Education and school safety were top of mind both locally and nationally this year. WUNC reporters Liz Schlemmer and Lisa Phillip covered everything from the Silent Sam protests to the student-led walkouts after the school shooting in Parkland, Florida.
They join host Frank Stasio to share their education reporting from 2018. Phillip gives the latest on the controversy around the confederate Silent Sam statue and the newly formed commission that will now decide its fate. She also shares her reporting on the problem school resource officers may pose for minority students who, instead of being sent to the principal’s office or getting suspended, are winding up with criminal records. Schlemmer looks back at the teacher strike for higher wages and the student-led protests in response to the Parkland school shooting. The two also reflect on how Hurricane Florence impacted the state’s public school system and share analysis that ranges from the storm’s financial toll to the emotional and educational impact it had on students and teachers.