Tagged: North Carolina State School Board

This is a story about choice. And it starts in the lunch line at Arapahoe Charter School in Pamlico County when students choose between pizza and french fries.

And while that choice may seem easy to make, the choice to offer it is a little more complicated.

Charter schools aren’t required to offer meals, even to kids who qualify for free or reduced-price lunches. But Arapahoe does – and sixty percent of the students here qualify.

The State Board of Education has given final approval to 23 charter schools to open this fall.

Last year, 63 applicants began the process of applying to start a charter school, with an eye toward opening this fall. Twenty-five made it to this final round.

Schools affiliated with the non-profit North Carolina New Schools Project continue to show great promise in helping fight the state's dropout problem.

Dave DeWitt: When the State School Board released dropout rates for all schools earlier this month, it was good news. According to their data, fewer students were quitting school across the state.