It’s certainly not unusual for teachers to stay in their classrooms long after school ends to grade papers and plan for upcoming lessons. It’s part of the job I expected when I became a teacher. But something I didn’t expect was having to work a second job to make ends meet because state lawmakers refuse to give educators an adequate raise.

Garbage in, garbage out. This rule of thumb applies to every field of human behavior — very much including politics. For example, our political conversation about poverty is based on a fact that most political actors think is true but really isn’t: that a persistently high share of the population lives in poverty.

We have said this decade will be called the “Transformative Twenties,” so let’s explore some of those changes.

In January 1999, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., voted against a resolution allowing witnesses to be subpoenaed during President Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial. A day later, he voted for an amendment offered by Sen. Tom Daschle, D.-S.D., to prohibit any further evidence, argument or deliberations except for two hours of concluding argument by each side.

For a guy claiming to be against “tax giveaways” to corporations, Gov. Roy Cooper sure seems to be fond of doling out taxpayer dollars to corporations.

It’s been incredibly unfortunate that some of the press continue to focus on sensationalism versus taking the time to get the facts on how well the UNC System is performing under the direction and guidance of the current Board of Governors.

You may have seen the Michelle Williams Golden Globes speech by now. The actress credited abortion for allowing her to achieve her professional successes. Pro-life and pro-choice people said what you would have expected in response, but what seemed to be largely missed was the misery.

Heading into the 2020 presidential election year, President Trump’s political prospects don’t look so good.

“Prudence,” wrote the British statesman Edmund Burke, “is not only the first in rank of the virtues political and moral, but she is the director, the regulator, the standard of them all.” Quite right. Unfortunately, prudence has been sadly lacking on the issue of voter identification. It’s roiled North Carolina politics for years. It needn’t have.

This year’s budget stalemate — filled with political bargaining and finger pointing — has neglected the many needs of North Carolina’s children and parents. Instead, legislative leaders forged ahead with special interests as their chief priority.

It’s an old playground technique: hit the bully and run.

North Carolina has one of the top public higher education systems in the United States, with 16 outstanding universities as well as an innovative science and mathematics high school. To maintain our competitive edge, the state must pass a budget that includes the priorities of the UNC System. Unfortunately, North Carolina is falling behind other public and private universities in investing in its human capital: faculty and staff.

Conservative North Carolinians believe that lower taxes translate into higher levels of economic growth and personal freedom. So they like the declines in both income- and sales-tax burdens that have occurred since 2011. Progressives, of course, strongly disagree.

The 1920s were known as the “Roaring 20s,” a decade when electricity, telephones and radios became commonplace in most homes and automobiles were not just for the rich. Aside from the unfortunate (for some) introduction of prohibition and the disastrous (for most) Great Depression that closed the decade, the 20s was a decade of great innovation, growth and prosperity.

The thing about Joe Biden, as the all-important, ultimately trivial Iowa caucuses loom, is that hardly anybody seriously dislikes him. Not really. Oh, it’s possible to find dissenters here and there, mainly people who affix slogans such as “neo-liberal” and who think that people who disagree with their opinions must be stupid and immoral.