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Hi there,

Although the election is now behind us (hooray!), the political polarization has not ended. It feels like politicizing everything is the new normal, and many are quietly tiptoeing around landmines with friends, not wanting to ignite any arguments.

But recently, Locke’s new North Carolina History Project coordinator, Kellie Nothstine, attended an event that, refreshingly, didn’t breathe politics. Instead, it reminded her of the promise of America.

At the end of October, the 250th anniversary of the Edenton Tea Party ([link removed]) was held.

I know I’ve discussed it before, but as a quick refresher, in 1774, the women of Edenton, North Carolina protested unjust taxation by boycotting British tea. This protest is considered one of the first organized political actions by women in American history.

Kicking off the historic anniversary celebration was a parade led by bagpipes, fifes, and drums, with participants dressed in colonial costume. Kellie visited the historic sights, saw reenactments, and engaged with history with her family.

She recounts that they stood shoulder to shoulder with people from all over North Carolina to celebrate our shared history, and there was nothing political about it. In her words, “It was refreshing.”

Reading her recounting of the event was a breath of fresh air, and a welcome reminder that there are still events that let us simply celebrate being Americans. We need shared spaces in society where we can celebrate our American story, separated from the emotionally charged language of current political fractures.

The Edenton Tea Party celebration is the first of many events that will occur across our state and nation to commemorate our country’s founding and the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

You can read more about the Edenton Tea Party here ([link removed]) , or watch Locke's documentary below ([link removed]) !

Esse quam videri,

Brooke Medina
Vice President of Communications


** See Our New Video
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** More from Locke
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1) 🤞🤞🤞 Fingers crossed for regulatory reform ([link removed])
* Trump has proposed a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), to tackle the administrative state
* DOGE’s joint leaders, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, authored a recent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, describing their plan
+ Here is an excerpt:
o “The use of executive orders to substitute for lawmaking by adding burdensome new rules is a constitutional affront, but the use of executive orders to roll back regulations that wrongly bypassed Congress is legitimate and necessary to comply with the Supreme Court’s recent mandates.”
* Sounds promising… we’ll have to wait and see, but we’re feeling cautiously optimistic for regulatory reform going into 2025

You can read more here ([link removed]) .

2) 🧑‍🎓🧑‍🎓🧑‍🎓 It’s time to give NC test scores a good, long look ([link removed])
* In 2023-2024, North Carolina spent about $10.7 billion on K-12 public education ($18 billion, if include federal and local sources too)
* So… what do we have to show for all that investment in education?
+ Annual standardized test scores in a variety of subject areas are one way to gauge the performance of NC public schools
+ And the Department of Public Instruction reported that test scores were improving in many areas, and approaching pre-pandemic levels
* But does this narrative tell the whole story? Not really…
+ For example, for math, there has been a year-over-year improvement in scores at all grades, and at both grade-level proficiency and college-readiness achievement levels
o But the problem (not mentioned by the report) is the overall decline of students meeting both achievement levels as they go up in grade level
o And there was a pronounced decline for 8th grade students…so what’s going on in 8th grade?
# Currently, 53.7% of 8th grade students lack the math proficiencies to advance to the next grade
@ But are still being passed to the next grade level, without the necessary skills…
+ … and students struggled with reading as well
o Reading test scores for students in 3rd and 8th grade saw slight improvements, but declined for 4th and 7th grade students
o Almost half of 8th grade students can’t read at grade level, and 70%+ are not on track to be ready for college or a career
* So… roughly half of 8th grade students can’t read or perform math at grade level… How is this acceptable?
+ Who has been held accountable for these dismal results?
+ Gov. Cooper claims private schools educating Opportunity Scholarship students are “unaccountable”, but where is the accountability for failing public schools?
o NC spends over $13,200 a year per student… but almost half can’t meet grade-level proficiencies?

You can get the full picture here ([link removed]) .

3) ❌❌❌ No statewide hand recount for NC Supreme Court race ([link removed])
* The State Board of Elections (SBE) announced it would not order a statewide hand recount of the NC Supreme Court race between Democrat Allison Riggs and Republican Jefferson Griffith
+ After a statewide machine recount, Riggs led Griffin by 734 votes
+ Riggs actually increased her lead by 14 votes in the recount
+ And Griffin failed to pick up enough votes (35) for a full hand recount
* A panel of the North Carolina Court of Appeals then unanimously rejected a request from Griffin for an order to the SBE to issue a decision on his election ballot challenges
+ The SBE will meet to address Griffin’s 300+ protests for 60,000 ballots statewide
o Griffin has also intervened in a federal lawsuit filed by the NC Democratic Party connected to the ballot challenges
* Giffin argued against linking the case to ongoing GOP lawsuit challenging 225,000 NC voter registrations who did not provide a driver’s license number or the last four digits of a Social Security number
+ Which lawyers for the SBE have protested

You can keep up-to-date here ([link removed]) .

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