Books With Color, a Charlotte-based authors alliance, made its first public launch last Monday. The alliance is focused on increasing access to inclusive reading materials in homes and classrooms. According to the 2023 School Diversity Report, 75.5% of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools students identify as one or more minority races. But nearly 71% of children’s and young adult books are about white characters, animals or things.
Books With Color, a Charlotte-based authors alliance, made its first public launch last Monday. The alliance is focused on increasing access to inclusive reading materials in homes and classrooms. According to the 2023 School Diversity Report, 75.5% of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools students identify as one or more minority races. But nearly 71% of children’s and young adult books are about white characters, animals or things.
Across Mecklenburg County, home values are up an average of 58% from four years ago in the newest tax revaluation. But if you live in a lower-priced home close to uptown, there’s a good chance the value at least doubled. That means more of the tax burden is shifting to these homeowners and, indirectly, to renters in many of the city’s Corridors of Opportunity lower-income areas that have long been overlooked, and more affordable.
For nearly a century, the Ela Dam in the North Carolina mountains has provided electricity but also altered wildlife habitats and disconnected the community. Land conservation and environmental groups have joined the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in an ambitious plan to remove the aging dam. But that hinges on getting millions of dollars in federal funding.