Hickory and Newton-Conover Schools Go Beyond Statute, Raise Drop Out Age to 18

Posted on October 7, 2016 by A.P. Dillon

At the North Carolina State Board of Education meeting held on October 6th, resolutions were presented by Hickory county schools and Newton-Conover schools regarding the drop out age.

The resolutions raise the drop out age from 16 to 18, thereby making 11th and 12th grades compulsory.

These resolutions are counter to North Carolina’s education statutes on compulsory education. North Carolina law states that children must attend school starting no later than seven years old and ending at sixteen.

The ramifications for any student now attempting to drop out prior to their 18th birthday in those districts will see their parents being charged with a class 3 misdemeanor.

Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), EDUCATION, NC Board Of Education | Tagged , | 1 Comment

WRAL’s NC Capitol Account Issues Apology Over “Accidental” Tweet

Posted on October 6, 2016 by A.P. Dillon

Yesterday, this site reported on the WRAL affiliated NC Capitol Twitter account’s retweet of a Tweet by the North Carolina Democratic party:

100416-rt-if-youre-on-team-kaine

Late yesterday afternoon, the NC Capitol account issued an apology, claiming the tweet was “a mistake” and “accidental”. The apology also claims that “neither reporter from NC Capitol was tweeting that night and it was a member of their “staff” instead.

Here’s the apology Tweet:

The text of the apology blamed testing on an unnamed social media tool as the reason for the retweet.

It’s unclear what reporters use the NC Capitol account, however the two reporters who usually cover political news at the Capitol and General Assembly are Laura Leslie and Mark Binker.

After the Orlando terror attack, Leslie came under fire for controversial remarks made on Facebook. National media watchdog outlet Newsbusters picked up on Leslie’s multiple posts.

laura_leslie_post2orlando

Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), EXCLUSIVE, Media Bias, Twitter | Tagged | 3 Comments

Gee, WRAL’s @NCCapitol Account Finally Shows Some Transparency – #ncpol #vpdebate

Posted on October 5, 2016 by A.P. Dillon

What media bias?

Let’s look at that again.

100416-rt-if-youre-on-team-kaine

Go look at the rest of WRAL’s Capitol Coverage Tweets from the debate. It’s a veritable Kaine cheerleading section.

Who was doing that tweeting? An anonymous staffer not unlike the majority of anonymously written articles in the new “opinion” section?

Update: The NC Capitol account says it was “a mistake“. Yes, a mistake that is still there. Sure. I called bullcrap on that reply and asked who was tweeting that night.  *Crickets*.

Some reality checks for WRAL and their NC Capitol tweeter:

And Finally: SEVENTY TWO TIMES. But go Kaine!

Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), EXCLUSIVE, Media Bias | Tagged | 2 Comments

Wake County School Board Races – Find Your Race

Posted on October 5, 2016 by A.P. Dillon

There are eighteen candidates running for the Wake County School Board across nine districts.  Five of the nine districts have multiple candidates.  Four races have candidates running unopposed and of those four, three of the races are incumbents.

This packed race is arguably one of the most important ones for Wake county, which has over 157, 000 students and is currently the 17th largest school district in the country.

Who is running in your district? 

Listed below are all the candidates in the district races they have entered. Incumbents are in bold text and political party affiliation follows the candidate name.

District 1: Don Agee (R), Mary Beth Ainsworth (R), Tom Benton (D), Sheila W. Ellis (D)

District 2: Peter Hochstaetter (R), Mark A. Ivey (R), Monika Johnson-Hostler (D)

District 3: Roxie Cash (R)

District 4: Heather Elliott (D), Keith Sutton (D)

District 5: Jim Martin (D)

District 6: Christine Kushner (D)

District 7: Zora S. Felton (D)

District 8: Gary Lewis (R) , Lindsay Mahaffey (D), Gil Pagan (R)

District 9: Bill Fletcher (R), Michael Tanbusch (R)

Related:  Political parties make Wake County school board endorsements

Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), Campaign 2016, EDUCATION, ELECTIONS, Wake County School Board | Tagged | Comments Off on Wake County School Board Races – Find Your Race

Report: Pennsylvania UAW Members Handing out Cooper/Ross Palm Cards [UPDATED]

Posted on October 4, 2016 by A.P. Dillon

Residents of a North Raleigh neighborhood have reported that they received knocks on their doors from Pennsylvania United Auto Workers (UAW) over the last two days.

One resident reported a woman wearing a UAW t-shirt visited their home and identifying herself as being from Pennsylvania. Residents in the area declined to go on record, however they were mystified as to why union workers from Pennsylvania were handing out political information on behalf of North Carolina candidates.

One resident who was given a palm card shared it with this site.

The card had North Carolina Senate Democrat Candidate Deborah Ross on it. The palm card also had Attorney General and Democrat gubernatorial candidate Roy Cooper on it.

The palm card did have some information on it identifying who paid for it and this site will update when the information can be verified.  According to Federal Election Commission, palm cards are not specifically mentioned as requiring identification of who paid for the communication.

Attempts to contact the UAW in Pennsylvania for comment via email and Twitter have, as of yet, gone unanswered.

View the palm card:

uaw-palm-card_1

 
UPDATE: The reverse side of the palm card was made available.

uaw-palm-card_2

 

The cards were paid for by the “Working America Coalition”, which is an AFL-CIO PAC. This PAC was established in June of 2016.

This PAC has accumulated just over $700,000 with expenditures to date totaling $254,795. All funds for this PAC have come from the AFL-CIO treasury.

Via the FEC, below are the PAC’s year to date expenditures to each vendor in order of date of material distribution. To see the individual totals for these filings, visit the FEC website.

What is interesting is that despite different vendors, the dollar totals are identical. It is also worth noting that none of the entries mentions Deborah Ross or Roy Cooper.

7/17/16 – Petel & Co. (Fliers on Rob Portman) – $6,750.00

7/25/16 – Petel & Co. (Fliers on Donald Trump) – $28,612.50

7/25/16 – Petel & Co. (Fliers on Ted Strickland) – $6,750.00

7/25/16 – Petel & Co. (Fliers on Ronald Harold Johnson) – $5,150.00

7/25/16 – Petel & Co. (Fliers on Marco Rubio) – $4,950.00

7/25/16 – Petel & Co. (Fliers on Donald Trump) – $28,612.50

7/25/16 – Petel & Co. (Fliers on Donald Trump) – $28,612.50

7/25/16 – Petel & Co. (Fliers on Hillary Clinton) – $28,612.50

7/25/16 – Petel & Co. (Fliers on Donald Trump) – $28,612.50

7/25/16 – Petel & Co. (Fliers on Hillary Clinton) – $28,612.50

7/25/16 – Petel & Co. (Fliers on Joe Heck) – $5,362.50

7/25/16 – Petel & Co. (Fliers on Catherine Cortez Masto) – $5,362.50

7/25/16 – Petel & Co. (Fliers on Donald Trump) – $28,612.50

7/25/16 – Petel & Co. (Fliers on Roy Blunt) – $5,875.00

7/25/16 – Petel & Co. (Fliers on Patrick Toomey) – $6,400.00

7/25/16 – Petel & Co. (Fliers on Hillary Clinton) – $28,612.50

7/25/16 – Petel & Co. (Fliers on Kathleen McGinty) – $6,400.00

7/25/16 – Petel & Co. (Fliers on Dana Feingold) – $5,150.00

7/25/16 – Petel & Co. (Fliers on Jason Kander) – $5,875.00

7/25/16 – Petel & Co. (Fliers on Hillary Clinton) – $28,612.50

7/25/16 – Petel & Co. (Fliers on Hillary Clinton) – $28,612.50

8/29/16 – Mosaic (Fliers on Hillary Clinton) – $61,885.87

8/30/16 – Mosaic (Fliers on Hillary Clinton) – $61,885.87

8/31/16 – Mosaic (Fliers on Donald Trump) – $61,885.87

8/31/16 – Mosaic (Fliers on Hillary Clinton) – $61,885.87

8/31/16 – Mosaic (Fliers on Hillary Clinton) – $61,885.87

9/10/16 – Petel & Co. ( Fliers on Donald Trump) – $61,885.87

9/10/16 – Mosaic (Fliers on Donald Trump) – $61,885.87

9/10/16 – Petel & Co. ( Fliers on Hillary Clinton) – $61,885.87

9/12/16 – Print Logistics (Fliers on Donald Trump) – $61,885.87

9/12/16 – Mosaic (Fliers on Hillary Clinton) – $140,881.71

9/13/16 – Mosaic (Fliers on Patrick Murphy, Hillary Clinton) – $84,373.34

9/17/16 – Grassroots Campaigns Inc. (Canvassing for Hillary Clinton) – $140, 881. 71

9/17/16 – Grassroots Campaigns Inc. (Canvassing for Patrick Murphy) – $84,373.34

9/17/16 – Mack-Sumner Comms, LLC. (Canvassing for Hillary Clinton) – $140, 881. 71

 

Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), Campaign 2016, ELECTIONS, EXCLUSIVE, Unions | Tagged | Comments Off on Report: Pennsylvania UAW Members Handing out Cooper/Ross Palm Cards [UPDATED]

WaPo Cites D.C. Graduation Rate at 76%, But There is a Problem.

Posted on October 3, 2016 by A.P. Dillon

In an article at The Washington Post, the District of Columbia graduation rate was reported at 79%. However, there is a big ‘but’ that comes along with that number as 1% met math standards and 4% met reading standards.

Excerpt:

“At H.D. Woodson High School, for example, 76 percent of its students graduated on time, yet just 1 percent met math standards on national standardized tests linked to the Common Core academic standards. Just 4 percent met reading standards.”

“Vast gaps in graduation rates persist between white and minority students, with 67 percent of black students graduating on time, compared with 93 percent of white students. Black males, in particular, have some of the lowest graduation rates in the school system; 60 percent graduated on time in the Class of 2016.”

The District of Columbia uses the Common Core Standards. This is Common Core’s 5th year in North Carolina schools.

This website has looked at the North Carolina graduation rates on a few occasions, noting that the currently reported 85.8% rate isn’t accurate when one examines the grade level and career and college ready proficiency scores.

Here’s a recap:

According to the data for 2015-16, the number of NC students scoring a 4 and 5 for English II was only 50%.

Black students had a proficiency rate of 31.1% and Hispanic students had a rate of  38.9%.

Over 40% of NC students were not at grade level proficiency for English II.

Turning to math, only 48.6% of NC students in the Math I category were considered ‘career and college ready’.

The grade level proficiency results for Math I was only .2% higher than that of English II, coming in at 59.8%.

Only 26.3% of Black students and 37.1% of Hispanic students were considered ‘career and college ready’ in Math I.

The rate for ‘career and college readiness’ for Black students increased 1.5% from the previous year;s 24.8%. The rate for Hispanic students from last year’s rate of 35.9% by just 1.2%.

The percentage of Black students considered grade level proficient was reported at 38.1% . Hispanic students came in at 49.7%.

The previous year, Black students had a proficiency rate of 38.5%. Compared with this year’s results, that’s only a .4% increase. Hispanic students the previous year had a proficiency rate of 50.1%. Compared with the current results, that’s a decrease of .4%.

So again, the question is asked: How are we graduating at a reported rate of nearly 86% with proficiency rates in English II of 50% and 48.6% for Math I?

Related Reading:

 

Posted in Common Core, EDUCATION, June Atkinson, NC Board Of Education, NC DPI | Tagged , | Comments Off on WaPo Cites D.C. Graduation Rate at 76%, But There is a Problem.