www.thecentersquare.com – By David Beasley | The Center Square contributor – (The Center Square – ) 2025-02-20 18:01:00
(The Center Square) – While the pension plan for North Carolina state employees remains underfunded, the same can’t be said for a separate, voluntary 401(k) style programs for public employees, according to a report Thursday.
There are 294,625 employees enrolled in NC 401(k) Plan, and another 57,413 in the NC 457 Plan. Both plans are designed to supplement public pensions. State Treasurer Brad Briner chairs the board that oversees the two programs.
Briner has expressed concern that the state’s pension plans are underfunded by about $16 billion and rank near the bottom nationally in investment performance.
However, the 401(k) and 457 programs are “among the largest and lowest-cost public plans in the country,” the treasurer’s office said in a release.
The 401(k) plan allow public employees to make contributions with pretax payroll deductions. The 457 plan, also through payroll deductions, is a deferred compensation program.
Michael McCann, managing director of Empower, which manages the North Carolina plans, provided an upbeat report to the state’s Supplemental Retirement Board of Trustees.
“From a plan health perspective, everything is looking really good in terms of the trend line,” McCann told the board. “Average participant balances are continuing to increase. The active participation rate is above its historical norm. The active average employee deferral continues to set higher and higher trends in terms of what participants are contributing.”
Even with an aging population and increased retirements, the plans continue to grow, McCann added.
“We’re also replenishing that population, where total unique participant balances continue to increase,” he said. “Last year, was our second best year ever, beating 2023 in terms of total enrollment.”
Another sign of stability of the plans is loan activity – participants borrowing from their accounts – remained consistent in 2024, despite the heavy damage from Hurricane Helene in the western part of the state.
About 2,000 plan participants did take advantage of the Qualified Disaster Relief distributions that were approved by the board last fall. Participants who lived in the disaster areas were allowed to withdraw up to $22,000 without penalties, and can later recontribute some or all of the amounts withdrawn if they choose.
A waiver extension of the board’s administrative fee for 12 months was approved unanimously. A release says the action will save participants $1.7 million over the next year.
by Sarah Michels, Carolina Public Press April 25, 2025
There’s going to be a full house in Ashe County’s public schools this summer. After a mix of bad weather and severe storms closed schools there for 47 days, Superintendent Eisa Cox plans to take full advantage of a Helene learning loss summer school program. It’s funded by the legislature in its most recent recovery bill.
The $9 million School Extension Learning Recovery Program is open to schools in 13 impacted Western North Carolina counties: Ashe, Avery, Buncombe, Burke, Haywood, Henderson, Madison, McDowell, Mitchell, Rutherford, Transylvania, Watauga and Yancey.
It covers grades 4 through 8 and focuses on intensive recovery in math and reading. Each participating school will receive at least $20,000 for the program and possibly double that, depending on how much state money is left over after all schools get initial funding.
While one of the lower-dollar items in the $524 million recovery package, the summer school program could mean a lot for Ashe County students. The school system already uses grant funding to run summer programs for various grades. Still, without state funds, having a “robust” learning loss program serving multiple grades in different schools would have been impossible, Cox said.
“That’s a hefty price in order to be able to do that for kids,” she said. “You’re talking about feeding them, transportation, the cost of the teacher over the summer, and, of course, you don’t want to put 30 kids in a class. That’s not going to achieve what you want for students who are already struggling to be on grade level.”
Helene learning loss overlooked — at first
While Gov. Josh Stein’s Helene recovery request included a summer learning loss program, the first version of the General Assembly’s Helene recovery bill didn’t offer a penny for public schools.
State Rep. Marcia Morey, D-Durham, took note. She recalled a retreat where she spoke with public school leaders from Western North Carolina who told her how “dire” the need was to get back in the classroom. Four years out, students were still recovering from pandemic learning loss. Helene only exacerbated the issue.
“We have eight counties. We have at least four schools (where) kids couldn’t go back — they had to go to other facilities,” she said in February on the House floor. “We have two schools totally decimated. And so we’re not doing it today, but our public school kids need a place to go. They need a facility. I hope in the next bill we will address the children out west in these affected counties.”
Morey tried to file an amendment to the legislature’s initial bill, but was told she was too late.
The next version of the bill included a $9 million summer learning program.
Morey said she wasn’t directly involved.
“I think they just knew they had to respond to it,” she told Carolina Public Press. “It was astounding that nothing was included in the first relief bill.”
Lessons from the pandemic
Not all missed school days are created equal. Losing one day could take a few hours, a day or a week to recover, depending on the grade level and subject matter.
For example, earlier grades typically learn a “mile wide” and an “inch deep,” covering a broader range of subjects than later grades, which tend to focus on one or two concepts, explained Jeni Corn, the impact evaluation and strategy director for the North Carolina Collaboratory.
This can make it harder for younger students to make up for lost time. Additionally, math concepts typically take longer to recover than those involving social studies.
The legislature first partnered with the North Carolina Collaboratory, housed at UNC-Chapel Hill, to research the impacts of the pandemic on K-12 education. Among the various studies was one looking at the effect of a state-funded summer school program designed to address pandemic learning loss.
Downtown Spruce Pine in Mitchell County, seen here on Oct. 4, 2024, sustained massive flood damage from the North Toe River during Tropical Storm Helene in late September. Colby Rabon / Carolina Public Press
That study now forms the basis of the Helene summer school program, Corn said.
Researchers found that higher summer school attendance correlated with better attendance the following academic year for students in grades 4 through 8 and seventh and eighth graders. They also discovered modest gains in math test scores among students who had high summer attendance, but no impact on reading scores.
Summer school programs can’t cure all learning loss, but they can improve student engagement through continued connection with their fellow peers and teachers, the researchers concluded.
Cox, the Ashe County superintendent, came to the same determination. A dozen days of summer school is never going to be enough time to recover from weeks of learning loss, but it can still help.
“When kids aren’t in school, they may not have a meal,” Cox said. “When kids are not in school, they may not have an adult around them during most of the day that can help them provide the structure to be able to read to them, to be able to provide them with direction.”
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Center-Left
The content presents information regarding a summer learning program in Western North Carolina aimed at addressing the educational impact of the pandemic, specifically referring to "Helene learning loss." The mention of lawmakers and educators collaborating to implement a state-supported program suggests a mildly progressive viewpoint, as it emphasizes government involvement in addressing educational challenges. Additionally, the sourcing from Carolina Public Press, described as an "independent newsroom" committed to uncovering overlooked issues, aligns with narratives often found in Center-Left media that advocate for social responsibility and public welfare initiatives. Overall, while the content is informative and not overtly biased, the context indicates a leaning towards Center-Left perspectives related to governance and education policy.
SUMMARY: A Better Business Bureau (BBB) report highlights how scammers utilize AI and the dark web to steal personal information, resulting in over $125 million lost to identity theft in 2023. Scammers are selling sensitive data like Social Security numbers for as low as $7, with forums like Breach Forums housing about 14 billion stolen data pieces before its shutdown. AI tools help fraudsters efficiently sift through massive amounts of data, amplifying the threat. Cybersecurity expert Kimberly Simon advises using multi-factor authentication, strong password managers, and minimizing personal details on social media to enhance protection against such scams.
Scammers sell stolen personal data on the dark web, using AI to target victims. Identity theft cost $125M in 2023, as hacker forums advertise stolen data.
www.thecentersquare.com – By Alan Wooten | The Center Square – (The Center Square – ) 2025-04-24 16:33:00
(The Center Square) – Only 1 in 10 Americans believe the current checks and balances for the three branches of government are very effective, says a national poll released Thursday in North Carolina.
Sampling April 10-17 of 1,000 adults by the Elon University Poll found 32% said it is somewhat or very ineffective. In answering who has too much power, 46% said the executive branch, 27% the judiciary and 19% the legislative branch.
“Americans are clearly questioning whether the rule of law and our constitutional structure are built to withstand the pressures of the current political moment,” said Zak Kramer, dean of Elon University School of Law. “There’s a lot of uncertainty about how these disputes will turn out, and things are moving fast, so we shouldn’t be surprised that most Americans view these questions through a heavily polarized lens.”
President Donald Trump
WhiteHouse.org
Tuesday will be the 100th day in office for President Donald Trump. Through Tuesday of this week, nonpartisan law and policy journal Just Security documented 206 legal challenges to his administration’s actions. The New York Times, the Elon Poll said, has found 98 judicial rulings at a minimum temporarily pausing some of the administration’s efforts.
Trump’s approval ratings, according to the Elon poll, have gone from positive to negative since a Feb. 6-11 polling just weeks into his second term. His job performance is approved by 41% and disapproved by 47%; in February it was 45% approved and 41% disapproved.
Party lines are strong, according to the poll. His executive orders are opposed by 83% of Democrats and approved by 73% of Republicans.
Survey answers were split nearly evenly on the U.S. Supreme Court – 51% confident, 49% little or no confidence. Only 21% believe it is balanced when considering conservative and liberal.
Regarding the Department of Justice, 69% believe a president should not influence cases. Within that principle, support is from Democrats (83%), independents (65%) and Republicans (61%). Only 38% believe Trump when he says the department’s processes were used against him; 43% think he is wrong.
Elon University said 1,149 adults age 18 and older were interviewed and matched down to the 1,000 sample. Margin of error is +/- 3.58%. The university funds and operates the poll “as the neutral, nonbiased information resource.”
