preschool Yearbook, Associate Research Professor Allison Friedman-Krauss. (Courtesy photos)

State support for preschool education hit record highs for enrollment, quality, and funding in the 2024-2025 school year, according to a new report entitled “The State of Preschool 2025” from the National Institute for Early Education Research. That said, some states advanced more than others. This year’s report brings to the forefront for the first time one state that excels at both access and quality standards: Georgia.

Unfortunately, in North Carolina, preschool enrollment actually declined as did state government investments. To learn more about what the numbers mean and why state policymakers should prioritize pre-k, NC Newsline recently sat down with the institute’s Senior Director and Founder Steve Barnett and the lead author of The State of Preschool Yearbook, Associate Research Professor Allison Friedman-Krauss.

Click here to listen to the full interview with NIEER’s founder Steve Barnett and associate research professor Allison Fiedman-Krauss. 

Learn more about this year’s rankings.

Robbie Sequeira (Courtesy photo)

It’s been 20 years now since North Carolina started its state lottery and with only a very few exceptions, state lotteries are now an almost universal phenomenon. Interestingly, however, the rise of lotteries has coincided with the massive growth of legalized private gambling, and this has posed challenges for state officials to keep their lotteries relevant and revenue producing.

Recently, to gauge how these efforts are faring, Robbie Sequeira, a reporter for the national news outlet Stateline, took a look at the state of U.S. lotteries and last week he was kind enough to join NC Newsline to share his findings.  Newsline also got a chance to ask Sequeira about another topic on which he’s recently reported and found a somewhat unusual degree of bipartisanship in state government – the national shortage of affordable housing.

Click here to listen to the full interview with Stateline reporter Robbie Sequeira.

Sally Hodges-Copple (Courtesy photo)

As state lawmakers return to Raleigh this week for their 2026 legislative short session, there’s one issue that looms as the most important and most challenging: the state budget. Thanks to a long series of personal and corporate income tax cuts (and more that are scheduled to take place), the state will soon face a massive new budget shortfall that will endanger an array of core public systems and services that are already being run on shoestring.

Now add to this that House and Senate Republicans haven’t even been able to agree on a budget for the current fiscal year and it’s no wonder that a growing chorus of experts has issued a dire warning about what lies ahead for the state fiscal picture absent swift action, and recently we sat down with one of those experts – the NC Budget and Tax Center’s Sally Hodges Copple – to learn more.

Click here to listen to the full interview with the NC Budget and Tax Center’s Sally Hodges-Copple.

Public School Forum’s Lauren Fox (Courtesy photo)

The state of North Carolina finds itself in a fiscal policy mess thanks to a series of regressive income tax cuts, there’s no larger or more important public function that will be adversely impacted than public education. For many years now, thanks to the decisions of Republican legislative leaders, North Carolina public schools have listed along near the bottom of national rankings in a host of important funding categories.

A landmark lawsuit – the Leandro case — sought to alter this situation by establishing that all schoolchildren in the state have a constitutional right to a sound basic education, but GOP lawmakers ignored the ruling and recently succeeded in getting a Republican majority on the court to effectively gut it. So where do things stand now and what’s next for public education in our state? Recently, Newsline sat down to discuss these questions with the Public School Forum of North Carolina’s Senior Director of Policy and Interim President/CEO, Lauren Fox.

Click here to listen to the full interview with the Public School Forum’s Lauren Fox.