THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 27, 1995 TAG: 9509270479
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY PERRY PARKS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
The head of North Carolina's Department of Public Instruction expressed optimism for the state's educational future on Tuesday, despite a General Assembly session that cost him much of his power and nearly half his staff.
``It was a very difficult session and one of those sessions when we spent a lot of time on the defensive,'' State Superintendent Bob Etheridge told the Kiwanis Club of Elizabeth City.
``It'll be a period of adjustment and change,'' he said of the coming years. ``But I think it will be positive as we move toward the 20th century.''
Etheridge was in town Tuesday to present the Golden Key Award to BB&T bank for its service to the Elizabeth City-Pasquotank Schools. BB&T is one of five businesses in the state to receive such an award this year.
The state superintendent said dramatic reductions in the Raleigh staff could mean a reduction in services for some smaller school systems. But he welcomed a statewide move to give local educators more flexibility in teaching children.
And he heralded public education as the key to success not only for individuals, but for the nation, saying that public schools provide the ``underpinnings of democracy.''
``I believe the future really does belong, or will belong, to the educated,'' Etheridge said. ``I don't know that democracy can long survive without having a strong education system.''
To create a strong system, he said, North Carolina must expand the role of technology in education. The state also must take on a larger share of the growing cost of building schools, he said.
Etheridge, along with Elizabeth City-Pasquotank Schools Superintendent Joseph Peel, took part Tuesday in the first meeting of a legislative study panel charged with finding ways to help local districts pay for much-needed school buildings.
Facilities may not be the No. 1 key to a good education, Etheridge said. But they are important.
``The prisons are nicer than the places we're sending our children,'' Etheridge said. ``We've gotta do something about that.
``We ought to have school buildings as nice as any place children go. Buildings do make a difference. They say a lot to that child. They say a lot to that teacher. They say a lot about us.''
Etheridge called on the community to share in building up school systems as they face the challenges of growing social problems and rapid technological advances.
``An education is not just the responsibility of the teachers in the classroom'' or other school officials, Etheridge said. ``You bear just as much responsibility as they do, whether you have a child in school or not.''
``The success that we've had in the last few years, we've only scratched the surface of where we can go,'' he said, referring to rising SAT scores and falling dropout rates statewide.
``We've made a lot of progress. But today, with all the technology and the world moving so fast, we've got to move faster to get there.'' by CNB