Today’s Pope Center piece by Duke Cheston covers the recent policy changes to North Carolina public education (higher-ed and K-12) that take some serious steps toward greater freedom and lower costs.

The GOP-controlled general assembly and Governor Pat McCrory, who was elected last year, are showing what can happen when a state is run by people who are not beholden to the education establishment. Just to point to one example, teachers who obtain master’s degrees will no longer automatically get pay increases. That merely inflated the demand for feeble credentials that do nothing to improve teaching ability. The siphoning of money away from taxpayers to be shared between the university MA programs and the teachers who obtained the degrees will stop. Other states should take notice.