Ahead of the Curve Despite Gov. Jim Hunt 's call in March for North Carolina public schools to ban smoking on their premises, only nine school systems in the state have done so, the Winston-Salem Journal reported last week. Though only seven school systems allow high school students to smoke on campus, most others allow school employees and adult visitors to smoke on campus. Hunt wants all smoking banned on all campuses. The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services plans to hold seminars this fall to encourage school systems to ban all smoking on campuses. A poll conducted for The Observer found that 60 percent of Charlotte-area residents say the amount of growth is OK, and 13 percent say the area is not growing enough.
Wake County has two similar organizations.
Well State ABCs tests scores suggest that well-established charter schools in North Carolina are achieving results comparable to most other public schools in the state, despite spending less money and enrolling higher percentages of minority and disadvantaged students, a report from the John Locke Foundation's N.C. Alliance For Smart Schools concludes. For the 71 charter schools participating in 1999-2000, the average share of students testing at grade level was 59.2 percent. At first glance, this statistic may appear to suggest that charter schools are not providing educational opportunities at least equivalent to those available in district-run public schools. But such a hasty conclusion would be unwarranted, conclude report authors Sherri Joyner and John Hood . Most of the participating charter schools in 1999-2000 had existed for fewer than three years.