- Hi, I'm Marc Rotterman.

Coming up on "Front Row," student test scores dropped dramatically.

Racing returns to North Wilkesboro Speedway and we'll discuss Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson's new book, next.

- [Announcer] Major funding for "Front Row" with Marc Rotterman is provided by Robert L. Luddy.

Additional funding provided by Patricia and Koo Yuen through the Yuen Foundation.

Committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities.

And by... [dramatic music] Funding for the Lightning Round provided by Nicholas B. and Lucy Mayo Boddie Foundation, A.E.

Finley Foundation, NC Realtors, Rifenburg Construction, Stefan Gleason.

A complete list of funders can be found at pbsnc.org/frontrow.

[dramatic music] ♪ - Welcome back.

Joining the conversation, Donna King with Carolina, Morgan Jackson, chief political strategies for governor Roy Cooper, Colin Campbell, editor at North Carolina Tribune and radio talk show host, Nick Craig.

Donna, why don't we begin with a new report on student test scores?

- Sure, sure.

So we're seeing now the results, the damage done by closed schools for, you know, more than a year during the COVID pandemic schools we're closed across North Carolina.

We're starting to see the fallout from that.

We are seeing the largest decline, the steepest decline in reading scores since 1990.

Right now kids are getting a little bit of a bump in the test scores from when they were actually out of school.

Right now about 51% of North Carolina students are scoring at grade-level proficiency.

That's actually down though from about 60%, 2017, 18, 19 but a little bit better than in 2020.

What that's telling us though really is that teachers are really doing the yeoman's work getting kids back up to speed, they're in there trying to make it better, but it shows that this is a really steep hole to dig out of, that these kids were put in when schools were closed.

And when you talk about career and college readiness, it's in the 30s and that's really alarming, particularly as some of the older kids, the ones in high school, are looking to go into college and go into careers and they're having to dig out of these state-imposed shutdowns for more than a year.

So the damage is really starting to show.

- Morgan, what struck you about this report?

- Listen, I think several things struck me about this report, is first of all, we know that COVID impacted every one of our lives and our children's lives dramatically and this is a stark reminder that these challenges continue.

You know, kids are struggling with mental health, they're struggling with academics, schools are struggling with COVID-related, continued shortages of teachers, shortages of support personnel, shortages of bus drivers.

I think schools are working very hard as Donna talked about.

Teachers are doing incredible work to try to catch kids up.

It's one of the reasons that... And our schools are trying to help in different ways.

Look at this summer.

A lot of school districts across the state offered expanded summer school for kids, not just to help keep them up to grade level but to catch them up on things they missed to expand where they were.

And you look at school districts that are offering bonuses, hiring bonuses for teacher and pay raises to try to get more folks, more personnel in the class and more folks in the school.

Listen, the key thing I learned from this is schools need our help.

Our kids need our help, our teachers need our help and they need our support.

We need more resources.

We also need more parental involvement in the classroom.

We need everybody stepping up to fix this gap.

- Nick, was it a mistake to shut down to schools, you think?

- I don't know how anybody could look at the data right now and say it wasn't.

And you know, you're talking about money and teachers and all that.

Marc, we're talking about morale for these educators too.

If you've got a teacher that's educating your child and they're not into it because the morale is so terrible in the school, that doesn't help the student learn at all.

So I don't know how you could look at test scores right now which I will know, by the way, I have a strong suspicion that because the grading scale was changed from zero to 100, to 50 to 100, that number might be padded a little bit because of the changing in the grading scale - Colin, weigh in here.

- Yeah, I mean, I think this really is gonna create this inequity.

You had a lot of kids who actually did okay with virtual learning because their parents were active.

They made sure they stayed on task, the self-starter type kids, the kids who apparently, you hear from a lot of anecdotes, just logged off entirely.

Didn't show up to the Zoom meeting, logged into the class and then walked outta the room.

I mean, these are the kids that are really, really falling behind.

And the question is, what do you do to target those folks and make sure they can catch back up before they graduate.

- Donna, is this why some parents are moving towards charters and private schools?

- Absolutely.

We're seeing the largest move toward school-choice options, whether it's charters or it's homeschooling.

We talked a little bit about more engaged parents because of this and if there is a silver lining, that's what it is.

Suddenly parents got a chance to see what was happening, see what was and wasn't working for their kids.

Some kids really did thrive in online school.

The kids who did not thrive were really the ones that were walking into it at a deficit anyway.

So I think that moved toward more school choice options and flipping this on its head and trying to figure out what works was one of the good things we did get out of it.

- Okay, I wanna move on to talk about the big news of the week.

Racing's coming back to north Wilkesboro Speedway.

Talk to us about it.

- Huge announcement this week.

You had Governor Cooper, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and NASCAR officials in Raleigh this week to announce that the All-Star Race, which is NASCAR's sort of crown jewel of races is returning not only to North Carolina but is gonna be at North Wilkesboro.

This is a big, big deal, guys.

North Wilkesboro is one of the founding tracks of NASCAR, 75, 80 years ago, but it's been largely- - The birth of NASCAR.

- The birth of NASCAR- - Kyle Petty.

- Bootlegging and moonshining.

In North Wilkesboro.

- Kenny Johnson.

- That's exactly right.

But North Wilkesboro has largely been shuttered for the last 20 years.

So one of the things Governor Cooper came up with this idea and this money is coming by the way, from the American Rescue Plan, the federal money, but came up with an idea and called it Racetrack Revival Project.

And so he fought to get it in the budget and it got included and the general assembly agreed $45 million spread out across a lot of these race tracks, not just North Wilkesboro, but Rockingham, which is another track that's been largely shuttered for over a decade.

But this is a really big deal.

That race alone will inject potentially 80 to $100 million in a rural economy in North Carolina.

- That's a lot of counties, right?

- Yeah, regionally, it's a huge deal.

And it is really a great comeback story for North Carolina and for sports to see the the birth of racing return in such a big way.

And again, it's largely because of the COVID-related money for economic development that was able to spurn these tracks back.

- Donna.

- Yeah, and I think that that's the big key is that this is federal-taxpayer, American Rescue Plan dollars.

And there are taxpayers who say, "Look, I want to see it go towards schools," or whatever, but it is exciting.

And one of the things that I have seen in this-- - Do you question the funding, taxpayer funding?

- I mean, it's a lot of taxpayer dollars, but hopefully it will yield something for these communities.

They've been trying since 96 or so to try and get these racetracks back up and operating, get people back in the gates.

And COVID, of course, slowed that process down when everything was closed.

But there's another little piece of it that I think is really interesting.

Cultural Resources is gonna link some of these trails, create some more tourist attractions, get people out and moving in their communities because I think some of it has become stagnant.

People aren't going out as much as they used to; they got in the habit of staying home.

And we're starting to see that change and this is a good opportunity to do it.

- Colin, you think this is a worthwhile project?

- There was a question of will they come?

Are we past the era of NASCAR tracks being in small towns and these rural areas?

- [Marc] If you build it, they will come.

- Yeah, and they had a race a couple weeks ago when it was close to sold-out crowd.

Traffic was backed up for miles around the race track.

It's a place that you drive by on on the 421 for years and assumed it was probably gonna get torn down at some point.

I mean, just looking at those faded banners, you didn't see that they could so quickly bring this thing back to life.

- Put this in context, my friend.

- Well, you talk about bringing it back, bringing NASCAR back to a rural area.

I think I heard the CEO of NASCAR say at this press conference that, hey, I think we strayed a little bit from what we were as NASCAR.

So now they're bringing the sport back.

But I wanna talk about the rural nature of this.

We talk about the growth in the Raleigh area, the Charlotte area, and even on the coast east of 95.

This is a county.

These areas of counties have actually lost populations from 2010 to 2020.

This is a huge boom for their economy.

I don't know how you don't think this is something great, Marc.

- Wrap this up, my friend, in about 40 seconds.

- Listen, I think this is so exciting.

It's a great North Carolina story and I totally agree-- - [Marc] Can you get me tickets to the race?

I mean, talk to the governor, will you?

- Potentially.

[Marc laughing] As Colin said, we all drove by North Wilkesboro for 20 years and grass was 10 feet high around the gates and to come back to its roots.

And I think, as Nick said, NASCAR has lost a lot of viewership because they've lost sort of, they've become a major track, major city sport, and they've lost that connection that began NASCAR.

So again, great for North Carolina and it's great for NASCAR.

- Okay, I wanna change gears one more time, talk to you, Colin.

You talked to Governor Robinson, Lieutenant Governor Robinson.

[men crosstalking] - By nine yards, the nine yards.

He's got a new book, right?

- Yeah, so he's coming out with a book, I think next week is the release date.

That's sort of his autobiography.

He gets a lot of his upbringing in a working class family, guy who worked at a furniture manufacturing facility for many years, got laid off during NAFTA.

His home went into foreclosure and then only recently had this political moment through a speech on gun rights at the Greensboro City Council that went YouTube viral and catapulted him into state politics.

So now he's got a national book tour coming up in a few weeks.

And so you'll probably be seeing him all over the place promoting the book.

It's rare for a state level political figure to put out a book pretty early in their political career.

Usually you see folks running for president will do that, but not so much at the state level.

This is clearly him trying to get on a larger stage, I think.

He told me he really wants to shape the narrative around his life so it's not being told in media stories that he doesn't have a lot to say-so in.

But I was able to talk to him about a number of other topics, Medicaid expansion.

He's one of the few Republicans who's still vehemently opposed to that.

He's not a fan of our jobs incentives program.

So it's interesting for him to be out there and take questions about some of the things that you don't hear in his speeches that are very culture wars oriented, but could play in if he runs for governor in 2024, which he says in the book is something he's highly considering.

- Donna, he does have a compelling story.

- He does.

- And he talked to your group, as well, right?

- He did, he did.

He came into Carolina Journal studios and really talked about his background, how his mother's work ethic really changed the tide for his family, he grew up very poor.

And he has a fantastic backstory.

I mean, if you ever get a chance to and you haven't seen it, Google that Greensboro fiery speech on the Second Amendment.

He ran a daycare.

He tossed pizzas, he worked in a furniture manufacturing.

He is a populous kind of guy, especially for parts of rural North Carolina who really identify with that working man and that strong family connection and that bootstraps approach.

And now he feels called to serve in a public way.

His almost meteoric rise from that speech in Greensboro to the lieutenant governor is fascinating whether you agree with his policies or politics or not, he's got a great story and he's passionate and he's interesting to listen to.

I was really impressed.

But the biggest thing that I took away from it, he's statistically the most popular Republican in North Carolina.

And he's not been on the scene very long.

I mean, polls are showing that North Carolinian's, Republican North Carolinians have a 53% favorable opinion of him, only 6% don't.

So I think that that's pretty significant as he moves in.

- Well, that's the base.

Can he grow beyond the base, you think?

Can he appeal to independent women, independent men in the suburbs?

- I think not only can he, but he's going to need to.

I mean, I think you can look at North Carolina right now, largest voting block being unaffiliated voters or independent voters.

He's going to have to appeal to that.

I think if we've learned anything over the past couple of years it's that you have to step away from your party politics, which don't get me wrong are incredibly important for your policies and your agenda, but you have to appeal to the broad base.

Watching the various interviews that he and looking at some of the excerpts from the book, I think he's got that broad appeal.

Marc, he's just a regular guy.

Just a regular guy that decided he was fed up with something, spoke at a City Council meeting, now he's the top elected Republican in the state of North Carolina.

That's pretty remarkable.

- You didn't write the forward, did you?

- I did not.

[all laughing] You will be shocked to hear that I have a very different take than my conservative friends here.

So here's what I'd say.

Listen, this book is just another long tirade by Mark Robinson for him to rail against women, against public schools, against gay marriage, sort of to reignite culture wars.

I mean, in this book, the things that he says.

- So you're undecided, right?

- No, and a lot of other folks are not undecided on this.

Listen, in this book, he demeans women.

He talks about how women try to outtalk men.

And he prides himself on putting women in their place.

That is disqualifying to 53% of the population, that is not strong.

He goes after public schools, says we shouldn't teach history and science at elementary school.

That's insane.

He bashes gay marriage again and again and again.

This guy continues to go on these cultural tirades that disqualify him to a large percentage of the population and it's not the path to win a governor's race.

- Donna, you think he announces right after the election?

- I think probably.

And I would say that that this idea of talking down to women and his discussion about women, I've gone back and I've actually watched these sermons that he's given about it and they're taken out of context.

They really are.

And some of it I don't agree, with some of it I do, but I do think that we're gonna have to be very careful as a journalistic community.

To make sure that we're taking things in context.

And that's true whether it's a Democrat or Republican.

- Okay.

I want to talk about the EPA.

You brought this to my attention.

They have a proposal about hazardous materials in the Cape Fear River.

- Yeah.

Something interesting to note about the EPA, the current administrator, Michael Regan, actually served in North Carolina under Governor Roy Cooper from 2017 to 2021 as head of, and the North Carolina DEQ, and the he was tapped by the administration early 2020.

And now he's up in DC.

So it's almost some of this Homerism of, okay.

He was at DEQ at EP, or at North Carolina DEQ when this GenX story broke, which is dealing with the Fayetteville work site plan outside of Fayetteville.

And the idea that PFAS, which are chemicals that are traditionally used in like non-stick pans.

Those were dumped into the river for the better part of 30 years.

A lot of communities and municipalities all the way from Fayetteville, all the way to the coast get water from, they pump the water out of the river and then process it.

Well, this water's been contaminated for 30 years and we don't know what necessarily what the impacts are.

So the interesting thing with this EPA cleanup act that they're working on is that they would hold these polluters accountable.

- This would be super fun.

- It would be super fun.

And it would, the biggest thing is it would hold the polluters accountable, not just stopping the release of PFAS.

That's just one small part of the puzzle.

How do you remedy this stuff in the future?

Because as of right now Marc, these public utilities are having to build, in the case of this, Cape Fear Public Utility has invested $45 million in a reverse osmosis system to get this out of the water.

That's a rate payer funded system.

Chemours hasn't paid a penny for that.

And that's a huge problem.

It's coming on the backs of the taxpayers.

- Morgan, how engaged is the governor on this?

- Very.

I mean, as Nick said, this is something.

North Carolina's been a leader in holding Chemours and other polluters accountable.

I mean, we've been dealing with this, as he said, since 2017.

We really are sort of the national forefront.

And this is.

The EPA is a homegrown thing.

It is, Michael Regan has taken what he learned in North Carolina and the battles with Chemours.

And listen.

These guys are tough to hold accountable in that they have consent order.

- They get a lot of money.

- They, you get a judge doing a consent order and they don't follow it.

And you have to go back and get another one.

But Nick's exactly right.

This is, these things are everywhere, guys.

It's not just the Cape Fear River.

They're all across the country.

They're called forever chemicals because they don't break down.

We've seen not only Fayetteville and Wilmington in the water system, but you see wells 50 miles from the river, private wells that are contaminated with PFAS and GenX.

And you're seeing this again all across the country.

It's something we have to deal with.

One thing everybody agrees with, we have to have clean, safe drinking water.

And that's what this is about.

- Colin.

- Yeah.

So this is gonna be an interesting issue, particularly at the same time, we're hearing this announcement of the federal level.

Chemours is actually planning to expand their plant outside of Fayetteville.

They're saying that, you know, what this is used in is semiconductor chips, which is a huge demand sector.

We had an announcement of a semiconductor plant coming to Chatham county just this week as well.

So that's gonna be this sort of push and pull of, there's the demand to manufacture this stuff.

But how do you regulate it in a way that doesn't increase the contamination?

And I think the communities particularly around this plant are gonna be very suspicious of what Chemours is doing in the future.

That they're not gonna be polluting the water.

- Donna, how do you balance it?

- Well, I mean, that's the tough part, right?

And also, how far can a state and federal government reach into a company's, you know coffers and say, okay, you have to pay for this.

But one of the things EPA did do is, they reduced the the limit from something like 140- 120 parts per trillion to 10.

So getting that research done, knowing what's dangerous, knowing where it is.

I mean, this is on, this is on solar panels.

It's not just Chemours, it's everywhere.

And knowing what the government's role is in this and what the process is to get these kind of things cleaned up and taken care of.

That's gonna be the real challenge.

- Great conversation.

Let's go to the most under reported story of the week.

- Absolutely.

So one of the stories that came out a lot and it became more and more reported, Fox Business said that Nancy Pelosi is talking about wanting to be the Ambassador to Italy.

Should Republicans take control of Congress?

- Is she throwing in the towel?

- You know, her office says no.

Her office says that's ridiculous, not interested.

But she's been vacationing there an awful lot.

And that that role is sitting open but so are a lot of other ambassador positions.

- Well, you know that embassy there has a nice wine cellar.

- I was gonna say that.

- I'm glad to be the Ambassador of Italy.

I don't mind putting my my name in the hat already.

- I think she'd have a hard time getting the nomination though, because one Senator can hold that.

She's been all- - She'd have to get through the senate.

- Hold that nomination.

Morgan?

- So under reported, I'm gonna go to my alma mater, UNCW.

I'm a proud Seahawk this week.

They celebrated their 75th anniversary.

Back in 1947, Wilmington College opened with 238 students over the last seven- - So when you went to school?

- I was not there at the first class, but the second class.

I was not, I couldn't get in the first class.

So I had to defer.

But over the last seven and a half decades, it's grown from 238 students to over 17,000 students from around the country and around the globe and has achieved major national acclamations for the great school that it's become.

You know, US News and World Report has ranked it again for the third year in a row, as one of the top 100 public universities in the country.

The only three schools in the state that have that designation are Wilmington, Carolina, and State.

You know, we've got a great new Chancellor who's starting.

Dr. Aswani Volety, who was the provost to Elon before that was the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences in Wilmington.

Sky's the limit for Seahawks.

- Colin - Under reported news this week on the Medicaid expansion front.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kody Kinsley wrote a letter to legislative leaders, but also the hospital executives, urging some resolution in action on Medicaid expansion.

This month, he says that the state is potentially at risk of losing hundreds of millions of federal dollars if they wait.

And it doesn't go online until next year, which looks like the most likely scenario.

Legislative leaders are back in town on September 20th, but are saying they don't have a deal.

No action's gonna be taken at that time.

Which Kinsley says is gonna mean, you're not actually gonna have Medicaid expansion until next year at the absolute earliest.

- Morgan, where do you think that stands?

- I think we've got to bite at the apple in September.

It is very clear.

Hospitals say every day that they are struggling and they need this money desperately.

It is incumbent upon the hospitals to try to help work out a deal.

- And Governor and Phil Berger are on the same sheet of music, right?

- And Tim Moore is now on the same sheet of music.

The challenge is hospitals are- part of the deal is Certificate of Need reform.

And that's what the Senate wants.

And to create more competition, especially in urban areas.

And that's been the rub so far.

If we can find a deal on that, we've got a deal on Medicaid.

- Nick, under reported please, my friend.

- It's been a little bit cooler here in North Carolina thankfully, but out on the Western half of the country, it's been hot.

I think it hit 118 degrees in Sacramento earlier this week.

And they're dealing with huge energy problems out there.

Reports out from their power utilities that, hey, run your air conditioner at 78 plus degrees and you can't charge your car.

And this comes just a few weeks after the state of California - - Set thermometer after four, it's 78.

Degrees, right?

- Yeah.

And then this comes just a few weeks after the California legislature banned and is going to outlaw the sale of gas vehicles by 2030.

And now the power company is telling you, "Can't charge your car."

That's a huge problem.

- Is Gavin Newsom a legitimate candidate for president in 2024 if he can't keep the lights on?

- He's making some great moves.

- Well, he went up there and checked the drapes up there at the White House, didn't he?

- [chuckling] A lot of folks doing that these days.

- [laughing] Okay.

Okay, let's go to Lightning Round.

Donna, who's up and who's down this week?

- Up, I'm actually gonna say fishing in North Carolina.

The North Carolina Court of Appeals ruled unanimously this week that individuals can sue if the state limits, for not protecting their right to fish.

Now this could eventually lead to regulations on commercial fishing, but it's something that down at the coast, I'm sure, that people were watching pretty closely.

Down is Biden and Harris in North Carolina, Senate candidate, Cheri Beasley, has been noticeably absent from some of the activities of the president and vice president being in town.

No doubt, she does not wanna get dragged into their unpopularity among North Carolinians, but it's not gone without being noticed.

- Well, Biden's what?

He's at about 40, 42% right now in his approval.

- I'm hearing lower numbers than that and I'm sure that might be playing a role.

- Morgan?

- Beasley's running a great campaign.

So up this week, I gotta say is, and Colin mentioned earlier, Wolfspeed which formerly known as Cree announced 1,800 jobs, average pay is $78,000 a year and a $5 billion investment in Chatham County.

Once again, it seems like every week, North Carolina is luring these major clean energy jobs to the triangle, to Charlotte, to around the state.

It's a big deal for North Carolina.

Down this week, I'll say abortion and Donald Trump apparently for Republican candidates.

Republican candidates are scrubbing their websites and changing their talking points to exclude any mention of their abortion position and of Donald Trump as they continue to see how unpopular both of those positions are this fall.

- Well, let me ask you this.

Is Biden on the ballot or Trump on the ballot?

Is Biden's economic policies on the ballot?

- I would tell you this, I think it depends on the voters you're asking for, brother.

And the more Trump shows up, the better that is for Democrats.

- Colin?

- Up this week, Ted Budd's campaign, he's getting close to $3 million in ad spending just in the last week or so from the Senate Republican pack led by Mitch McConnell.

- I hear that's gonna actually be 30 million.

- 30 by the time you get to the election, so it's sort of dribbling out in little bits and I think this will maybe potentially change the more or less tie in that race that we have got right now.

I'm sure Democrats are also gonna spend heavily as we get closer to November.

Down this week, the people out in Western North Carolina who've been sending threatening legal letters to a number of elected officials saying that they're gonna have a bounty on their head.

There's an arrest by the FBI in that case this past week of a woman out in Haywood County.

So this may put a stop to some of these bizarrely threatening letters that elected officials have been getting.

- Let's get Lightning Round up and down, please.

- Up is mortgage rates, actually.

So it's up for that.

They're up at 5.89%, which is the highest since 2008.

We know what happened with the housing market in 2008.

Caught this interesting fact: when Biden was inaugurated, the average mortgage payment was $1,294.

At the end of July, it was $2,447 for the average mortgage payment.

That's astonishing.

- Wow.

Okay, down?

- And then down is gonna be Biden and specifically, his approval amongst independents.

His approval's just 32% among independents in general, but only 27 of those feel that the economy is headed in the right way, which as we know, is the largest block of voters in many states.

- 70% of Americans think the country's on the wrong track [cross talk] polls I've seen.

Donna, headline next week?

- Well, I have two actually.

Probably Queen Elizabeth's funeral now we are saying, gonna be watching that pretty closely, but also here in North Carolina, the State Board of Elections is meeting to talk about 14 different counties one-stop voting rules and locally, they have to agree, they have to be unanimously approved.

One-stop voting rules.

14 counties have not been able to agree and they're gonna weigh in.

- Headline quickly.

- So I'm gonna go to NFL.

NFL is back this week.

My Chicago Bears are undefeated, probably for the last time this season.

But it's exciting to be a football fan.

- Headline next week?

- Well with Mark Robinson out with a book, it's only a matter of time before his likely democratic opponent in 2024, Attorney General Josh Stein comes out with his own biography.

- Ghost written by Morgan Jackson.

- Headline next week?

- Atlantic hurricane season continues to boom.

- Great job, panel.

That's it for us.

Thanks for watching.

Hope to see you next week on "Front Row".

Have a great weekend.

[dramatic music] ♪ - [Announcer] Major funding for "Front Row with Marc Rotterman" is provided by Robert L. Luddy.

Additional funding provided by Patricia and Koo Yuen through the Yuen Foundation, committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities.

And by.

Funding for the Lightning Round provided by Nicholas B. and Lucy Mayo Boddie Foundation, A.E.

Finley Foundation, NC Realtors, Rifenburg Construction, Stefan Gleason.

A complete list of funders can be found at pbsnc.org/frontrow.

[dramatic music] ♪