Foundational research
Original policy research from Carolina Forward focuses on pragmatic, grounded and independent solutions to the biggest issues facing our home.
The full catalog
8 reportsRaising Up Carolina: Making Childcare Work Again for North Carolina Families
North Carolina's early child care system is failing on three fronts — workforce, delivery, and financing — and until the state builds capacity across all three simultaneously, access will remain constrained and too many children and families will be left behind.
Rebuilding the Housing Ladder in NC
The housing market is like a ladder. To bring the cost of housing down for everyone, the market needs to address a range of different needs - and that takes smart, targeted reforms from policymakers.
Energy Freedom for North Carolina
North Carolina's legacy energy monopoly has kept electricity expensive, coal-dependent, and unresponsive to consumers — and the path to affordable, reliable, clean power runs through deregulation and genuine competition.
The Middle Class Housing Plan
North Carolina's housing crisis isn't a mystery — it's a supply problem created by policy choices. The fix is equally straightforward: make it viable to build market-rate housing, and get out of the way.
Our Indivisible Destiny
Dissatisfaction with American democracy is not partisan — it is nearly universal. North Carolina has the authority, and the obligation, to act on three fronts: campaign finance, legislative transparency, and election reform.
The Road to Home
North Carolina's housing shortage is a policy failure — and fixing it requires bold changes to zoning, permitting, and public investment at every level of government.
Our Daily Bread
A generation of North Carolina workers has seen their wages stagnate, their benefits erode, and their economic security hollowed out — and it's the predictable result of policy choices that can be reversed.