More guns in schools, even if in the hands of the good guys, will only lead to otherwise avoidable accidents and injuries and do little to confront a mass shooter. Metal detectors may pick up a knife or a handgun, but do little to stop a gunman intent on blasting away at the entrance. 

And active shooter drills? What are we doing to preschoolers when we’re hushing them quiet while pretending a murderer is on the loose? Or reminding students huddled under desks to keep their scissors open, so they can stab better?

State and federal regulators announced a string of court victories and settlements involving predatory for-profit colleges in recent weeks, and while at first glance the numbers are big and the recognition of widespread deception precedential, the impact on student borrowers laden with loan debt might not be so direct.

Five years ago, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, rising Democratic star and Newark mayor Cory Booker and aspiring presidential contender and New Jersey governor Chris Christie appeared together on the Oprah Winfrey show for a surprise announcement: “We’re setting up a $100 million challenge grant so that Mayor Booker and Governor Christie can have the flexibility they need to turn Newark into a symbol of educational excellence for the whole nation,” Zuckerberg told viewers.

State Supreme Court justices refused to let a surprise snowstorm force yet another rescheduling of arguments in the private school voucher case, opening the courtroom on time Tuesday morning to a less-than-full gallery. Determined to resolve challenges to the state’s recently enacted “Opportunity Scholarship Program” long before the next school year begins, the high court took the case directly in October to review Superior Court Judge Robert H. Hobgood’s August decision declaring the program unconstitutional and fast-tracked it for argument this month.

For more than ten years, the state of North Carolina acknowledged that poor and disadvantaged children had a constitutional right to a sound basic education, beginning with pre-kindergarten. And for nearly as many years the state worked to provide these at-risk children opportunities for a jump start on that education, crafting a pre-K program that became the envy of other states.

Here’s one word you don’t often hear being bandied about in the General Assembly while debates continue over charter schools, vouchers and funding: Segregation. To many, it’s a term for the archives, the stuff of black-and-white highlight reels. But this Monday, in federal court in Greenville, segregation will be front-and-center as Senior U.S. District Judge Malcolm Howard opens hearings in a case involving an order that dates back to 1965.

For-profit companies rushed into the public school market at the same time the first charter schools took hold. Some 17 years later, can we safely say that this profit experiment has run its course? Or has it simply moved out of brick and mortar buildings and into cyber space?

Two charter schools in one city, competing for similar resources, space and students. One is rooted in the community of Newark; the other belongs to a national network. One is led by Newark educators, the other by out-of-town Teach for America alumni. One has plans to stay small, the other has aggressive plans to expand. One wants to change how children learn, the other aims to prepare them for life. One needs money, the other – not so much

DURHAM, N.C. - It’s Wednesday afternoon, and the usual collection of suits has gathered to discuss the past week’s revenues and assess the progress of their financial plan. Board room? Rotary club? Stock exchange? Not exactly.

RED BANK, N.J. - Small town America loves a parade. But the sight of an 1865 Victorian lumbering down local streets five years ago was a spectacle unlike any seen by residents of this Jersey shore town.