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Program description
NC 20/20: A NC Now Special Report examines the North
Carolina Progress Board's report North Carolina 20/20. This report
is a forward-looking planning document, which provides recommendations
as to how the State can work towards helping its citizens enjoy
a high quality of life by the year 2020. UNC-TV's overview of the
report focuses in on eight of the report's goals.
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Jim Hunt
Former NCGovernor
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The North Carolina Progress Board was created
by the North Carolina General Assembly in 1995. It was tasked with
looking into the future and charting goals towards making all North
Carolinians have a good quality of life by the year 2020. The report
North Carolina 20/20 was completed in 2001. What makes this planning
document unique is that it sets measurable goals and targets towards
reaching
Mitch Lewis:
And as you are well aware, in 2001 the Progress Board issued its
North Carolina 20/20 report. It outlined eight imperatives that
need to be addressed in order for North Carolinians to enjoy a quality
life by the year 20/20. Now, as someone who has been in the forefront
of addressing issues here in North Carolina, what do you see as
perhaps some of the challenges facing the state?
Governor Jim Hunt:
"Well I think the challenges are
included in those eight areas. And I'm delighted that people are
learning about this, ah, because it's really something for the people.
And the way I have viewed this is that, you know, I've been in politics
enough to know the shortcomings of politics and politicians. I know
that they promise a lot uh, when they run for re-election they try
to make everything they've done look good uh, an, an that's fine.
But the truth is that people ought to have a non-partisan uh, way
of measuring how well we're doing so they can hold the politicians
accountable, and hold themselves accountable, know how the state's
doing, know how their communities are doing. Uh, so I would say
that uh, this, this process is very important. It's one that frankly
the people haven't learned very much about. Uh, but I think the,
the, the great challenges to us, reflected in those eight areas
are one, education. And that's the area frankly, in the last decade
or so that we have done the most to move up in. Ah, in the, in the,
in the education area uh, we have the vision of everybody going
to school at equal access, graduating with the knowledge and skills
to get a good job, to, to go on to further education, for every
child to start to school healthy and ready to learn, that's what
Smart Start's about. And then we have targets, by the year uh, uh,
uh, 2010, for example, for 90% for our children to be at or above
grade level in reading and math. Well, we're almost there in 2003.
Uh, we have the goal by 2010 of having North Carolina be among the
top 10 states in the country in the National Test Scores.
Well, in some areas, for example, 4th grade
math, we're already 8th. So uh, I would say that our greatest challenges,
we, we've got challenge in all of these areas, but I look at things
today the greatest challenges are to build our economy and have
good jobs for our people, to have the education that will prepare
them for those jobs and the skill training to prepare them for those
jobs, to have the kind of environment and the livability in this
state that uh, makes bright people want to come here, folks come
and invest here, and people want to live here. Uh, and then I would
say the, the great health challenges, both for little children,
a third of them living in poverty today in North Carolina and for
our senior citizens and all of our people. There are a lot of challenges.
These are some that I think are, are among the most important. "Well,
I think we have a long way to go. Uh, we have a lot of communities
that are, that are wonderful ah, but we have a lot of communities
where people are not safe. Ah, we have communities in our inner
cities ah, I remember going into a uh,
a, a, a, public housing community in Durham one time. And the mother
of these children told me that uh, she's afraid for her children
to play outside. There's hardly anytime when they don't hear gun
shots in the evening.
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