Gov. Easley Challenges State Education Leaders to Continue Building Nation’s Best Education System

Raleigh- Gov. Mike Easley today called on the top education leaders from the Department of Public Instruction, State Board of Education, the University of North Carolina, N.C. Community Colleges and the N.C. Independent Colleges and Universities to continue working together to expand educational opportunities for citizens across the state.  Easley spoke to more than 150 education leaders at the annual meeting of the North Carolina Education Governing Boards at the William and Ida Friday Center for Continuing Education in Chapel Hill.

“During the past seven years we have worked with the legislature to make groundbreaking progress in public education,” said Easley.  “We focused our efforts and resources in the classroom and we refused to make excuses.  It is up to you to take the foundation we have built and work together to create the best system of learning in the world, from pre-K through a debt-free college education.”

Since 2001 Easley has used research-based strategies to increase student achievement and the high school graduation rate.  Soon after taking office, Easley created the state’s first academic pre-K program for at risk four-year-olds.  Today, More at Four serves almost 30,000 pre-schoolers and has been named one of the best pre-K programs in the nation.  Easley has also worked with the legislature to reduce class sizes in grades K-3 and place literacy coaches and counselors and nurse teams in hundreds of middle schools across the state.

To help with teacher recruitment and retention, Easley created the first-in-the-nation Teacher Working Conditions Survey in 2002.  Since then, the statewide survey has been administered three times.  Last year, more than 75,600 teachers responded and Education Week magazine named the survey and indicator of teacher quality on its state education report cards.  This year, the survey will be conducted March 17-April 21.  For more information, visit http://www.ncteachingconditions.org/.

In 2004 Easley launched one of the nation’s most ambitious high school reform efforts when he opened five Learn and Earn early college high schools.  These are schools where students attend classes on the campus of community colleges or universities and earn two years of college credit or an associate’s degree with one extra year of study in high school.  Today there are 42 Learn and Earn schools in operation across the state.  Thanks to support from the legislature and a partnership with state community colleges and universities, student who do not have access to a Learn and Earn early college high school may now take college-level courses during the school day from their local high school through Learn and Earn Online.

To help low-income students pay for college, Easley created the EARN grant program.  Eligible students, who have earned two years of college credit through a Learn and Earn program, can complete their undergraduate education on a state university campus debt-free with the EARN grants combined with other aid.  This fall, 12,500 incoming college freshmen will be eligible for the grants.  For more information about the Learn and Earn or EARN grant programs, visit http://www.nclearnandearn.gov/.