Access to higher education for the state's children, including those in poor households, is very good and will likely get better, Boykin said. She praised the state's community colleges and number of four-year universities located throughout the state, along with numerous scholarships and federal assistance programs that are currently in place. Parents need access to health care and social services to insure their children get off to a good start, she said. That doesn't mean they have to know their ABCs, but they have to be confident travelers in the world of literacy, familiar with books. As for the health of the state's future leaders there is enormous potential but it comes with responsibility, state health officer Dr. Ed Thompson said.
Good health depends a lot more on prevention and lifestyle choices than on treatment.
Vaccinations have made once deadly communicable diseases almost unheard of. Diseases like measles, mumps and polio have not been eliminated, but diligent vaccinations make them rare, he said. Because they are so rare, it's important for the coming generations to remain diligent about keeping them at bay, Thompson said. It's important that we don't get led by our own successes into a sense of complacency. Sometimes we don't have a healthy respect for diseases because we don't have a real memory of them.