North Carolina People; James B. Hunt, Jr., Governor of North Carolina

Good evening friends. Merry Christmas. All of us in North Carolina people have been invited back to the governor's mansion again. This is the fourth time we will talk for experience just a few North Carolina people is brought to you by walkover banking investments and financial services for individuals businesses and corporations. We are here. Let's get started. Governor it's very generous of you to let us all come back in and clutter up this wonderful place to bring this program to our friends but how are you. Well a lot of fun. Bill delighted to have you in our fellow North Carolinians and their house the governor's mansion again. I think it's decorated beautifully as it always is a little different every year.

We've had thousands of people through this mansion the last week and I have hundreds and hundreds of school children including my grandson in his class just today. So we're having a wonderful Christmas and we hope all of our fellow North Carolinians are going to have one too. That was a command performance for you I would venture. Not only about his girlfriend. So I started working on already. Oh yeah. Oh you want to get a good dad to the farm for us we will spend Christmas on the farm. Last year we split it up at the Western governor's residence and I shal the only time we've ever done that and we will end up with all of our children this year so we're kind of different ways and so forth we're expecting a new grandchild at the end of this year. So we've got a lot of things to look forward to in addition to a lot of things we're thankful for from the past year. Well take advantage of this time as a way to sort of look back over the year and one

of the highlights has been that wonderful journey you just had. Southeast Asia was in a meeting yesterday listening to Paul Volcker and some others talk about agriculture and all that china. As our state got its identity there the way you want it now not the way I want Bill. But this was a wonderful trip to China. You know I've done a lot of these as governor in years are very very important I think back to beginning to visit to Japan 20 years ago and the original visits there. What's come from those. In fact last year across the state Japanese industries added about 900 you workers just last year alone. Yesterday I announced a new day before. Two hundred fifty you workers there. There will be many more than coming. But you said you plant those seeds early. Right. You get to know people you build trust and relationships. You go to see them. They come to see you. And of course China with

1.2 billion people. Is going to be the great market of the world in the years to come. I mean they are really building the economy even in a year like this it's kind of a down year they will grow 7 or 8 percent. The thing I came away from China with most impressed and the thing that I think told me most about their future. Is the quality of their leadership in meetings with the mayor showing that great vibrant city huge and bustling and you know really committed a lot to private enterprise frankly. The deputy vice premier of all of China in Peking. Kind of like our vice president of the state executive in Hong Kong in charge now that it's been handed over from the British. I would say that those leaders in terms of their worldview their sophistication their understanding of the market system and what they have to do they have personally as much as leaders often anywhere in the world. And so I think China is is really going to go

places. Obviously they've got a system we dislike very much. But I think that is changing a little bit and they're going to be a great economic power. And we go to China to help our people have jobs in the future. And I think we do it working with them. Isn't it interesting to contrast China and Russia Today in Your very same. Yes context of relationship. You never think of going back there and the failure in Russia was a failure of leadership. And I am so sorry for those people they have such huge potential in that country. They just get their act together and have an organization and have good leadership. And I hope they will because we care about people everywhere and we want to build economic ties with them every way back home. Wonderful performance now what's going on in the schools I just noticed in the evaluations that came out in the press showed progress everywhere. What's next what have we got to do this year now to keep this momentum going.

Well Bill I think first of all we've got to be about the thing we've been about and what your whole life's been about what the state's been about. We're on the right track in North Carolina because we're doing the right things for our children and and and for their schools. It's the area where we're making the most progress. You just mentioned the report of that came out from the National Education Goals Panel attended this past week. They said it short that North Carolina is making more progress in public education than any state in the country. Now we started way down as you know years ago. We've now sort of pulled our schools up to about the middle of the pack among the states. Although our progress has been made the most in a short period of time but we're still just kind of getting up toward the middle. We want to get up to the top rank of states like our state universities are. That's the example we always use your great leadership Molly Ball doing a great job there now. And so this coming year I think we have to keep focused.

We have to keep saying education is a primary thing. We last year expanded Smart Start into all the rest of the 100 counties. But those 45 counties that came in last only got 20 percent funding. We need to push shone toward full funding of smart start. We need to stay on track with our excellent schools act this coming year. In terms of raising the standards to assure that all of those teachers are good teachers and kids are getting good teachers and to raise those salaries we're shooting toward going up 18 places in four years up to the national average and we need to go to the top ranks. But we took that step last year. We need to take the third of four steps of this coming year. We've got to implement our our efforts to to to reform the juvenile justice system to prevent juvenile crime and to help those kids do right and stay out of crime. Keep all our efforts to clean up our rivers. A huge step with regard to cleaning up the news this year but so far the good with regard

to that and obviously keep working to build this economy and have jobs for our people. Bill we've made a lot of progress but I'm not satisfied I know how far we can go. As you do and we've just got to keep focused and keep working on it. Gain of trust as in there's your partner now in the business of what to do about teaching. Yes and the teacher right. And it's so interesting to see the enthusiasm it generates in that group when the BIG they begin to believe people really look at bottom of professionals. Well it's the most exciting thing going on is that this focus on helping teachers be better. And I'm so grateful to the king and trust for their work on this and their generous sponsorship of this. But we are raising the standards. We are seeing that new teachers who have mentors from from now will have a mentor for both their first two years they will be going in that classroom. All of

all you know. Having so many questions nobody to talk to nobody to counsel them and work with them. We will be raising their salaries. A lot of it will be based on performance. This past year. The results under our ABC system which measures every screw up were excellent. We went up from about 50 percent of our schools doing real well up to about 80 percent. Now a lot of that is just the progress made. A lot of still aren't where they need to be but the progress they made was good but yet a long way to go. And the great thing about this state is that we do care about each other. We believe in our public institutions but North Carolinians don't get satisfied. They don't get smug. We know we got a long way to go. And I just want us to work. I want 1099 to be the best year with of I want to work harder than we've ever worked to make progress in this area.

You mention the environment. You've done a lot thinking about air and water and sees the rivers. Looking at it as a composite effort for him as a baseline for big industry in our state which is tourism. You feel comfortable about the way of moving in concert and a lot of good things happen. Well I feel much much better about how we're moving as you set it. We've got excellent leadership at our Department of Environment of natural resources Wayne McDevitt and those folks around him there. But Bill frankly we've gotten in we've let things go down a lot. And this has been happening in industrial societies all over the country all of the world. But we've still got far too many pollutants going into our rivers in our stream. It starts right in the communities where everyone of us live there all the headwaters of some sort of stream on the stream. We are now really committing to reducing that. We made a commitment in five years. We're going to reduce a

pollutants or the nitrogen going into the river by 30 percent. Then we'll have to go beyond that. And now we do the same we've got to move to do the same for the Cape Fear and and all the rest of the rivers across North Carolina. We've now got the air pollution problem. I'm planning to have a big conference on air pollution up in Asheville this coming spring to ask other states to join with us. A lot to be done but I am thrilled with the way the public is beginning to understand this that the political commitment I see in the legislature five 10 years ago we didn't have that. Now they've really awakened to have important this is and the people want us to do it. So I'm hopeful about the future but there's a lot left to do in terms of these communities and the climate we have to create for them. How much progress are we making now. Juvenile crime. What's really happening there.

Well the state has the legislature had a special government commission as you know and the legislature this past year passed the juvenile justice reform act. It's a historic piece of legislation. It says we're going to punish violent criminals more severely and effectively. But in particular that we're going to do a lot of things to prevent these kids from ever getting into the first crime and becoming a criminal. We go I'll be announcing some strong new leadership for that. In effect we created a new department headed up it's going to be in the governor's office and we're going to have juvenile crime prevention councils in every county. I'm glad for people to hear about these on the show today because I hope people start thinking about that and be willing to pitch in in their county and help prevent youth crime. We can do so much about that the schools are so important but so were churches and businesses and you know Boy Scouts and all the other things that I could mention. So

we really are committed to doing a lot about that. And that is one of our big challenges for 1999 and beyond. Really getting to the children before things happened. That's right. And if we do the right things and if education is good for them. They graduate with the skills and knowledge they need to have. They'll be a good workforce will be able to bring industry in and expand the ones we have and they'll be able to think for a living and really be able to do the high value things that people need to be able to do to make a good living and we've got that workforce we're going to need. In your recent statements from what I've seen you do lately you're trying to tell us all that the job situation is going to change it's going to take more preparation more knowledge more skill. Is this pretty uniform as you see it. What we're doing in Dufferin force expansion development bringing in the different plants now. Are there greater skill requirements out there far greater.

It is. The change is so great that people can hardly exaggerate what it is. There just is not people just not going to be able to use this low skilled labor that doesn't have a high school degree or maybe even a community college degree. And one way to think about it is that every one of our workers is competing against all those workers in Japan. And in China and in Germany and all over the world we compete based on our brainpower and great areas like the Research Triangle Park are areas where we come up with the new ideas about new products and services in telecommunications and biotechnology and all these wonderful things. So much of what you started and led the state in doing that we've just got to keep educating our people that the state is going to be a hit that's going to have the good jobs the states will be the ones that do the best job in education and preparing their people because those people bright people

attract these new industries and you just have a visit with a mutual friend of ours Clark Her head of the University of California. You are chairing the national commission goes higher education right. He was one of the Create ors systems in this country. If you have a good exchange with him about this whole question of the elevation of the requirement meaning the university itself it's got to get its hands dirty and do more of this. We really had a wonderful conversation. I would say that people who know about it say that Bill Friday and Clark her Father Hesburgh and the last several decades have been the great men the great leaders of education higher education in America and it was a joy to talk with him listen to him learn from him learn about Joelson experiences together. But he is so way are right there lives right on the edge of Silicon Valley. So what's happening in this

world. The premium on the creativity of bright educated people and. He is one of those people who says the universities have got to do even more operate even more efficiently. This this dream of having education accessible for every child who works hard and who will you know be able to accomplish is a vital one in America and in the sense higher education is got to be a servant to the public and help us reach those things and the need for it is greater now than it's ever been before. There was a time we could just educate the elite. We've got to educate everybody now if they're going to be able to play the role that they need to to have good jobs and that we need for them to if we're going to have a strong economy. I want you to roll your mind back a bit now with this question What is it about North Carolinians that wow not other parts of the country. You hear this acute sinuses of door government and

all the nastiness we've seen in recent days. But there's something about people in the state that said wait a minute no tramper here we want to go wall where where's that spark come from what you've been up to. You've been our leader now for 14 years and doing these kind of things and you must feel that pulse very acutely. I do be old and I'm not sure I have. A complete answer to your question you could answer this and that and I could but I'll tell you kind of what I think. First of all I think this a lot of this has to be found in our Judeo-Christian heritage the Protestant work ethic this belief that well we're children of God God wants us to have good things and expects us and will help us. We are a people of strong faith strong churches and synagogues in other places of

worship. And I think there's just this feeling within us that we are special. We can do. We can accomplish great things with God's help and the hard work and then the other part of it I think. Is this deep almost religious in terms of how strong we feel about it commitment to education. We are sitting here in the library of the mansion and as you come into the mansion if you turn to the right when you first come in and before you get back you to the library there's a rug in there that has four scenes in the corners the rugs and the third one the first one is the first Spanish came through in 15 40 up the Mississippi Valley through the mountains of western North Carolina. The second one is the the the ship Elizabeth Sir Walter Raleigh color the first king of the last colony

the third one is all well and all East dormitory at the oldest public university in America the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Now we did that back when we were poor is as church mice. The state did it with state phones when we we you know people thought it was ridiculous for schools of a state to set up a university the very idea the universe is where the harbors of the ails look for instance up north. But our State did that. We built those universities we're committed to them they're among the very best in the nation in the world. And our goal now is to raise our public schools to be like them and to have early childhood of that kind of quality. But it's I think it's leadership over the years that is said education is first and it's most the most important thing not one of five. The

first and the most important one. I don't know if my gender calendars in here as it usually is but it says education. Is our most the most important thing it's everything. And I think our people believe that to a pretty strong degree and I think that's responsible for this commitment and that's what makes us a tolerant people. People don't rob from work and people who share in a great deal of compassion and people that I've learned I've heard you speak on this dozens of times and I think that's what makes a place so unique. People want to come here because they see this market of wonderful people and wonderful ideas. I think that's really true bill. And I think it's one of the reasons why the devotion to public education is so strong for every child from every fan tribe why we want to keep tuitions low and our universities. We want to let children get that good start early we never understood that

commitment. Let's go even down to those levels. While we as I said cherish our public universities we value our private universities too but in our public universities are ours and they're for every child and adults now on the story. So I really think that that is a big part of it. And it leads to tolerance and openness and liberty and and warning everybody up to speed with all of that. Let's look ahead you two years now to finish up this term. I know education is number one on that agenda but you feel good about the opportunities we've got out there. I feel very good about them and I'm very excited about them. Some people I guess would say Alright last two years of your term it's time to relax and sit back in. But you should work harder than ever before Bill. Because I understand what we can do and I really believe I understand what we need to do

as you have for so long and we've got a pretty good consensus now about what we need to do for our children the early years to improve our public schools to make our community colleges and our universities much better they're not special needs at the colleges universities. And I think we've got a pretty good bipartisan commitment to do this even with some of the problems we had the legislature we had a split legislature. We made a lot of progress and education was the one thing that kind of united a Slayer. And I just think the opportunities in here are terrific but I want to keep our people focused on education. It is the most important thing if we do the right things there. Most of these other things will take care of themselves. You see this happening all over our region I know you talk with your fellow governors you preside at their session. But the South itself has become instead of the nation's number one economic problems number one.

Number one dynamic issue right now in so many ways and it is tied it's the education of the in the economy are tied right together. As you know George is running us a foot race in terms of supporting their schools their universities better. The South Carolina Alabama governor's races this year turned on education. Candidates who who had good plans to improve education one whose governorships a number of governors were reelected who were strong on education will continue to be. So I think that's that is what's going on. And. It makes me hopeful about the South again we've got so many poor people we get so many minority people who've been discriminated against and haven't been given the full opportunity. Hispanic numbers are growing and they're so valuable to us. But what we can do it in the south we can do it. And North Carolina can't lead the way.

Is your pollution coffers of the national and recognizing the fact that it is a regional assessor to talk I'm talking together about these things. That's right we're going to invite people from different states will invite the states of the Ohio Valley. A lot of the you know the winds blow down from the Ohio Valley and bring in the pollution from that area and we've got to do it together. So just pointing fingers we've got to figure hey how can we change it. Second we pitch in and help each other clean up our air and I want to reverse what I want to test this last 90 seconds. Because I know you want to have a greeting to all the people who view you here with me in the Christmas season. Thank you Bill. I just want to say what a joy it is to be here with you again. I don't have a greater hero and public life in America than that bill Friday and to say to all my fellow North Carolinians how much I appreciate what you and your family said this year to make our our state a better place. You have cherished and loved your children and your grandchildren and help them do better and screw

you. Work hard at your jobs and enable us to have more. You've tried to help us have a good livable. Safe Communities care about the environment. But folks we we made a lot of progress and I want to be really proud of what we've done we've done some marvelous expression in our schools making more progress in his state America. We've got a long way to go. And North Carolinians always rise to the challenge. That's the thing about us. We aren't where we want to be but boy we are still we know we're speeding up. I hope we'll do that in 1900. And I want to wish you a wonderful holiday season and year for you and your family for all of North Carolinians. Governor you're good. Merry Christmas. Thank you. This looks like you believe this to you live in North

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