Today’s headlines: Sen. Jeff Jackson addresses early childhood education
You may know Sen. Jeff Jackson for his famed #snOMG day in February. As the only non-security person to show up at the NC General Assembly one lonely Snowmaggedon day, Jackson got some work done. As Buzzfeed documented.
Jackson revisited that third check mark, “support early childhood education,” yesterday as keynote speaker for The Learning Collaborative’s “Sowing Seeds” luncheon.
He shared that there are about 630 early childhood facilities in Charlotte. Of them, he said, “The Learning Collaborative is a model for the type of involvement in the lives of our young children that I believe is going to reshape the educational landscape: tuition-free, high emphasis on parental involvement, a stricter focus on high-quality instruction.
“Those are the pieces that have to be a part of any large-scale, successful program that we are going to be able to implement in the future. If we can get it right — if we can get it right — the benefits are enormous.”
His other points:
– Nobel Prize winner James Heckman estimates an 8-1 return for every dollar invested in high-quality, early childhood education.
– Early childhood education is critical because 90 percent of the brain is formed by age 5.
– Early childhood, as a percentage of the NC budget, is 1 percent. “If it becomes 2 percent, we totally revolutionize early childhood education in North Carolina.”
– “We can afford to do early childhood the way we should do it in North Carolina.”
FRESH AIR: The Environmental Protection Agency announced a stricter ozone air-pollution standard yesterday: 70 parts per billion. This is lower than the 75 ppb limit that metro Charlotte reached in July.
Observer reporter Bruce Henderson wrote that “compliance with the standard is based on a rolling, three-year average. Mecklenburg County’s current average is 68 ppb, but readings from 2014 through 2016 will determine whether it meets the new standard.”
FIT FOR FALL: The Charlotte Regional Farmers Market has fun themed days coming up this month to celebrate its vendors: World Egg Day on Oct. 9, National Cake Decorating Day on Oct. 10, Sweetest Day (think sweets) on Oct. 17 and Seafood Day on Oct. 24.
“We think it’s really important to get people to think about North Carolina products and that fruits and vegetables have a season,” market manager Amie Newsome told an Observer correspondent.
NEW LAWS
All or portions of about 50 laws passed by the NC General Assembly and signed by Gov. Pat McCrory this year took effect yesterday.
Among them:
– The waiting period for an abortion is no longer 24 hours. It’s 72 hours.
– The “move over” law for police vehicles also applies to trash and recycling trucks that have flashing lights.
– NC’s Sunday hunting ban with guns has ended but: no shooting is allowed when church is in session and hunting is not allowed in Wake and Mecklenburg counties.
TURNOVER: Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools lost 1,420 of its 8,609 teachers last year, bringing the turnover rate to a 12-year high, according to a report presented to the state Board of Education Thursday.
The district’s turnover rate was 16.5 percent, compared with a state average of 14.8 percent, according to a story by the Observer’s Ann Doss Helms. The last time CMS topped 16 percent was 2002-03, when the rate was 16.8 percent.
Photos by Katie Toussaint, Joe Habina/Charlotte Observer, Todd Sumlin/Charlotte Observer, Charlotte Observer.
This story was originally published October 1, 2015 at 9:06 PM with the headline "Today’s headlines: Sen. Jeff Jackson addresses early childhood education."