When Governor Jim Hunt was in office, he was a national leader on behalf of improving education. He advocated for higher teacher salaries, he advocated for early childhood education, and he took pride in the steady improvement in North Carolina during his tenure.
Now he runs the Hunt Institute, which has been active in teaching governors across the nation about education issues.
I was a member of the board of the Hunt Institute for a few years (I left in 2009), and I was impressed by Governor Hunt’s sincere concern for public education and his gracious style of interacting with others.
Just recently, he wrote an editorial calling on the Legislature to raise the salaries of teachers in North Carolina, as he did in his time, so that they met the national average (NC now ranks 46th in the nation).
That was a good thing to do, but Governor Hunt said nothing about the giant wrecking ball that the far-right Legislature has taken to public education and to the teaching profession. He didn’t mention the Legislature’s rapid expansion of privately managed charters, many of which will have for-profit companies running them; he said nothing about vouchers for religious schools and home-schooling; he said nothing about the Legislature taking away stipends for graduate degrees or about the appropriation of $6 million for Teach for America at the same time that the budget for the NC Teaching Fellows program was cut, or about any of the other bills passed with the intention of humbling teachers.
Please, Governor Hunt, speak up for the teachers. Speak up for the children. Speak up for public education. You are such a respected figure in the state. Your voice can make a difference.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Perhaps because of this?
http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/08/30/3150897/mission-critical-common-core.html
Or this:
“If you have to pick one champion for the Common Core, you’d have to single out four-time North Carolina Governor Jim Hunt.”
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/on_innovation/2012/08/something_in_common_the_common_core_standards.html
Perhaps he has lost some credibility for unabashed support of Common Core?
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Sounds like reasonable and well respected people disagree on the common core.
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I think this sounds pretty reformy to me:
In 1997, I proposed the Excellent Schools Act to the General Assembly. The act, which raised standards for teachers and focused on greater learning by students, made a historic commitment to raise teacher pay to the national average in four years. It had powerful bipartisan support. It was co-sponsored by House Speaker Harold Brubaker, a Republican, and Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight, a Democrat. Democrats and Republicans supported it. The CEOs of 15 top North Carolina businesses went to the Legislative Building and strongly endorsed it. They knew it would boost economic growth and create jobs.
To me, it sounds like maybe his purpose in teaching governors about education issues is to teach them how to pass reform type measures without alienating voters who advocate for public schools.
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Has anyone investigated the donors to the Hunt Institute? Has it been purchased by the Koch Bros?
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They are listed on his website.
It has some of the usual suspects on it, if I recall.
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Why only mention the Koch brothers, the list is quite lengthy.
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You know, as the preacher’s daughter, I sometimes get stuck on what our philosophical backgrounds are (reading a biography of Obama’s mother and so forth).
I too have noticed that Hunt is largely distant in the education debate (although he is doing a couple opening statements at the NC Emerging Issues Conference next month). . .and his website doesn’t really say anything. It says stuff like “Education begins with leadership.” OK. What does that mean? (some suspect the only reason he has the foundation is so he’ll have a retirement fund from the non-profit donations made and his salary at running the foundation). ?? Or maybe he just wants to enjoy his retirement and not be involved in political fights, which is, of course, his right to do.
When Hunt was in office the two parties worked better together on education, I think, because the choice movement had not gained ground and conservatives still supported public school, while pushing for the distant notion of choice. But actually, as I pointed out in an earlier comment, Hunt did not crank if up until after Martin (who served in between Hunt’s two Governorships), as far as public education (when Martin took office things were not that great, from what I’ve been reading of Governor Martin’s speeches).
OK. . .so if I connect the dots on philosophical backgrounds I’d say we have a good case of the Dean Rusk syndrome. In the interviews with Jackie Kennedy that came out last year, she indicated that Dean Rusk was someone who was unable to make a decision. Sometimes leaders lead well when the divide is only on the specifics of an agreed upon issue. Our trouble now in the education landscape is that there is not an agreed upon issue, except that the government must provide a school system (per our Constitution, Article IX, that is uniform). But the notion of public education encompassing aspects other than public school (charters and vouchers) is new.
Yhe waters are all murky now. The discussion is about whether to take a stand that public schools are the best use of public education money and therefore its teachers should be supported as they always have been. It’s a value call. It’s saying no to charters and vouchers in order to say yes to public schools. And, like Dean Rusk not taking strong stands on certain issues (per Jackie Kennedy), I think Hunt is having trouble doing that. Maybe he is still listening to what the arguments are so he can make an informed opinion, or maybe he just doesn’t want to be involved in taking a side.
What is the philosophical correlation? Well, crossovers with the Presbyterian church maybe (Dean Rusk was a Davidson grad, and the Hunt family is Presbyterian). So while I take cues from the church on Christian Ed approaches (they are pretty good at it), it might be that because a majority rules (via respresentative vote) mentality governs that church, that there comes a time when people accustom to just echoing what a large group of people think cannot make a declaration of value or worth OVER that of another. Like Dean Rusk, Hunt is a product of his philosophical background and we are seeing that played out here. Or, maybe he views it as an issue for coming generations to deal with. He definitely doesn’t show that he is compelled, like Dr. Ravitch is, to stand up for public schools as the best avenue for public education support.
The CCSS is believed and known by many to be something that weakens public schools creating testing drone facilities with little creative input by teachers) and thereby strengthens the voucher/charter option. So it seems obvious to many that supporting it is questionable in terms of supporting public schools over charters and vouchers. But just like that post from the California teacher earlier today, many really do think the CCSS themselves create a unified set of standards that fosters a level playing field forpublic schools. So I can see how someone with Hunt’s age-old southern Democrat roots (like June Atkinson) would assume the standards, in an of themselves, are a good thing. But I don’ t know why he wouldn’t take a stand on the other General Assembly actions, unless he just doesn’t want to be involved.
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THINK $$$$$ for the FEW.
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I read Hunt’s OP-Ed on what he did for education, where he pointed to the erosion of teacher salaries to support his argument they should be raised (as even Gov. McCrory and GOP leadership agree).
What Hunt did not mention is what occurred after he left office and the twelve years before McCrory became governor, which is when teacher salaries fell behind the national average
Nor, did the OP-Ed mention the $2.5 billion debt which “greeted” McCrory the day he was sworn in.
Lastly, Hunt has done quite well for himself with his Hunt Institute since leaving public service. The Hunt Institute laundry list of sponsors offer a glimpse of the true beneficiaries of top down govt policies.
Don’t wrap McCrory in a Republican overcoat to place him away from the three administrations which bring us to this point.
Right now McCrory wants to continue Common Core…THIS is the most important battle Liberal and Conservative who care about education must win.
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Make your students leaders for tomorrow with the help from the best teachers in the country!!! To not respect your teachers is giving the young people education a back set to their life and future and to the future of north Caroline !!!!!!
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Governor Hunt, my name is Terri Fletcher. When I met you nearly 20 years ago, I was a North Carolina Teaching Fellow at Elon College. A lot has changed since then. Elon College is now Elon University, and Teaching Fellows no longer exists. Common Core has replaced common sense; North Carolina remains at the bottom of the nation, and it’s the students who suffer. I am not writing to beg you to use your influence in order to make changes occur; I am instead writing to let you know that change will never occur unless someone speaks out.
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I have been studying about N.C.’s education. As far as I heard from NC teachers, ABC plan, the big work of governor Hunt, was reasonable for them(The merit pay for the school is not easy to explain for other Japanese, though.). I guess the time of governor Hunt made their attitudes, “Work Together”.
Last October,I went to New Hanover, where Dr. Diane Ravitch mentioned before, with my shock to heard about tenure issue. I had a chance to attend the panel meeting for discussing about the educational issues these days at University of North Carolina Wilmignton.
I met the superintendent of brunswick county schools, Dr.Edward H. Prudent, who stand with teachers and work for building the professional learning communities. What I want to say is, we may not be able to meet superman, but could meet people who stand for better education. I hope to hear their voices.
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