Education

December 18, 2015 - Non-tenure-track instructors at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, are organizing a union. Organizing committee member MJ Sharp explains why.

December 3, 2015 - Four charitable organizations led by billionaire libertarian businessman Charles Koch of the Koch Industries oil and chemical conglomerate have given nearly $108 million to colleges and universities since 2005 to advance his brand of unfettered capitalism — and 85 percent went to schools in the South.

October 30, 2015 - A shocking incident of police brutality that occurred this week in a classroom in Columbia, South Carolina has raised concerns about the treatment of female African-American students in public schools — a problem that goes far beyond this one case.

September 8, 2015 - An incoming University of North Carolina freshman made headlines for claiming that the school's "Literature of 9/11" course — which he has not taken — sympathizes with terrorists. It turns out the student has connections to a think thank founded and funded by conservative mega-donor Art Pope that has targeted UNC classes emphasizing non-Western and non-white perspectives.

August 27, 2015 - Ten years after the New Orleans school system fired all its teachers and instituted near universal charter schools in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, test scores and graduation rates are up — but the gains have come with downsides. As other states attempt to replicate its model, there's much to learn from New Orleans.

August 5, 2015 - A Department of Justice investigation found that Georgia is giving thousands of kids with behavioral issues a subpar education and putting them in the same run-down buildings that served black children decades ago.

July 3, 2015 - Earlier this year the UNC Board of Governors decided to close the Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity at the UNC School of Law. This week the school launched the N.C. Poverty Research Fund to continue the fight against economic injustice in the state.

May 15, 2015 - The South has long been known for having some of the poorest communities and poorest schools. A recent Urban Institute analysis reveals trends in the region at the local level, including a major urban-rural divide.

May 15, 2015 - Bills to provide additional funding for charter schools were introduced this session at the North Carolina legislature. Most of the sponsors have benefited from campaign donations or independent spending by groups advocating school privatization.

May 13, 2015 - Traditional colleges and universities have become unlikely allies of the beleaguered for-profit industry as each group tries to fend off the government's push for more accountability.