To give the contrarian viewpoint here… There are actually a LOT of people and companies moving here so maybe those things that keep some companies and people away are actually bringing in some other companies and people. We only hear one side of the story in the news The marriage amendment did pass by a 61% to 39% margin which is pretty significant in a state with many close elections.
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I think that it’s fair to say that some companies don’t elevate socially progressive issues to the forefront of their decision making, but I think it’s an almost impossible stretch to say that there are publicly traded companies that are actively looking for locations that actually thwart such issues.
That said, the reality is that the sort of companies, (STEM) that have been driving Raleigh forward for decades, are usually in the camp that does consider socially progressive issues because it’s important to their recruitment and retention goals vis-a-vis the highly educated young, and increasingly diverse, workforce they are seeking.
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Isn’t NC still ranked pretty low on K-12 education? Our university system is incredible, but our foundation education system leaves a lot to be desired. To the point, when my first kids were born, my wife and I had some serious conversations about leaving NC b/c of the state of public education. However, we decided to stay due to the potential opportunities our kids would have living in a mecca of higher education (Duke, UNC, NCSU).
From my personal experience with WCPSS… my twins are in 4th grade, and currently in their 3rd school since they started. One of those changes was due to a move, the other was where we got “reassigned”. Kiddo number three will be entering WCPSS in another year, so the chaos will only intensify as the twins move up to middle school and the little tyke is in elementary school. As a parent living through it now… our public schools in NC (and in particular Wake County) leave a lot to be desired.
This may be another reason companies looking at the Triangle or Raleigh maybe choosing to go elsewhere.
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Wake County schools ranked No. 5 in the state and No. 1,354 nationally (out of 10,574 total districts). Wake received an overall grade of A- from Niche. Unfortunately due to high growth rates in Wake County new schools are being built constantly which leads to above average reassignments. Also the large size of our school district means that there are quite a few really good schools and some really bad schools. I suspect that it depends on where you live within Wake County.
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I think that, despite any local narratives, WCPSS is actually an objectively measured plus for Raleigh and Wake County. There are a lot of crappy systems out there nationally.
To be ranked near the top 10% nationally, and to be among the very largest systems in the United States is no small feat.
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Ya’ll probably saw this but the student population in Wake county is not growing at the rate it used to. I’m not sure what to make of this:
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article223384540.html
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I know it seems impossible to believe because people are still moving here at a high rate. It would seem that more parents may be home schooling or private schools. I hope if this is true that Wake County quits raising our property taxes every year (I think 5 straight years now) …
Then again, aren’t Charter Schools also funded by tax dollars? Just b/c some parents are taking their kids out of WCPSS and putting them into Charter Schools, someone still has to pay for those. Charter Schools are not Private Schools, they still require public funding to operate.
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Charter schools get money based on the number of students they have but don’t receive funding to build facilities. Charter schools are funded by federal, state, and local tax dollars, and are tuition-free. There are currently 24 Charter Schools in Wake County. (188 regular schools and 76 private schools). They are cheaper for Wake County as a whole because there is no cost to build the facilities. So there are negatives and positives about them.
Homeschooling is definitely taking a bite out of the public school population in NC. There’s around 135,000 students statewide, and it’s growing every year. We’re the only state in the nation with more homeschoolers than private schoolers, as it happens. I think charter and private schools may be making similar gains, which is why we aren’t seeing increases in public school populations.
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As noted by others, the increasingly popularity of various types of schooling outside the public school system is pushing down enrollment rates. Also, there was a massive baby bust in the U.S. that started with the recession but has only gotten worse since then, even as the economy has been improving. That baby bust is now finally starting to impact school enrollment rates.
But I think it’s significant that even though Wake County enrollment as a whole is flat, there are definitely pockets of the county that are still seeing significant enrollment growth in local schools, and thus will probably need to have some new schools built. Obviously if some pockets are growing but overall growth is flat, then by definition that must mean there are places where enrollment numbers are going down. But my guess is that the growth areas are small in number but highly concentrated and visible, whereas the declines are probably more evenly spread out–there probably aren’t any places where enrollment is cratering.
There are a probably a lot of places in the county where gentle declines in enrollment would ease overcrowding in schools that are or were straining to catch up in the time when enrollment was booming.
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Another possibility could be that a significant chunk of the new workforce is millennials who don’t have or want kids. I have zero statistics to back this up, I just happen to be one such person and know quite a few recent relocatees who fall into that category.
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I agree, and fall into that category myself — and I also want to add that indications of flat school enrollment are not necessarily bad things, just as a slowing birth rate is not a bad thing either. With fewer people to educate it will (hopefully) be less necessary to build new schools, and funding can be freed to go towards other purposes.
Note that same sex marriage has majority/plurality support in every US state except Alabama and Mississippi. 2012 was ever such a long time ago… in terms of politics.
The fact that a sitting governor lost reelection for the first time in NC’s history–in a good year for his party no less, says something about North Carolinians’ views as far as LGBT rights are concerned. Unfortunately our views are completely ignored by a general assembly that is not accountable to democracy.
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So Interesting article from WRAL today. Seems NC is still in active talks with Apple and Apple did buy that land down in RTP. The project is called Project Bear.
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As much as I hate being on the same side as a libertarian think tank that regularly confuses correlation with causation…
…I agree with this guy. Isn’t it getting a bit ridiculous? Like if there’s reason to believe the Apple deal is still a thing, I feel like we, the constituents, are owed more than “because I said so” for justifying a lack of transparency…
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I mean, if Apple has bought the land, there has to be something to it. I doubt Apple just bought a bunch of land, AFTER Austin was awarded the 5000 job project for giggles.
I could believe if it someone told me they were just speculating on land that they think will increase in value in the future (and I can’t see the land in RTP becoming less valuable in the medium to long-term), with no plans to build anything on it, but as a “just in case”. They have a quarter of a trillion dollars in cash just sitting around. Maybe real estate is their best play.
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Apple bought the land but are not planning anything immediate. It made logical sense for them to buy that piece of land and secure it for 10 years in case they want to expand in the future. Worst case they got a huge piece of land in one of the fastest growing areas in the U.S. and in the RTP park. Should they reconsider they will have no problem getting somebody else to buy if from them before being penalized.
Let’s not get too exited - 10 years is a long time especially in the tech industry… much can change. we can have two new governments before that 
Our officials might have signed an NDA for this long term thing or just hide behind the fact not to have to reveal how the other campus went south
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Thank you NC GOP!!!
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