Mary Ann Wolf (Photo: Public School Forum)
Yet another area in which the recent general election is likely to have major impacts is public education. Here in North Carolina, education advocates are hopeful that the combination of a new governor and a slightly different state legislature could lead to a boost in public school funding – something that’s desperately needed given our state’s bottom-of-the-pack rankings in key funding categories, the ongoing shortage of qualified teachers, and the destructive impacts of Hurricane Helene.
At the federal level, however, prospects for progress are uncertain at best given President-elect Donald Trump’s stated plan to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education. Recently, in order to get a handle on these developments, NC Newsline sat down with one of our state’s top public education advocates, the President and Executive Director of the Public School Forum of North Carolina, Mary Ann Wolf.