The Future is in Their Hands

Chad Lewis is a burly 18-year-old with a passion for engines. In an ordinary high school, that passion might have distracted him from required courses in history, English and math. But Lewis has spent the past two years on the campus of Guilford Technical Community College in Jamestown, N.C., where he's been studying hydraulics, suspension and electrical systems as well as more-traditional high-school subjects. Along with receiving his high-school diploma,

He's in line to get an associate's degree--the equivalent of two years of college--in heavy equipment and transport technology. What that means, says Lewis, is that he is qualified to fix "anything with a diesel." What it also means, says math teacher Marsha Jensen, is that "he'll be making more money than I will."

Lewis just wants a job that allows him to "be hands-on, get dirty, go home, take a shower and feel good about what I do each day." But to North Carolina Gov. Michael Easley, students like Lewis are on the front lines of the state's aggressive efforts to combat years of disastrous job losses as key industries moved overseas. "What we're trying to provide is the best work force in the world," Easley says. "Not just in the country--in the world." That means a dramatic overhaul of the state's public schools. For much of the past decade, North Carolina has focused on preschool through eighth grade, encouraging better teacher training, setting standards and making the curriculum more rigorous. But the most radical change could be the next step, transforming high schools from a model created in the industrial age to a system that makes sense in the 21st century. Easley says the old model, which prepared a few students for college and let others drop out or graduate with minimal skills, doesn't work in an economy where almost any job with decent pay requires some advanced training.

Easley's plan calls for a network of "early college" high schools, like the one in Jamestown, that will eventually give every student in the state the chance to get two years of college by the time they graduate. He calls them Learn and Earn schools, to emphasize that more education means a bigger paycheck. He's also pushing to create new small, career-themed schools--emphasizing subjects like engineering, science or business--within larger high schools. The goal of both efforts is to make sure all students graduate with the skills they need to succeed in college or the workplace.

It's a critical mission. In the past decade, virtually every county in North Carolina has felt the impact of global competition. "Our economy was based on a three-legged stool of textiles, furniture and agriculture," Easley says, "and now textiles and furniture are largely gone and the market can't accommodate no-skill or low-skill jobs. Those jobs have gone to China or Malaysia and they're not coming back." In 1990, for example, the state's 2,235 textile and apparel plants employed 252,702 people; a decade and a half later, there were only 1,402 plants with 97,525 workers--a 61 percent decrease in employment, and the trend continues. "Where we will always win," Easley says, "is with a high-skilled work force, especially in industries where innovation and creativity are involved."

North Carolina is already attracting some of those industries, with biotechnology firms clustered around the Research Triangle Park near Raleigh, along with banking and information-technology centers in other parts of the state. And every redesigned school that succeeds increases the state's appeal to employers. The program in Jamestown is one of the first early-college high schools in the state; there are 10 more in place now, with an additional 23 set to open this fall and 20 more next year. Eventually, Easley says, there will be a Learn and Earn school available to students in all 100 of the state's counties.