Yesterday’s announcement that North Carolina was awarded approximately $400 million by the federal education program “Race to the Top” was truly exciting because it brings today’s children one step closer to being guaranteed the best public education possible.
Perhaps the greatest lesson we should take out of this enormous win for our state was that we couldn’t have done it without the unprecedented teamwork we achieved in preparing our Race to the Top application.
One hundred percent of local education agencies (LEAs) signed on to our initial application. That means every superintendent, school board chair and president of the local teachers association (members of NCAE) are in agreement with our plans for education in North Carolina – the plans laid out in my Career and College—Ready, Set, Go! agenda.
Many state leaders signed letters of support on behalf of our state’s application. Education pioneers such as Gov. Jim Hunt and Judge Howard Manning stood behind our plans for North Carolina’s future.
And the General Assembly played a crucial role in yesterday’s victory. The House and Senate gave our Race to the Top application a great boost when they passed Senate Bill 704 to reform low-performing schools. That law strengthened North Carolina’s ability to make all schools successful and strengthened our school reform efforts, vital to the Race to the Top competition.
The teamwork we achieved is a tremendous sign of the commitment to education that state and local leaders share and I applaud such exemplary statewide collaboration. To all who played a part in our Race to the Top success, I say “thank you” and so do the students of North Carolina.