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Blog
During the recent trip that the Governor and I took to Asia, I visited with students at two middle schools in Tokyo.
 Akasaka Middle School is a public school with just 150 students in a downtown neighborhood. Hiroo Gakuen is a large combined private junior and senior high with a long history of hosting international students and visitors.
It’s easy to note the differences between Japanese and North Carolina schools. The classes were quite large with up to 40 students in some classrooms. At both the public and private schools, the students were neatly dressed in uniforms, including jackets and ties for many of the boys. There are no school buses in Tokyo so it’s common to see schoolchildren of all ages walking the streets of the city or riding on public transportation to and from school.
While the Japanese students seemed very serious and engaged, their curiosity and friendliness are just like what I experience whenever I visit a classroom here at home. At Hiroo Gakuen, I was asked to tell them about the typical day for a middle schooler in the United States. Fortunately, I knew in advance and was able to consult an expert source – my 12 year-old grandson – for the details.
Very few of the students knew anything about North Carolina or even just where it was so I was able to include a brief geography lesson in my visit. Of course I let them know that if they learned anything that day I wanted it to be that North Carolina is the best state!
Trips like this are a way for us to work to link North Carolina with the rest of the world. While the primary goal was to further develop business opportunities with expanding economies abroad, it’s always important to remember that the human connections, such as making friends in a classroom 7,000 miles from home, have value also.
Congratulations to the Appalachian State University students whose work on a solar house was voted the "People's Choice" in the U.S. Department of Energy's 2011 Solar Decathlon.
I visited the students' Solar Homestead house in July. ASU is one of 20 competitors in the decathlon in which collegiate teams design, build and operate solar-powered houses that are cost-effective, energy-efficient and attractive.
During my summer visit, I saw the energy and enthusiasm from the ASU students that resonated with voters in the "People's Choice" award.
"The team’s passion and enthusiasm were contagious," said Terri Jones, Solar Decathlon Communications Contest official. "The People’s Choice Award is a popular vote, and I believe the Solar Homestead house and team appealed to people on many levels."
The ASU students also won second place in the Communications Contest and third place in the Architecture Contest.
The project was funded through private donations.
Help me congratulate our ASU team. We are proud of them.
You can help students from Appalachian State win for their work on a solar-powered house.
 Students from Appalachian State are competing against 20 teams from around the world in the U.S. Department of Energy's Solar Decathlon.
The competition challenges collegiate teams to design, build and operate solar-powered houses that are cost-effective, energy-efficient and attractive. The team from ASU is in the running for the contest's "People's Choice" award and voting will continue until Sept. 28.
Gov. Perdue and First Gentleman Bob Eaves visited the school's project in Boone in July.
Funding for ASU’s entry in the Solar Decathlon has come entirely from private donations from corporate sponsors and individuals.
We ask a lot of our state employees.
 It's been three years since they've had so much as a cost-of-living adjustment. In this recession, they continue to work under the constant threat of layoffs. They don't get a lot of respect for the hard work they do.
And that's why it's great when we have an opportunity to recognize the kind of dedication and selflessness that many of our employees exhibit every day. Last month, State Trooper Skye Stone was doing his job when he pulled behind a stranded motorist on U.S. 64 in Martin County.
As The News & Observer's Bruce Siceloff tells it, Bob Inge, 54, and his mother were stuck waiting for a relative to come with a tow truck for Inge's disabled SUV and camper. While they waited for the next couple hours, Stone took care of them. Inge explained it to the newspaper:
"He went to a store, purchased water on his own, brought my mama a quart of water back, brought me a quart of water back, and said he would check on us," Inge said. "And he came back two or three more times. When the wrecker got there, he stopped traffic so they could get the vehicle off the road."
Stone would not accept reimbursement for the water. And he later told Siceloff that he didn't think what he had done was a big deal.
"It happens a lot more than people realize," he told the newspaper. "We really do help people."
And by the way, for anyone who thinks Stone should have been more worried about speeders: He still managed to write nine tickets during his shift that day.
Over the past 18 years, North Carolina Bankers have provided a unique experience for more than 8,000 students.
Each summer they sponsor Camp Challenge, a financial literacy camp for high-achieving, at-risk middle school students.
 The camp is free to campers and provides a traditional camp experience – swimming, horseback riding, archery – along with basic etiquette guidance and practical financial education. This week I had the opportunity to visit with 100 campers.
While I was there to share my experiences and offer encouragement, most of our time was spent in questions and answers. The students were interested in all sorts of things about the Governor (Is it hard to be Governor?) and about what it means to be First Gentleman (What’s your day like?). I also had lots of questions for them about what they were learning.
Several of the campers talked about how they now understood what it is like for their parents to face a stack of bills and that is important to make good financial decisions. They also commented on the need to pay for credit card purchases rather than just piling up debt. Of course they also were excited about how “chill” the counselors were and all the new friends they were making.
The curriculum used, Life with Bills, is an interactive, computer-based simulation that allows the students to experience money management first-hand. These are important and valuable skills that every student should get the chance to develop.
Gov. Bev Perdue continues to fight for education despite the devastating cuts included in the Republican-backed budget.
 “We must have a highly trained workforce for our state to be globally competitive, and that education begins in preschool classrooms and continues all the way through our community colleges and universities,” Gov. Perdue said. “They may have cut our pre-k programs and turned our education system backwards. But tomorrow, the citizens of North Carolina and I will resume the fight for what we believe in -- that education must be the one priority we never turn our backs on.”
When she vetoed the budget bill, Gov. Perdue said the budget would force local school systems to lay off educators. Since the General Assembly’s override of the budget veto, news headlines have confirmed this fear.
“To think that those cuts will not negatively impact our students, that’s not true,” Gaston County Schools Superintendent Reeves McGlohon told the Gaston Gazette. “The cuts will hurt. There will be individuals in our school system who have jobs this year that will not have jobs next year.”
Other systems have begun delivering pink slips.
Cumberland County: 179 teacher assistant jobs, 130 teachers, nine assistant principals
New Hanover County: 191 jobs
Harnett County: 88 jobs (mostly teacher assistants)
Union County: 100 jobs
Robeson County: 235 jobs
Statewide: Eliminating funding for Governor's school shuts out 600 students
Winston-Salem/Forsyth County: Considering a plan to eliminate 221 jobs, including 118 teaching positions
Wake County: Teacher Assistants pay is slashed
Columbus County: Layoffs have started
Johnston County: 123 positions, including 73 teacher assistants
Beaufort County: 110 jobs lost
Lee County: 50 teacher jobs, dozens of teacher assistants
Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools County: 460 jobs lost
Statewide: Gap between rich and poor schools growing
The General Assembly's budget is the "riskiest gamble ever perpetrated on the citizens of North Carolina," said Montgomery County Schools Superintendent Dr. Dale Ellis. "What's getting ready to happen should be a crime."
"5 Reasonable People": A Superintendent’s Response to the State Budget Crisis from Lindsay Whitley on Vimeo.
Members of Gov. Perdue's cabinet have been travelling the state as part of the 'Education Works' tour, which notes the direct link between education and economic prosperity for North Carolina.
Here are some highlights:
Administration Secretary Moses Carey has visited students in Sanford and Halifax County. In Durham, he told students that proposed mass layoffs of educators would "turn back the clock" in North Carolina.
Correction Secretary Al Keller and Crime Control and Public Safety Secretary Reuben Young stressed the importance of education to students in Richmond County.
Cultural Resources Secretary Linda Carlisle visited students in Guilford County.
Gov. Perdue helped announce $250,000 for eastern community college scholarships for the next five years.
The Minges Bottling Group will be granting the scholarship funds for eight Eastern North Carolina community colleges over the next five years.
 The Minges Group, based in Ayden, has been a long-time supporter of the people in the region. The group shares the vision of Gov. Perdue in wanting to open educational opportunities for North Carolinians, especially in tough economic times.
Gov. Perdue helped announced the fund at the Pepsi museum in New Bern.
The scholarship program is structured to provide funds for both outstanding high school students as well as adults looking to re-tool their skills for a changing economy. The scholarships will be given to the eight community colleges within the Minges Bottling Group distribution area: Coastal Carolina Community College, Craven Community College, Lenoir Community College, Martin Community College, Pitt Community College, Pamlico Community College, Beaufort Community College and Carteret Community College.
While at the Pepsi Museum, Gov. Perdue shared a Pepsi with Jeff Minges, the company’s President and CEO, Thomas Minges, Chairman and CFO. They enjoyed the soft drink in the same place that Caleb Bradham invented Pepsi-Cola in 1893.
Gov. Perdue and her cabinet secretaries will spend the next seven days showing how “Education Works”
On the tour, Perdue and her cabinet will visit classrooms in public schools and community colleges around the state and talk to teachers, students and local leaders about the importance of education in our economic recovery.
The new focus follows the governor’s Jobs Tour of April, during which time she announced 4,700 new and retained jobs and a quarter billion dollars in new investment from businesses.
It also comes on the heels of a state budget from the House of Representatives that proposed the largest mass layoff of education personnel in state history.
“We celebrate our teachers because they are the men and women responsible for preparing our children in a competitive global economy – for ensuring that North Carolina’s workers remain competitive, sharp, innovative and smart,” said Gov. Perdue. “I’m travelling the state to keep fighting for our educators and our education system at every level. The foundation we build for our future is too important to abandon.”
On Friday, Gov. Perdue visited the Roberts Company, which announced an expansion at its Wintervile facility. At the company, she spoke to Pitt County Community College students who are learning to do the welding and other work Roberts needs to sell its products to the chemical, power, mining and paper industries around the globe.
Gov. Perdue received the following email yesterday, just as the House was finishing up work on a budget proposal that threatens the largest layoff of educators in North Carolina history.
"Please find attached a letter from my daughter, Amelia...regarding your efforts to save public education. Amelia is 6 years old, and a 1st grader at Mary Scroggs Elementary School in Chapel Hill."
Needless to say, Gov. Perdue agrees with Amelia:
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