Podcasts about program evaluation division

Lawmakers have passed legislation requiring schools to reopen during the pandemic and are proposing an extended summer school to help students who have fallen behind during months of online classes. Elsewhere, the legislature has gutted its nonpartisan Program Evaluation Division, and the state Department of Health and Human Services was blistered in a state audit over not checking whether Medicaid providers were qualified to treat patients.

A look at an oversight agency being eliminated by North Carolina Republican legislative leaders . The Program Evaluation Division is tasked with targeting waste, fraud and abuse. State politics reporter Lucille Sherman hosts. Read more from Sherman and the rest of The News & Observer's politics team at newsobserver.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Debate about the COVID-19 pandemic has featured plenty of data involving case numbers, deaths, and hospitalizations. Dig into the details, and you learn that the numbers might not be as useful as they first appear. They might even portray a misleading picture. Jon Sanders, John Locke Foundation director of regulatory studies, discusses key aspects of his research into key COVID-19 numbers. Americans are paying much more attention to China these days, largely because of that country’s role in the pandemic. Part of the discussion involves American trade with China. Scott Lincicome, senior fellow in economic studies at the Cato Institute, challenges one popular narrative surrounding trade with China. He shares highlights from his research. One reason voters should pay attention to this year’s N.C. Supreme Court elections involves school choice. A lawsuit challenging the state’s popular Opportunity Scholarship program is heading to a trial court. Most experts expect the case to head eventually to the state Supreme Court, which upheld the scholarships by a 4-3 vote in 2015. Terry Stoops, John Locke Foundation vice president for research and director of education studies, explains why the new lawsuit should raise concerns for school choice supporters. One of the state’s top government watchdogs recently retired. You’ll hear highlights from John Turcotte’s last meeting as head of the General Assembly’s internal Program Evaluation Division. If North Carolina moves forward with Medicaid expansion, ends its ban on collective bargaining, and adopts the types of spending increases Gov. Roy Cooper has proposed in his budget plans, the state budget could grow by 13%. That’s a key finding in a new report from John Locke Foundation Senior Fellow Joseph Coletti. Coletti discusses report and talks about the potential impact for taxpayers if North Carolina pursues ideas popular among Democratic policymakers and political candidates.

North Carolina’s 2020 U.S. Senate race picked up two more candidates in recent weeks. Cal Cunningham, a former state senator, dropped his campaign for lieutenant governor to make a second bid for the upper chamber on Capitol Hill. Another former state senator, Eric Mansfield, also added his name to the list of Democrats who want to challenge incumbent Republican Thom Tillis. Rick Henderson, Carolina Journal editor-in-chief, analyzes the latest developments in the high-profile race. The certificate of need represents one way government steps in to restrict health care innovation. Josh Windham, attorney at the Institute for Justice, explains why IJ is challenging North Carolina’s CON law and a similar restriction of health care freedom in South Carolina. Windham says these types of restrictions crop up in other states as well. Some N.C. lawmakers are pushing Allison’s Law. Based on the 2009 murder of Allison Holt in Forsyth County, the measure would enable new tracking of violent domestic abuse offenders. You’ll hear highlights from legislative debate of the issue. A recent report from the General Assembly’s Program Evaluation Division gave lawmakers ideas for boosting student achievement in North Carolina’s most challenging public school districts. You’ll hear report details and reaction from lawmakers on both sides of the partisan divide. Unanimous votes in both the N.C. House and Senate killed off North Carolina’s infamous Map Act. Jon Guze, John Locke Foundation director of legal studies, explains why the end of the Map Act represents a win for property rights.

After months of controversy involving his job status, East Carolina University Chancellor Cecil Staton has announced his resignation. He’ll collect a severance package of nearly $600,000. Rick Henderson, Carolina Journal editor-in-chief, analyzes Staton’s decision and the implications for the University of North Carolina System’s Board of Governors. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that unions representing state government workers couldn’t force nonmembers to pay union dues. The winning plaintiff in that case, Mark Janus, continues his fight against forced unionization. Now a senior fellow with the Liberty Justice Center, Janus recently visited North Carolina to discuss his case and its aftermath. Some state lawmakers want to change North Carolina’s rules governing liquor sales. Carol Shaw of the General Assembly’s Program Evaluation Division recently offered some recommendations for how to proceed with reforms. Economic freedom, not socialism, offers the path toward wealthier, health societies. Southern Methodist University economist Robert Lawson delivered that message during a recent speech at Duke University. Lawson shared highlights from an annual report on economic freedom in countries around the world. North Carolina’s haphazard collection of criminal laws creates a losing proposition for N.C. taxpayers. Mike Schietzelt, criminal justice fellow at the John Locke Foundation, explains how taxpayers would benefit from a complete overhaul of the state’s criminal code.

A new Vanderbilt University report questions the academic benefits of Tennessee’s prekindergarten program. Terry Stoops, John Locke Foundation vice president of research and director of education studies, assesses the new research and discusses its implications for state pre-K programs in North Carolina. As stories about a national opioid epidemic continue to generate headlines, more and more states are considering new taxes on opioid drugs. Patrick Gleason, vice president of state affairs at Americans for Tax Reform, analyzes the growing interest in targeting opioids for taxation. He explains ATR’s concerns about these taxes. It’s hard to tell how well a government program works if no one is measuring its impact. That’s why John Turcotte, director of the N.C. General Assembly’s Program Evaluation Division, is touting the idea of establishing new government performance measures. He discussed the topic during a recent briefing for state lawmakers. Much of the recent debate about American trade involves popular myths. Bryan Riley, director of the Free Trade Initiative at the National Taxpayers Union, rebutted some of those myths during a recent panel discussion in Raleigh. Riley touts the benefits of free trade. GenX dumped in the Cape Fear River has generated plenty of headlines. But there’s been much less publicity surrounding the presence of GenX and related chemicals in solar panels that dot the N.C. landscape. Dan Way, associate editor of Carolina Journal, reports that some policymakers are beginning to raise questions about solar panel composition and potential long-term environmental impacts.

We’ll examine the new report from the General Assembly’s Program Evaluation Division on how schools are funded today in North Carolina. Are big changes on the horizon? We talk to the study’s lead author, as well as the chairman of the House Committee on Education Appropriations and the top finance officer from Durham Public Schools. Guests: • Rep. Craig Horn, R-Union County, Chairman of the House Committee on Education Appropriations • Sean Hamel, Principal Program Evaluator, Program Evaluation Division, NC General Assembly • Aaron Beaulieu, Chief Financial Officer, Durham Public Schools