Here's an interesting letter about private school costs in Wake County and school vouchers from Karl Gaskins in Raleigh. It's too long for print but worth a read.

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I googled private schools wake county. There were 83 results listed on one site. After I eliminated those that were nursery-kindergarten enterprises, I essayed to discover what tuitions were charged by the remainder. I was able to find, online, tuition information for about 43 schools, with a total enrollment of 16,473. I listed their tuition for the youngest elementary grade class they offered. I separated them into two groups: below $10,000 tuition (35 schools) and above $10,000 tuition (eight schools). Here is what I discovered:

Of the 35 under $10,000 schools, eight were less than $5,000, but not by much. They averaged $4,186. Enrollment was 1,289, or 7.8 percent of total.

The schools under $10,000 averaged $6,104. Not $4,900 as claimed by voucher supporters.

The schools over $10,000 averaged $15,998.

Tuition is not the only expense you encounter at a private school. Here are numbers published by one Christian school I examined:

Tuition $6,672.
New Student Application $100.
Resource Fee $480.
Capital Fee $360.
New Family Fee $500.

That’s over $8,000. For the first year.

Transportation to and from most schools is not provided.

There are unpaid efforts being made by teachers and others in many public schools in this state to package foodstuffs for some kids to take home for the weekend, because they would otherwise have little or nothing to eat until Monday when they get their breakfast at school. No one at home is making sure they do their homework. No one at home cares how they do at school.

What good is a $4,200 voucher to one of these kids? If the people they live with can’t or won’t keep them from going hungry, what is the likelihood they’ll come up with an average of $1,700 a year each, plus fees, to put them into private school and provide transportation for them to get there and back every day? There is not enough financial aid out there to offset this difference. What is the likelihood that these folks will start monitoring homework? What is the likelihood they’ll begin to encourage their kids to do well in school? Aren’t these the kids for whom a good education is most important, and most difficult to obtain, even when it’s “free”?

Many people further up the economic ladder would do everything they could to come up with the tuition difference, in hopes that their kids could get the most out of their education. But those kids are going to succeed in public school, because their parents are behind them and encouraging them and their teachers. These motivated parents and kids are critical to the success of public education. Their attitudes create and support the learning environment educators strive to provide.

I can’t think of any good reasons to reallocate resources from public schools to private schools. Characterizing this action as a business model in which competition is encouraged is cynical to the point of being venal. Encouraging the departure of motivated parents and students from public schools won’t make public schools more competitive. It will gut them. What football coach kicks his first string off the team and plays his third string because their less developed football knowledge, skills and motivation will enable them to perform better than the first string?

I am so old I attended segregated schools. Back then, private schools of any kind were few and far between, and were mostly either parochial schools or kindergartens. Do you remember when and why the big growth spurt in private schools across the South began? I certainly do. Lots of them called themselves Christian academies. Almost three-fourths of those schools I just looked at claim religious affiliation.

Vouchers aren’t for subsidizing better education for truly poor kids. They’re for subsidizing a second school system for the nice people, and for keeping those denizens of public schools who insist on being poor and ignorant exactly where they belong.

Triangle Startup Weekend starts Friday.

The 54-hour event, which will focus for the first time on education, gives entrepreneurs the opportunity to work with coaches and other entrepreneurs to create and plan education-themed presentations. The pitches will then be judged at the end of the weekend.

The event includes speakers Wendy Lybrand and Jenny Eigenrauch, co-founders of DoTheData.com, and coaches such as Brian Marks, CTO of WebAssign, Susan Kellog, CIO at the University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler Business School, and software developer Sidd Chopra.

Triangle Startup Weekend runs Friday, March 8 through Sunday, March 10 and will take place at HUB Raleigh, located at 711 Hillsborough Street.

Register and get more information here.

Lots of letter-writers take the governor to task for assailing the value of a liberal arts education.

A Union County teacher who also toiled in Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools and who previously taught in New Mexico and Oregon has submitted her resignation in a letter that made its way through my Facebook feed. Anybody who knows a teacher has heard some of her complaints. Here are a few:

"I refuse to be led by a top-down hierarchy that is completely detached from the classrooms for which it is supposed to be responsible.

"I will not spend another day under the expectations that I prepare every student for the increasing numbers of meaningless tests.

"I will not spend another day wishing I had some time to plan my fantastic lessons because administration comes up with new and inventive ways to steal that time, under the guise of PLC meetings or whatever. I’ve seen successful PLC development. It doesn’t look like this.

"I will not spend another day wondering what menial, administrative task I will hear that I forgot to do next. I’m far enough behind in my own work.

"I will not spend another day in a district where my coworkers are both on autopilot and in survival mode. Misery loves company, but I will not be that company.

I refuse to subject students to every ridiculous standardized test that the state and/or district thinks is important. I refuse to have my higher-level and deep thinking lessons disrupted by meaningless assessments (like the EXPLORE test) that do little more than increase stress among children and teachers, and attempt to guide young adolescents into narrow choices.

"I totally object and refuse to have my performance as an educator rely on “Standard 6.” It is unfair, biased, and does not reflect anything about the teaching practices of proven educators.

"I refuse to watch my coworkers being treated like untrustworthy slackers through the overbearing policies of this state, although they are the hardest working and most overloaded people I know.

"I refuse to watch my district’s leadership tell us about the bad news and horrific changes coming towards us, then watch them shrug incompetently, and then tell us to work harder.

"I refuse to watch my students slouch under the weight of a system that expects them to perform well on EOG tests, which do not measure their abilities other than memorization and application and therefore do not measure their readiness for the next grade level—much less life, career, or college.

"I refuse to hear any more about how important it is to differentiate our instruction as we prepare our kids for tests that are anything but differentiated. This negates our hard work and makes us look bad."

Want to read the rest? Click here to read the letter.

The Triangle isn't just avoiding a brain drain that troubles many other U.S. metro areas. The region is making significant gains in attracting college graduates.

Claim: “When I was superintendent of schools North Carolina was making real progress. We improved test scores more than any other state in the nation.”

Speaker: Bob Etheridge at Democratic gubernatorial debate Monday

N.C. State's business school and Campbell University's law school are teaming up to offer a dual law and MBA degree.

Starting this fall, students can earn the dual degree in four years. The universities are seeking to attract more students amid increasing competition from other schools with business and law degrees, including UNC Chapel Hill and Duke University.

"Students in the dual program will be well prepared for careers in business, finance, law, government, nonprofit organizations, teaching and research," said Steve Allen, associate dean for graduate programs at N.C. State's Poole College of Management.

The degree will cost $106,265 for in-state students. That will save a student more than $24,000 and a year of study, compared with getting both degrees separately.

N.C. State doesn't offer a law degree and Campbell has been expanding its law school, including by relocating the campus to downtown Raleigh in Sept. 2009.

"Law is a gateway degree, opening up many doors and careers," said Melissa Essary, dean of Campbell's law school. "If coupled with a great MBA degree, this gateway is widened considerably."

The Triangle, a perennial front-runner in popularity rankings, has won another plaudit. Forbes magazine said today we're the nation's #2 brain magnet.

That's to say, the Raleigh-Durham-Cary metro area rates highly in terms of the number of college grads we've gained in recent years, when compared to the region's population aged 25 or more.

Forbes' finding is in keeping with other surveys that rank this area highly in terms of livability, affordability and other desirable traits.

An Anchorage, Alaska middle school is getting its own wind turbine by participating in the federal Department of Energy's Wind for Schools program. Alaska is one of 11 states in the project, which is aimed at introducing wind power to rural communities, and introducing young people to the science and technology of wind turbines. Read more about it here.

UNC's Kenan-Flagler Business School announced this morning that it will begin an online MBA program next summer, following the recent news of a similar degree at N.C. State.

The Chapel Hill school is accepting applications for its first class, which will be limited to 50 students and is scheduled to start in July 2011. Tuition will be $89,000 for the two-year program and will include books, texts, student fees and lodging and food costs for four weekend immersions.

N.C. State's College of Management plans to begin taking applications in January and start its program next fall. Its 2-year program will cost $30,600 for in-state residents.

Both schools are betting on the increasing acceptance of online learning, especially among busy professionals who want a business degree.