© 2026 Blue Ridge Public Radio
Blue Ridge Mountains banner background
Your source for information and inspiration in Western North Carolina.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Notice - Brevard 101.5 BPR News, and 90.5 BPR Classic - Intermittent power issues - Notice

Education Roundup: Resignation Of Board Of Ed Chair And A Revived Court Battle

File photo of State Board of Education Chairman Bill Cobey (center-right) listening while State Superintendent Mark Johnson gives a monthly address to the board.
Jess Clark
/
WUNC
File photo of State Board of Education Chairman Bill Cobey (center-right) listening while State Superintendent Mark Johnson gives a monthly address to the board.
File photo of State Board of Education Chairman Bill Cobey (center-right) listening while State Superintendent Mark Johnson gives a monthly address to the board.
Credit Jess Clark / WUNC
/
WUNC
File photo of State Board of Education Chairman Bill Cobey (center-right) listening while State Superintendent Mark Johnson gives a monthly address to the board.

On Thursday, State Board of Education Chair Bill Cobey submitted his resignation. His resignation will go into effect in September, six months before his term as chair was set to end. This move comes after State Schools Superintendent Mark Johnson shared his reorganization of the State Department of Public Instruction. 

Anita Rao talks to WUNC education policy reporter Liz Schlemmer about this week's top education news.

Also this week, North Carolina school districts filed a lawsuit to try to enforce a 10-year-old court decision. That 2008 judgment said state agencies had to give public schools almost $748 million – but so far schools have only received $18 million. Guest host Anita Rao talks to WUNC education policy reporter Liz Schlemmer about the top education news of the week.

Copyright 2018 North Carolina Public Radio

Amanda Magnus grew up in Maryland and went to high school in Baltimore. She became interested in radio after an elective course in the NYU journalism department. She got her start at Sirius XM Satellite Radio, but she knew public radio was for her when she interned at WNYC. She later moved to Madison, where she worked at Wisconsin Public Radio for six years. In her time there, she helped create an afternoon drive news magazine show, called Central Time. She also produced several series, including one on Native American life in Wisconsin. She spends her free time running, hiking, and roller skating. She also loves scary movies.
Anita Rao is the host and creator of "Embodied," a live, weekly radio show and seasonal podcast about sex, relationships & health. She's also the managing editor of WUNC's on-demand content. She has traveled the country recording interviews for the Peabody Award-winning StoryCorps production department, founded and launched a podcast about millennial feminism in the South, and served as the managing editor and regular host of "The State of Things," North Carolina Public Radio's flagship daily, live talk show. Anita was born in a small coal-mining town in Northeast England but spent most of her life growing up in Iowa and has a fond affection for the Midwest.