North Carolina Students Mobilize To Save The N.C. Governor's School

by Megan Cottrell · 2011-07-20 10:05:00 UTC
Topics: show more

For 48 years, thousands of North Carolina's brightest students have come from all around the state to gather for the summer - to devote themselves to their studies and to learn from each other - for six weeks on college campuses. But if the state budget doesn't change soon, this program - the North Carolina Governor's School - will end after this year.

"If the North Carolina General Assembly shuts down the Governor's School on its 50th year of existence, with it dies the beauty of quality education. With it dies the ability to foster a student's desire to become a life-long learner," says Joseph DeChristina, 16, a former Governor's school attendee who started a petition on Change.org to save the program.

DeChristina was shocked when he heard about state budget cuts and felt he had to do something.

"I initially learned of the 'Save NCGS Campaign' from my friends on facebook that informed me all state funding for the Governor's School program had been cut," said DeChristina.

House Republican Majority Leader Paul Stam said the legislature chose to cut all funding for the Governor's school because of tough financial times. He says it's still possible for the program to continue.

"The state Board of Education can use other money to do that next year or raise money from some of the other alumni who are upset," Stam told WRAL in Raleigh.

Supporters of the program are doing what they can to keep it going, with alumni donating to help defray costs and others proposing the school charge students tuition to keep it running. The State Board of Education will announce in August whether they will keep the school open.

DeChristina says he's donated to the alumni foundation, and he hopes that it, or some measure by the North Carolina legislature, will keep the school going. The group has currently raised around $7,500, but must raise at least $200,000 by the end of August to gain approval to move forward, according to the Daily Tar Heel.

"The best government has the most educated citizens," said DeChristina. "The Governor's School was created to teach students to think, and if there is no one to teach students how to think, how can we as a people and a world expect to learn and love?"

Photo credit: Calvin Dellinger

Megan Cottrell is a reporter and writer living in Chicago.

RELATED PETITION

Department of Education: Keep The North Carolina Governor's School!
SIGN PETITION
531 People
PREVIOUS STORY:
Minnesota School Board Still Mum About Anti-Gay "Gag" Rule
NEXT STORY:
Student loans got you down? Start a petition.

COMMENTS (0)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.