Public Schools: State of Learning

While Newton, Mass., is demonstrating that creative teaching can improve a city's school system, North Carolina is showing how education can be used to lift a whole state's economy. Ranking 42nd among the states in per capita income, North Carolina aims to improve its schools by means of a belt-tightening 3% sales tax on food, pushed through the biennial general assembly three years ago by Governor Terry Sanford. The tax enabled the assembly to add $100 million to school funds over two years, proved so beneficial that the 1963 assembly added $69...