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  The Future Is in Their Hands
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ContributorArmyDem 
Last EditedArmyDem  Jun 11, 2006 07:59pm
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News DateTuesday, June 13, 2006 01:00:00 AM UTC0:0
DescriptionWhen North Carolina started losing jobs overseas, the state overhauled its education system to create a 21st-century work force.

By Barbara Kantrowitz
Newsweek

June 12, 2006 issue - 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.
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