04/20/2008

Associated Press

Here are three questions posed by The Associated Press to the eight major-party candidates for governor on the topic of education, followed by their unabridged responses. The responses were only edited for AP style.

1. Roughly two-thirds of North Carolina students earn a high-school diploma within four years of starting high school, a dropout rate experts believe affects the state's ability to attract new industries to the state. What specific steps would you take in your first year in office to reduce the percentage of dropouts, and how much would your initiatives cost?

2. What changes, if any, would you seek in your first year in office from the General Assembly in the operations of the North Carolina Education Lottery?

3. Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down school assignment policies based on race, but left the door open for a system used by Wake County that is based on socio-economic status. Should the state's other school districts use such a system?

DEMOCRATS:

RICHARD MOORE

1. The dropout rate is among the most urgent problems we face, and as governor, my top education priority will be to cut it in half. My dropout reduction plan focuses on making community college free for high school graduates, curriculum reform to teach real job skills, bringing communities together, addressing resource disparities across our state and holding principals and administrators accountable.

High schools need to teach real job skills. Students who would otherwise drop out will have a much greater incentive to continue if they can learn real world skills they can put to use. Our state's Learn & Earn program has created a strong model for us to build upon, but we can do more. College offers incredible opportunities and we should hold down tuition in order to ensure it is an accessible option. But high schools cannot be merely preparatory institutions; they must also teach skills and values that will help students become productive citizens as they transition to the workplace.

To help students build on these skills at a higher level, I have proposed using Golden LEAF funds and state money to pay two years of community college tuition for students who graduate from a North Carolina high school and then enroll in a community college degree program. A well-trained work force is crucial to success in the global economy and is compatible with Golden LEAF's goal of promoting economic development in 82 targeted counties across the state. This proposal addresses the fact that the counties with the highest dropout rates are often the counties that have the highest unemployment rates. Making higher education more affordable will be an important step in my strategy to cut the high school dropout rate in half. This proposal is expected to cost approximately $50 million, which will come from Golden LEAF funds.

We should also pull together members of the community to address the dropout problem and develop comprehensive local plans that recognize the unique characteristics of different communities. In some of our communities, fewer than half of high school students eventually go on to graduate. Consequently, this is not simply an education issue; it also has serious implications for economic development and crime. There is an unsurprising correlation between the counties with the highest dropout rates and the counties with the highest unemployment rates. But the solutions to the dropout problem will not be the same in every community, so the development of local solutions and the coordination of local resources are imperative to the success of reducing the dropout rate. As governor, I will take the lead in pulling together not only parents, teachers, and education leaders, but also law enforcement officials and business leaders in order to meet this challenge. Every part of the community has a stake in this issue and a role to play.

Additionally, I want to increase accountability for principals and administrators. For far too long, education officials used statistics that did not accurately reflect the enormity of the dropout problem. Now that we have resolved the disparity between official dropout statistics and actual graduation rates, we are better able to zero in on the schools and regions with the most pressing problems. In my administration, education officials responsible for schools with the highest dropout rates will have to demonstrate they are taking aggressive actions to change the way those schools operate.

2. I do not support any major changes to the lottery at this point. I think it is part of a prudent management strategy to take a comprehensive look at the lottery to make sure that its administration is functioning effectively and that it is achieving its intended goals.

3. As a public school graduate, I think it is important that our public schools reflect the community in which they are located. The Wake County system is a respected national model that should be examined closely by other systems. But this decision ultimately resides with local officials — it is not for the state to impose.

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DENNIS NIELSEN

1. The public school system has failed many of our youth. We must have a dramatic change in how we educate. I believe in competition. If the state would not allow companies to manufacture computers and only permitted to state to make them, we would find they cost a lot more and would be less capable. I believe in a combination of public, charter and private schools. Some of these schools would be specialized in teaching the basics but concentrate on science, the arts, technical skills etc. We find today a technician can make six-figures without any college. We need not put all students on the same track to go to college but let them be educated to compete in the real world, public schools cannot do this. The money for education must follow the child and allow the parents a choice as to where to send their children and how to educate them.

2. Lottery: A bad idea from the start but we are saddled with it. In almost all states the education lottery has become a cash cow for the general fund or in some the lottery has cost the taxpayers. We must ensure that all funds go to education as was advertised to the public; then we will go from there to fix it.

3. Wake's plan: The state other school districts should not use the plan and neither should Wake. Although the court opened the door for this another lawsuit will stop this practice also.

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BEVERLY PERDUE

I am proud that North Carolina public education has made landmark progress in many respects over the last few decades. But I also understand that our high school graduation rate still remains too far below national averages and our annual dropout rates remain too far above them. In the face of new competitive global challenges, our four-year high school graduation rate of 65-70 percent is simply unacceptable in my view.

As our next governor, my larger goal will be not just to keep more high school students in school but also see that they graduate prepared to succeed in the 21st century workplace. I know that earning an economically competitive wage now typically requires at least gaining the advanced skills provided by a community college education or finishing a four-year undergraduate degree.

Opening the doors of educational opportunity as wide as possible is not only the morally right but also the fiscally wise thing to do. Recent expert estimates indicate that significantly lowering the dropout rate and increasing the graduation rate could gain North Carolina over a billion dollars from increased tax payments and reduced social costs over the next four decades.

The best research dictates enhancement of our educational reform efforts particularly in three main areas: early childhood education, redesigning our schools to increase accountability, and recruitment and retention of quality teachers.

A strong consensus in the research has formed around the fact that quality education initiatives targeted to children early in their development is a very strong long-range anti-dropout, pro-graduation, pro-economic growth, income-boosting tool in our educational arsenal. That is why as governor I will continue to push for expansion and better coordination of our nationally recognized Smart Start and More-at-Four initiatives.

As governor I would also strengthen the state commitment to the new high school redesign initiatives as exemplified by the Learn & Earn and New Schools Project. These initiatives are leading the way in making the curriculum reforms necessary to equip our students with the skills necessary to compete and succeed in the 21st century. Learn & Earn allows high school students to take challenging and career-relevant, skill-based coursework from our community colleges. The New Schools project is establishing 90 small career-centered academies across the state. Examples include the East Wake School of International Technology, South Granville school of Health and Life Sciences and Clement Early College High School.

Crucial to continued expansion of Learn & Earn in particular are the online "virtual school" efforts that I have been leading for the state. Making sure the college-level coursework offered by Learn & Earn is technologically "wired" will assure that students from across the state will be able to take advantage of it.

And while Learn & Earn as well as the New Schools project are leading the way, I strongly support the updating and uplifting of the general high school curriculum through our new 21st Century Skills Center and working with the cutting-edge national reform efforts being led by such groups as Achieve, Inc.

In addition, I will push for greater accountability by strengthening the state's High School Turnaround Initiative, making sure that all our troubled high schools comply with a restructuring guided by the best research.

At the same time, we must recruit and retain the best and brightest teachers for our public schools. North Carolina's teachers work tirelessly to education our children, and they deserve to be paid like other professionals. While serving as Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, teachers' salaries rose from 43rd all the way to 21st in the nation. Recent research by some of the nation's top educational economists has confirmed that significant increases in teacher salaries serve as an important element in reducing the high school dropout rate and increasing the high school graduation rate.

I have also called for expansion of our nationally recognized Teaching Fellows college scholarship program to attract more high-achieving students into the teaching profession. While pushing to enhance all these now existing initiatives for reducing the high school dropout rate and increasing the high school graduation rate, I know that we must go even further.

That is why I have developed my trailblazing College Promise plan. I want students to know long before high school that they can go to community college or a state university regardless of their family's income.

To help secure funding for education, we also need a constitutional amendment to make sure that lottery funds stay dedicated to education.

Finally, I have been very impressed by the experiment which the Wake County system has launched involving the socio-economic factors it took to maintain diversity in its schools. Studies indicate that such an approach can lead to improved test scores, especially among minority and at-risk children.

I believe that especially other metropolitan districts should be encouraged to explore the Wake County model. The main goal for the state should still be to assure equitable funding for all our low-wealth school districts and individual schools with a disproportionate number of at-risk students.

I believe that education is more than an "issue" for North Carolina's future. It must be the lynchpin of our state's strategy for further progress.

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REPUBLICANS:

BILL GRAHAM

1. Almost a third of students entering our high schools will never graduate. The cost to our state in lost revenue and increase services for each year of new dropouts is over $400 million. We are losing billions because we do not put enough emphasis on middle and high school students. I would continue our emphasis on early childhood education; however, I would introduce programs designed to focus on middle schools and high schools.

First, I would increase the dropout age to 18. I would instruct our District Attorneys to fully enforce our truancy laws and become stricter on parents whose children are failing to attend school. I would work with teachers and administrators to identify our most successful local initiatives and work to launch them statewide. I would fund grants to institute more programs such as Middle and Early Colleges across this state. We can make school interesting for high school students if we give them the means to learn a marketable skill or trade with which they can support themselves or a family after graduating.

2. I would change the lottery funding formula to allow for a 90 percent per-pupil distribution with a bonus distribution based on forecasted growth. We can use proceeds from the lottery to fund a multibillion dollar school construction bond to assist the counties or send the counties money for bond relief. I will also push for legislation that will allow local school boards to have a sales tax exemption.

3. I would leave that decision to local school boards and their respective communities.

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PAT MCCRORY

1. We need to find ways to make education relevant to all of our students and teach them the skills needed for 21st Century jobs. Right now, too many of these students are "choosing" to drop out because they do not believe they are learning skills that will help them. Changing curriculum and combining some high school courses with practical vocational programs being offered at local community colleges may be the inducement some students need to stay in school. The school bureaucracy would need to be flexible and open to quickly studying the merits of such a plan. Rethinking our education product and how we deliver it would not add a tremendous fiscal burden to the budget.

2. Reduce the marketing expenses and general administrative costs. Make sure the money cannot be transferred into the General Fund. Create some flexibility in how the funds can be distributed within the education framework.

3. I would like the schools to concentrate on teaching and improving the education product as a whole and not be involved in socio-engineering. If we are in the education business, let's concentrate on education. I would love for the state of North Carolina to stop funding appeals to the Leandro Decision and actually use the money to begin implementing the Leandro Decision. I would like for school administrations to find ways to save money and see that money gets to the classrooms. Finally, I would like the school bureaucracies to back up the teachers when it comes to discipline in the classroom.

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BOB ORR

1. In order to remain competitive in a changing global economy, North Carolina must have a well trained work force. We cannot be competitive if we continue to experience the kind of dropout numbers we've seen over the last decade. Students who don't make it to graduation are marginalized into low-wage, low-skill jobs. In order to give students the skills they need to succeed in school, we need to expand Pre-K programs for at-risk children, and provide greater access to lower and middle incomes families. We also need to strengthen vocational training for students who choose not to pursue college. Finally, we cannot neglect those students who become disengaged from the system and dropout. We need funding for private and public programs that have a record of rescuing at-risk youth.

We spend over $7 billion a year on education. I believe we can accomplish more with that amount of funds available than we do today. North Carolina has multiple initiatives across the state supporting Pre-K efforts. We must audit and streamline existing Pre-K programs to do more with our current funding. We should also end investment in programs that don't have a proven track record of success, and reduce unnecessary and burdensome bureaucratic oversight.

2. I believe North Carolina can adequately fund our education needs without the North Carolina Education Lottery.

3. The state's other school districts certainly should not be mandated to accept such a system. In no way should the policy be imposed on a statewide basis. Communities have different needs. Local education officials need to determine if such an arrangement would be beneficial in their own community.

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ELBIE POWERS

1. First, A student in high school with driver license quits school will immediately have driving privilege revoked. The following statement came from a public school teacher. I will direct my ears to these voices, the great teachers of public education, the following statement may or may not be the best route, but I begin with these. We need a vocational-tech system (this is how it worked back home). It was a freestanding campus — in my case shared by two counties because they were small — in which students went to high school for half the day and vo-tech the other half. Transportation to and from the vo-tech was provided by the school district. Students in grades 10-12 could take courses in cosmetology, auto mechanics, day care assistant, nurse's aide, etc. The idea that everyone can/or should go to college is just plain crazy. It isn't for everyone and our economy cannot support everyone being college educated. I believe that this system would help to curb some of the drop out problems that we are having. Although we have schools of choice in my district — Cumberland — it isn't really a choice if mama cannot drive you to your school of choice — in my opinion this is further separating the haves and the have nots." Cost should be minimal by obtaining correct information from the right places. I will not appoint a committee, a board, or other expensive means. I listen directly to the teachers, when I'm prepared, I approach the top people.

2. As my plans state, I cut wasteful spending/excessive salaries, etc. .... Input from the working class tells me Lottery Director Tom Shaheen's salary may be a bit excessive, AND I'm told lottery headquarters building is rented (not owned) and considered excessive by some. I have common sense to find better deals for the taxpayer money. I look into to all state top pay, I wish to advise ALL, I work for the taxpayers of NC. I look out for the taxpayers' best interest, as I'm backed and guided by taxpayers/working class. I'm looking forward to finding real numbers of the lottery cost and where ALL money is going. It should and will go where it was designed, to schools. Removing greed as we have at the top levels, more payouts go to winners. I am told we are below national average winning payouts also.

3. I again listen to the professional teachers of the classroom. This input from a teacher "The idea of basing school assignment on socio-economic status factors is appealing. Much fewer schools would be labeled failures. I teach in a school with less than 40 white students, if that isn't a form of segregation I don't know what you call it." The only problem I see with this system is that students are constantly reassigned. I am not sure that would be beneficial to anyone."

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FRED SMITH

1. First, we must realize that the student is the customer and must come first in our public schools. We need to improve out traditional schools by: removing disruption from the classroom, reforming teacher pay to compete with the private sector, attract science and math teachers, and improve out testing program. We should eliminate the cap on charter schools to provide flexibility and innovation in meeting the needs of some of our students. We must support vocational education in middle and high schools for students who are gifted in technical skills and plan a career choice in a specialty area. We must work closely with our Community College system to insure that students have options that meet their needs and prepare them to compete in the global economy. We also need to support students who are home schooled so that they have access to traditional school activities.

2. The current system of distribution requires that 35 percent of lottery revenue is designated for education. Of that 35 percent, 40 percent is allocated for school construction. From the monies allocated for construction, 65 percent is distributed based on average daily attendance, while the other 35 percent is distributed to counties that have a higher-than-average effective tax rate.

The current system is confusing and disproportionate in its application. What is needed is a pro rata formula for distribution: counties receive their allotted monies based on their average daily attendance. If done this way, then the counties will receive the monies they need for the students they have, not according to a formula designed in Raleigh.

3. Not too many years ago, our local schools were the heart of our communities. They engendered community pride and support, a place where our children were recognized, learned, played, and established lifelong friendships. They were places where parents shared common goals and values, and participated and worked together for their children and the school.

Our inability to provide all of our children good educational opportunities in community schools close to home, versus transporting them miles from home into other communities to accommodate various requirements, has resulted in decreased opportunities for parental involvement and often school environments and relationships among students that are not conducive to learning. Every child is important. Every school is important. Our focus should be on the quality of the education and preparing our children for a successful future. To the extent possible, we should provide this opportunity close to home in a school that is a part of a supportive community, encouraging parental participation, creating pride and strong ties with the students.