A message from Jim Hart, president of the NC Governor's School Alumni Association --
Anybody here got $1.5 million to spare? Because that's what the GSAA and GS Foundation have decided to do in response to the General Assembly's decision to cut GS funding - we're going to fund it ourselves.
Fully funding 800 students on two campuses will cost roughly $1.5 million dollars. There are 30,000 alumni. If we were in contact with them all, it would take $50 per alumnus per year.
Unfortunately, we're not in contact with nearly that many. So we are asking all of you - if you think GS was an important moment in your life, if you think you are more successful because of it, then pass that success along to future generations of North Carolinians by making a donation to the GSF's Campaign 2011 at:
http://www.ncgsfoundation.org/how-to-help/
Spread the word. Tell everyone. Tell your friends, your classmates, your boss, your parents, your teachers, your kids. If you don't have kids, tell someone else's kids. Tell the parents of every rising Junior that if they want their kids to have a chance to attend GS, then we need help, and we need it now.
Why now? Because the Department of Public Instruction will have to decide if they are going to hold GS next year before the end of September. A strong showing of support on our part will give them reason to keep GS open.
Showing posts with label NC Governor's School. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NC Governor's School. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Friday, March 18, 2011
Saving NC Governor's School, Round Two
NC Governor's School is a program for the best and brightest to be challenged during a six week summer institute of sorts. It's a program near and dear to my heart since I spent the summer of 1985 being challenged, learning new ways to think, and building friendships with other academic teens.
In April of 2009, I blogged about the impending budget cuts to this incredible state program that uplifts and meets the needs of our highly academic students. I find myself two years later encouraging folks to stand strong and to contact their legislators.
This year's state education budget calls for ELIMINATION of this program.
Here's a note to share from the GS Alumni President:
Dear GS Alumni,
2011 may go down in infamy as the year that North Carolina abandoned all pretense of promoting gifted education. According to sources within the Legislature, the proposed budget from our new majority in the General Assembly includes reducing the allocation for Governor's School to zero.
Last week, I received a message from one of our alumni containing a link to a document entitled "Education Budget Reduction Options - Public Schools" that lists the changes that are being proposed in the Department of Public Instruction's budget for 2011-2012. Here is the link:
http://msg4svc.net/static/neanc/images/edbudred.pdf
On page 8 of this document, line item 34, you will see that the proposed option for Governor's School is to reduce its budget by 100%.
Today, I received a message from Joe Milner, past Director of GSE and husband of current GSW Director Lucy Milner. He went to the Legislature today and spoke to three Senators. He did not hear any encouraging news. The two majority Senators seemed supportive of the idea of cutting GS, and the one minority Senator indicated that there was little that could be done legislatively to prevent this cut.
I realize that our state is in the middle of a budget crisis and that cuts have to be made somewhere. But the $850,000 annual GS budget is practically pocket change by comparison to other programs, and the benefits to the students and the state far surpass the cost. The only thing that I know we can do is to make ourselves heard. We need to raise public awareness of the value of Governor's School and make it one of the programs that the citizens of North Carolina believe cannot be abandoned or destroyed.
This is a huge challenge, one that we must meet with everything that we have. I encourage all of you to write your legislators, write the Governor, write your local newspapers, blog - do anything to get the word out. And let's make sure we are heard down on Jones Street.
I will keep you informed as we make plans. If you have any ideas, contact me via FB message or at my home address, jkhart@nc.rr.com.
Thank you,
Jim HartGSAA President
In April of 2009, I blogged about the impending budget cuts to this incredible state program that uplifts and meets the needs of our highly academic students. I find myself two years later encouraging folks to stand strong and to contact their legislators.
This year's state education budget calls for ELIMINATION of this program.
Here's a note to share from the GS Alumni President:
Dear GS Alumni,
2011 may go down in infamy as the year that North Carolina abandoned all pretense of promoting gifted education. According to sources within the Legislature, the proposed budget from our new majority in the General Assembly includes reducing the allocation for Governor's School to zero.
Last week, I received a message from one of our alumni containing a link to a document entitled "Education Budget Reduction Options - Public Schools" that lists the changes that are being proposed in the Department of Public Instruction's budget for 2011-2012. Here is the link:
http://msg4svc.net/static/neanc/images/edbudred.pdf
On page 8 of this document, line item 34, you will see that the proposed option for Governor's School is to reduce its budget by 100%.
Today, I received a message from Joe Milner, past Director of GSE and husband of current GSW Director Lucy Milner. He went to the Legislature today and spoke to three Senators. He did not hear any encouraging news. The two majority Senators seemed supportive of the idea of cutting GS, and the one minority Senator indicated that there was little that could be done legislatively to prevent this cut.
I realize that our state is in the middle of a budget crisis and that cuts have to be made somewhere. But the $850,000 annual GS budget is practically pocket change by comparison to other programs, and the benefits to the students and the state far surpass the cost. The only thing that I know we can do is to make ourselves heard. We need to raise public awareness of the value of Governor's School and make it one of the programs that the citizens of North Carolina believe cannot be abandoned or destroyed.
This is a huge challenge, one that we must meet with everything that we have. I encourage all of you to write your legislators, write the Governor, write your local newspapers, blog - do anything to get the word out. And let's make sure we are heard down on Jones Street.
I will keep you informed as we make plans. If you have any ideas, contact me via FB message or at my home address, jkhart@nc.rr.com.
Thank you,
Jim HartGSAA President
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Saving NC Governor's School
Word on the street is that the budget for NC Governor's School, one of NC's premier programs for gifted students, is about to be cut in half. Even with all the talk of preserving the education budget by our governor, it's come down to this: some education programs have got to be trimmed.
As a gifted child growing up in a rural part of NC, there weren't always the same opportunities that you might find in a larger city. That's not to say that my parents didn't work to provide those opportunities -- piano lessons, summer camp, attending the symphonies and plays -- but the public schools were not on the academic cutting edge to provide for some of their best and brightest. I remind myself that this was almost 25 years ago, and perhaps the better integration of instructional technology and the proliferation of online courses and the access to NC Virtual Public School will improve the situation for those gifted children coming through the public schools today.
But unfortunately the general concensus is often this: those smart kids will "get it" (whatever it is) no matter what.
Well, guess what people?! I don't want other gifted children coming through the system to just have to "get it". I want them to be exposed to incredible educators who challenge their thinking skills, who push them just a little bit harder through the process, who ask the essential questions to get those gifted children motivated to explore, to create, to learn, to challenge themselves.
I want gifted children in North Carolina to have the opportunity to experience NC Governor's School.
For me, the six week summer experience introduced me to thought processes and mathematical theories and skills that I had never been exposed to and don't know that I would have been exposed to at my high school. I was put in a setting with other intelligent and talented teenagers who for the most part had the same wants and desires about owning their education, being challenged by others. For many attendees, attending Governor's School can be the first time that they feel like they are with their true peers, other gifted individuals who are not picked on and put upon just because their IQs are a certain number and their grade point averages are at the top and they use those big fifty-cent words!
Through the years, there have been articles, essays, and letters written both disparging and supporting the program. On the homepage of the NCGS website, the philosophy of the program is stated as a program
"... where students who are among the best and brightest gather for the love of learning and the joy of creativity
... where teachers and students form a community while searching together for answers to challenging questions
... where there are no grades or tests
... where a synergy of intellectual curiosity fuels the exploration of the latest ideas in various disciplines"
Ultimately for me, NC Governor's School met my expectations. I just want other gifted students in NC to have the same opportunity.
As a gifted child growing up in a rural part of NC, there weren't always the same opportunities that you might find in a larger city. That's not to say that my parents didn't work to provide those opportunities -- piano lessons, summer camp, attending the symphonies and plays -- but the public schools were not on the academic cutting edge to provide for some of their best and brightest. I remind myself that this was almost 25 years ago, and perhaps the better integration of instructional technology and the proliferation of online courses and the access to NC Virtual Public School will improve the situation for those gifted children coming through the public schools today.
But unfortunately the general concensus is often this: those smart kids will "get it" (whatever it is) no matter what.
Well, guess what people?! I don't want other gifted children coming through the system to just have to "get it". I want them to be exposed to incredible educators who challenge their thinking skills, who push them just a little bit harder through the process, who ask the essential questions to get those gifted children motivated to explore, to create, to learn, to challenge themselves.
I want gifted children in North Carolina to have the opportunity to experience NC Governor's School.
For me, the six week summer experience introduced me to thought processes and mathematical theories and skills that I had never been exposed to and don't know that I would have been exposed to at my high school. I was put in a setting with other intelligent and talented teenagers who for the most part had the same wants and desires about owning their education, being challenged by others. For many attendees, attending Governor's School can be the first time that they feel like they are with their true peers, other gifted individuals who are not picked on and put upon just because their IQs are a certain number and their grade point averages are at the top and they use those big fifty-cent words!
Through the years, there have been articles, essays, and letters written both disparging and supporting the program. On the homepage of the NCGS website, the philosophy of the program is stated as a program
"... where students who are among the best and brightest gather for the love of learning and the joy of creativity
... where teachers and students form a community while searching together for answers to challenging questions
... where there are no grades or tests
... where a synergy of intellectual curiosity fuels the exploration of the latest ideas in various disciplines"
Ultimately for me, NC Governor's School met my expectations. I just want other gifted students in NC to have the same opportunity.
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