View a printable version of the Year in Review.
Overview
September Half-Day Conference
On Saturday, September 21, PSFNC hosted a half-day conference featuring the work of three prominent education advocates. Jennifer Berkshire, author of The Education Wars—A Citizen’s Guide and Defense Manual and co-host of the education policy podcast “Have You Heard” started the morning with an in-person interview with WCPSS board member Tyler Swanson. Then education historian and author Diane Ravitch and researcher Josh Cowen discussed his book The Privateers: How Billionaires Created a Culture War and Sold School Vouchers via Zoom. The final session featured Jennifer Berkshire interviewing four North Carolina public school champions: Letha Mohammed, Marcus Bass, Shaneeka Moore-Lawrence, and Todd Warren. We were honored to have Governor Cooper come as a surprise guest to welcome participants to the conference especially since the first line in Dr. Berkshire’s book mentions Governor Cooper!
Original Videos
PSFNC created many original short videos to inform the public about the elections and key education issues. They can all be found on our YouTube channel. Our two most watched original videos address private school vouchers:
Webinars and Presentations
This year continued our tradition of hosting informative webinars with legislative leaders and education experts. We also launched a partnership with the NC PTA which produced several social media campaigns and a summer presentation series where PSFNC shared information about advocacy and voucher policies. Recordings of our webinars are also posted on our YouTube channel.
- January 11. The Choice We Face: A Conversation with Author Dr. Jon Hale
- January 25.Legislative Update & Short Session Forecast with Rep. Julie von Haefen
- February 7. Is the NC Supreme Court Poised to Undo Leandro? Legal Experts Weigh In
- March 14. Schoolhouse Burning: A Conversation with Author Derek Black
- May 8. Why the Battle over Diverse Public Schools Still Matters
- July 23. The History and Impact of Private School vOUCHers in NC
- August 27. Back to School: 2024 Legislative Session
NC Public Education Network (PEN) Launch
This year marked the launch of our Public Education Network to facilitate communication and networking among public school advocates across the state. Public school supporters can click on each county to find organizations whose missions include supporting public schools. Statewide and national pro-public school organizations are also included in PEN.
Newsletters, Fact Sheets, Social Media and Press Releases
Through weekly newsletters, fact sheets, and frequent social media posts, we continued to keep North Carolinians up-to-date on education-related news. This year we added Twitter and BlueSky to our social media offerings and topped 33,000 followers on Facebook!
In an effort to expand our reach, we contracted EIN Presswire to distribute our press releases through their extensive network of internet publications which include AP News, Google News, North Carolina Newswire, Yahoo, and Bing. We have posted our original press releases on our website. This year for the first time we also contracted with Public News Service to write and publish articles aligned with our mission. These stories and our original press releases have been accessed by millions of readers within NC and across the nation, bringing our content to outlets far beyond the typical reach of our newsletters and social media outlets.
State and National Honors
We are thrilled to share that our founder and chair Dr. Yevonne Brannon received two major awards this year in recognition of her long-standing advocacy for public education and democracy. Yevonne received the 2024 Defenders of Justice Award from the NC Justice Center and was one of just 25 awardees nationwide of the inaugural Democracy Heroes Award given through a partnership of Morning Joe, The Rockefeller Foundation, and HeadCount. These two awards recognize Yevonne’s extensive influence and commitment to causes that benefit public education and strong, healthy communities.