Fenced in by two close advisors, Governor Bev Perdue quickly walked up the stairs to the Frank Science Center on Nov. 10. One advisor flipped open a folder and said to a fast-moving Perdue, “We are going to Mrs. Melton’s Environmental Science class.” Perdue took the information in stride and began shaking hands and asking names.
Perdue had come to the Early College at Guilford to announce her new College and Career Promise plan, which allows certain high school students in North Carolina to begin pursuing a two- or four-year degree, certificate or diploma. The program is tuition-free and only requires high-school students to meet certain requirements.
CCP has three pathways. Two allow high-school students with a “B” or above average to apply during their junior or senior years to earn credits at local community colleges or independent colleges or universities.
The third pathway “started here,” Perdue said during her speech in the Bryan Jr. Auditorium. It involves more cooperative high schools like the Early College at Guilford. Perdue hopes with this plan to better facilitate the needs of these high schools at the state level.
In a speech made in Durham earlier that same day, Perdue said, “These were really good programs, but they were patchwork … they were not coordinated.”
A former teacher herself, Perdue ran on a platform of improving education in her 2008 campaign. As the 2012 election approaches, Perdue’s chances of reelection are in danger, despite the Democratic National Convention being held in North Carolina.
Aaron Blake of the Washington Post ranks Perdue as the most vulnerable governor in 2012. Perdue hopes to rekindle support with this education plan and light a path to victory in November.
However, her reception at the Early College was mixed.
“I thought it went well … it was exciting,” said Margo Melton, the environmental science and biology teacher whose classroom Perdue visited.
Some Early College students, who wished to remain anonymous, had different opinions.
One said, “She’s a publicity magnet. (She) taps us on the shoulder just because it is going to be on TV.”
Another objected to the very idea of the visit, saying, “Why does she need to come here to trot out her policy? She isn’t asking our opinion. She just wants us to grin in the background. It is a dog -and-pony show.”
Both these students and others felt they were being used without being asked their actual opinions. Many wondered why a bill on an education plan took them out of class.
Other students, however, such as Rishab Revankar, a tenth grader at the Early College, found the visit enjoyable and described Perdue as “a very nice and dignified woman.”
While opinions on the visit were varied, the early college model has been successful at Guilford, as it is currently ranked the seventeenth best public high school in the country by Newsweek. Perdue hopes to take this type of success statewide. Whether expansion of college credit programs will help her reelection chances is still to be seen.