Governor EASLEY ANNOUNCES LEARN AND EARN WINS NATIONAL AWARD

FROM THE OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR

September 09, 2008

Contact: Sara Clark
Phone: (919) 733-5612


Raleigh - Gov. Mike Easley today announced that North Carolina’s Learn and Earn high school reform initiative has received the 2008 Innovations in American Government Award. The annual awards competition is sponsored by the Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard University ’s Kennedy School of Government.

“North Carolina is the first and only state in America to offer a free college education to every student. We are changing the delivery system of education so that college goes to the student if the student cannot go to the college. It is innovative, new and very successful,” Easley said. “This effort will assure that our state has the best workforce in the world and gives every child an opportunity to reach his or her full potential.”

The program was selected from a pool of nearly 1,000 applicants to represent the best in government innovation on the local, city, county, tribal, state and federal levels. As a part of the award, North Carolina will receive $100,000 toward the replication and dissemination of the program. To showcase each award winner, Harvard also has produced videos about the programs. Videos for all the award winners can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/user/AshInstitute.

Easley’s Learn and Earn initiative includes three programs to increase the number of high school graduates who are ready to succeed in college and the workplace. Learn and Earn early college high schools are located on a community college or university campus and allow students to take high school and college courses, tuition free. Students then graduate with a high school diploma and two years of college credit or an associate degree. There are currently 60 Learn and Earn high schools open across the state. Learn and Earn Online allows qualified high school students in all of North Carolina’s public high schools to take online college-credit courses for free. Access to these courses is provided both during the school day and in the evenings.

The EARN (Education Access Rewards North Carolina) Grants join with other forms of assistance (such as federal Pell Grants) so students can avoid going into debt to pay for an undergraduate education. When fully-implemented, the EARN grants will provide $4,000 a year in assistance for two years to 25,000 students from families earning 200 percent of the poverty level or less. For more information about the Learn and Earn Initiative visit http://www.nclearnandearn.gov.

This is not the first year a North Carolina program has been honored in Harvard’s Innovations in American Government Awards competition. In 2007, Community Care of North Carolina won the Annie E. Casey Innovations Award in Children and Family System Reform. Community Care is the state’s integrated health care network and currently serves more than 826,000 Medicaid patients.

Established in 1985, the Innovations in American Government Awards Program is designed to improve government practices by honoring effective government initiatives and encouraging the dissemination of such best practices. Many award-winning programs are now replicated across policy areas and jurisdictions, serving as forerunners for today’s reform strategies and new legislation. More information is available at http://www.innovationsaward.harvard.edu.