More children are coming to school healthy and ready to learn. Teachers are being paid more, and there are more good teachers than ever before. Schools are safer. Test scores are way up.
Schools are more accountable, and students are doing better than ever before.
That's a good start. But I believe we can do better. I have set an ambitious goal for our state, and have challenged North Carolinians to set their sights higher by making our schools First in America by 2010. I charged our Education Cabinet, made up of the State's public school, university and community college leaders, to come up with a set of First in America goals. The Education Cabinet is also developing ways to measure our progress toward those goals, and I wanted to share their efforts with you.