Judge orders NC schools to explain ‘academic double-speak’

By EMERY P. DALESIO
Associated Press

RALEIGH, NC (AP) – The judge overseeing a 20-year-old lawsuit wants to know if North Carolina officials are trying to define their way out of their duty to educate all of the state’s children.

Superior Court Judge Howard Manning Jr. has scheduled a two-day hearing beginning Wednesday. Manning is looking into whether state education officials are obeying their constitutional obligation to give every North Carolina child the opportunity to have a sound, basic education.

Manning wants the state to explain a decision last March by the State Board of Education to change the definition of who is learning at grade level. Manning says he thinks the change is waters down requirements and buries it in “academic double speak.”

Manning was selected by the state Supreme Court to oversee compliance with its decisions.

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