Growth Pummels North and South Carolina
by Leon Kolankiewicz
I have had the good fortune to experience the charms of both the Tar Heel State and the Palmetto State. For those Westerners who may never have ventured east of the Mississippi River, I m referring to North Carolina and South Carolina.
In the former, I have backpacked the Appalachian Trail from Newfound Gap in the Great Smokey Mountains National Park. I have stood atop Mt. Mitchell the very rooftop of the Smokies and at 6,684 ft., the highest point in all of eastern North America, Canada included. My son worked as an avionics engineer with the U.S. Navy at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point in Havelock, NC, working on the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey, and I have often visited him at his place in New Bern on the banks of the tidal lower Neuse River where its mouth opens wide into Pamlico Sound.
Dec. 15, 2020 11:36 am ET
PHOENIX As if the pandemic weren’t disruptive enough, many American schools are facing a growing shortage of teachers.
School districts are recruiting parents as substitute teachers, online class sizes are soaring to 50 children or more and bus drivers are baby-sitting classrooms. Some are considering allowing asymptomatic teachers who were exposed to Covid-19 to continue to show up.
Public-school employment in November was down 8.7% from February, and at its lowest level since 2000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
That includes teachers who quit, retired early or took leaves of absence due to the pandemic, and layoffs of support staff such as teachers’ aides and clerical workers. The staffing crunch leaves teachers educating children in person and online simultaneously, deep-cleaning their own classrooms and taking turns as crossing guards.