North Carolina's future prosperity depends on our ability to provide a capable 21st century workforce that responds to society's ever changing needs. More than anything, our children must be inspired to learn, taught how to learn, and prepared for a lifetime of learning. The North Carolina Supreme Court declared in the Leandro ruling that under the state constitution children have a right to a "sound basic education," and that "an education that does not serve the purpose of preparing students to participate and compete in the society in which they live and work is devoid of substance and constitutionally inadequate."

Over one half of our state tax dollars are spent on education each year and that funding has grown by 32% over the last 6 years. We must meet the state's responsibility by developing education policies and delivering resources while focusing above all else on accountability. By holding all involved in education accountable for results we will meet the states' constitutional obligation to provide "a general and uniform system of free public schools" while entrusting the delivery of this sound education to parents, teachers and school administrators.

Currently North Carolina students struggle to remain competitive nationally and throughout this election campaign you will hear politicians reciting various statistics to convince you that our education system is ineffective. I believe there is much to build on in our current education system. Every day thousands of committed teachers and administrators strive to deliver the best education possible to our children. Our teachers have not let us down. North Carolina's leaders have let them down; the current democratic administration has let us all down. If we provide parents, teachers, and principals with the appropriate tools, then stay back and let them use these tools. I am convinced they will rise to the occasion and our children will succeed.

I understand the importance of education to the future of our state. More importantly, I understand that education is the basis for realizing the dreams and potential of our people. We cannot fail to deliver on this most basic and critical function of state government. Over the coming months of this campaign, I look forward to continuing my discussion with you about how we can work together to build a world class educational experience for our children, parents, teachers, and administrators.

Our children are the future of North Carolina. As a Supreme Court Justice, I wrote in a landmark education case that the children of North Carolina are our State’s most valuable resource. I still believe that today.

North Carolina’s graduation rates are painfully low and slipping.

We know that we are leaving too many students behind and that many graduates are unprepared to succeed in the workplace. The problem of student dropouts and underachievement has dire consequences for all of us. Students that leave school without a diploma are less likely to be employed, earn less than high school graduates, are more likely to be on Medicaid, and are more likely to end up in the criminal justice system. Students that do graduate are typically not prepared for work and must receive additional training and education at significant cost to our businesses.

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 The one size fits all mentality that defines student achievement solely on the basis of standardized tests and student success solely on the basis of admission to college stifles innovation and causes many of our students to fail to meet their potential. We must build an innovative system that meets the diverse needs of our students and delivers opportunities to excel in higher education, technical education, and the 21^st century workplace.

•    We must address the education challenges from the first steps of a child’s education. We must audit and streamline existing Pre-K programs to ensure children from at-risk families have the necessary social and learning skills to prepare them to succeed in school. While focusing on at-risk children, we must also provide opportunities for lower and middle income families who cannot afford private pre-K education.

•    Most of our students don’t drop out when they are 16; they drop out in the third grade. They just stay in school until they are 16. We must close the achievement gap by identifying private or public programs that produce results, fund pilot programs if necessary, and disseminate the lessons learned to the districts.

•    The North Carolina Curriculum requires revision more frequently than the current 5-7 year cycle. We must also ensure the curriculum includes 21^st century life and technology skills.

•    Many students do not choose the higher education path. It is time we realize that college is not for everyone, particularly right out of high school. We need to coordinate with the business community and Community Colleges to provide career education opportunities through vocational/technical charter schools, vocational alternative high schools, or vocational programs in existing schools.

•    The tax dollars we provide for education are for the student and we must reform and simplify the funding mechanism to fund on a per student basis as determined by quarterly enrollment and ensure funding follows the student should he or she leave the traditional system for a charter or alternative school.

•    Sometimes, despite our best efforts, we fail. Students become disengaged and disillusioned, and either leave or are expelled from our schools. We can no longer accept that these young people are lost and relegated to a life of limited opportunities or worse. Based on the funding mechanism outlined above, funding for these former students will follow them and be redirected to the counties’ Juvenile Crime Prevention Council to fund enrollment in an approved private or public program with a proven track record of rescuing at-risk youth.
  

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I recognize that parents play the key supporting role in education. What happens, or fails to happen, away from school directly affects whether our students get the most from school, and in many cases, parents set the stage for success or failure. I am concerned, however, that we have lost track of the critical importance of parents’ role in education. Many parents I talk to are disillusioned and disheartened with a system that they believe is unresponsive to their needs, resistant to change, and lacking alternatives.

•   Parents and teachers across the state consistently tell me that education has become too “test focused.” We must reform North Carolina’s ABCs Evaluation program to: ensure we are measuring the correct things; use assessments that help in the learning process, not just at the end of grade; and place federal No Child Left Behind standards in the right context, e.g., as one factor that we consider in evaluating overall school success. AND:

•    We must make parents key participants in our methodology of accountability by including them in teacher performance evaluations and in the school performance assessment process.

•    We must provide tax credits to parents for approved academic expenses, such as books, computer learning aids, tutors, and after school education programs.

•    We must provide parents with education alternatives by raising the cap on charter schools so private groups can provide local solutions to fill specific unmet educational needs.

The demand for teachers is growing. We already have fewer special education, science, math, early childhood and Spanish-speaking teachers than we need. At the same time, teacher turnover is high with over one-third of our teachers leaving by the end of their 5^th year. North Carolina will need 90,000 new teachers in the next decade. Teacher retention is only part of the problem. The teachers that remain face daunting challenges and often feel underpaid, underappreciated, and overwhelmed. One of the most important things our next Governor can do is to fundamentally change the teaching profession in North Carolina. Great schools and successful students require great teachers. We must implement a long term plan to grow the best teacher corps in the nation or everything else we do in education will have little lasting positive effect.

      Teaching is not simply a job, it is a critical profession. I will use the full extent of the power and influence of the office of governor to ensure teaching is one of our most honored professions.

      Work with UNC Schools of Education to better prepare teachers for the demands of 21^st century classrooms.

•     Create career progression tracks in education leadership, administration, and technology (in coordination with UNC schools of education, business and technology) to grow our next generation education professionals and bring state-of-the art and best practices solutions to our schools and districts.

•     Provide continuing education and career development opportunities will to ensure teachers stay current in the latest education methodologies and technology.

•     Implement an incentive structure to reward teachers willing to work in underperforming schools or with at-risk students.

•     Restructure the merit pay system requires to reward individual teacher performance as measured by: principal evaluation, parent evaluations, pass/fail rates, and AYP (Average Yearly Progress) test scores.

•     Coordinate with the business community and provide tax credits to create business-school partnerships for temporary lateral transfers of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics professionals into our classrooms.

•      Expand the Teacher’s Assistant program and provide a tax credit to businesses to recruit retirees into our classrooms to assist and mentor young teachers.

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School boards and administrators across the state face a diverse set of challenges. Uneven growth of our student population and state mandated student-teacher ratios make school construction the primary concern our urban districts. Rural districts often struggle with unmet student needs and student performance gaps. We cannot possibly solve these problems in Raleigh and in fact our experience in education policy over the past 2 decades has proven that local control over operations is the most effective and efficient way to deliver education. We must complete the transition to maximum local control started with the 1997 ABCs of Public Education, while remembering that the overall responsibility for providing a sound basic education remains with the state government.

•    Give local school officials maximum flexibility of education funds by ensuring initially that the 83% of funds are transferred with local discretion (as mandated by the 1997 ABCs of Public Education). The education funds transfer ratio should increase to 90% over time.

•    Give principals full authority to use school funds (provided via the per-student formula) as they see fit.

•   Give principals full authority for staffing decisions.

•    Give principals full authority to support teachers in maintaining classroom discipline.

•    Address the $10 billion school construction need by modernizing and reforming the North Carolina tax system to provide a consistent revenue stream that will augment county school construction funding.

•    Audit the Learn and Earn early college high school program to determine results. If appropriate, continue expansion to counties that want to participate.