Liz Schlemmer

Credit Elizabeth Baier / WUNC
/
Liz Schlemmer is WUNC's Education Policy Reporter, a fellowship position supported by the A.J. Fletcher Foundation. She has an M.A. from the UNC Chapel Hill School of Media & Journalism and a B.A. in history and anthropology from Indiana University.
She has previously served as a temporary Morning Edition producer and intern at WUNC and as a news intern at St. Louis Public Radio. Liz is originally from Indiana, where she grew up with a large extended family of educators.
-
The state budget law requires the UNC System staff to move from Chapel Hill to Raleigh by the end of this year at a cost of $15 million over four years. Lawmakers tucked the plan into the final budget bill without public discussion.
-
Native American students recently circulated an online petition to “Save American Indian & Indigenous Studies at UNC-Chapel Hill.” After the petition received several thousand signatures, the university put a pause on the decision to end the major. Students and faculty say the threat to the program is a symptom of a larger problem.
-
Teacher turnover. Burnout. Short-staffed schools. After two years in a pandemic, for many people, life is getting back to some semblance of normal. With the end of virtual classes and mask mandates, schools are also returning to their pre-pandemic routines — but teachers say schools are not back to normal.
-
Judge hears arguments over court-ordered $1.7 billion for public schools as Leandro case heads to coThe North Carolina Supreme Court has asked Judge Michael Robinson to decide how the recent state budget affects a prior court ruling that ordered the state to set aside $1.7 billion for a plan to improve inequities in public schools.
-
The UNC-Chapel Hill Faculty Council has approved a resolution to undertake a 20-year initiative to study and improve equitable pay for faculty. The resolution seeks to reduce wage gaps between male and female professors and across different races.
-
The UNC System Board of Governors has voted to raise the cap on out-of-state students for the second year in a row at three of its historically black colleges and universities – North Carolina A&T State University, North Carolina Central University and Elizabeth City State University. The policy could bring higher enrollment and revenue, plus more students with strong academic records.
-
The State Board of Education heard a proposal today for a draft plan that could dramatically change how North Carolina teachers are licensed and paid. A state education official says the plan also has the potential to increase teacher pay.
-
The new model would create an alternative pathway for becoming a teacher and advanced roles that could increase a teacher's pay.
-
The students held the march in conjunction with the 2022 Global Climate Strike — an international youth movement for climate action — with a focus on local solutions for their campus. UNC-Chapel Hill continues to operate its own coal-burning power plant.
-
Harris said there have been as many as 80 threats made toward HBCUs and other minority institutions and places of worship this year.