NC Lt. Governor Walter Dalton's Blog

November 18th marked the first regional meeting of the Joining Our Businesses and Schools (JOBS) Commission.  The meeting was held at the Senator Bob Martin Eastern Agricultural Center in Williamston and was attended by more than 150 people.  During the meeting, the commission heard presentations from many people from the Northeast regional community ranging from economic developers to educators.  Some of the people we heard from included:

Vann Rogerson, President and CEO of the Northeast Commission, who discussed the different economic development clusters of the area and current and future projects in those areas

A panel discussion which looked at ways to foster “Future-Ready Graduates.”  The panel included Dr. Tony Habit, Director of the New Schools Project; Johnny Jacobs controller of Nucor Steel; Dr. Tom Daly, Superintendent of Martin County Schools; Dr. Willie Gilchrist, Chancellor of Elizabeth City State University; and Dr. Ervin Griffin, President of Halifax Community College

Dr. Chip Zullinger, Superintendent of Bertie County Schools, and  Jim Guard also discussed an agriculture-based early college program in Bertie County

The input that we received from the presenters and members of the audience shows us that we are on the right track.

The event was covered by multiple news organizations, including WITN television, which posted the following video: http://www.witn.com/home/headlines/70418567.html

Over the coming months, we will be holding six more regional meetings across the state.  Our next meeting will be December 11th in Kannapolis at the North Carolina Research Campus.

If you would like more information about the JOBS commission and its plan of work, the following is the legislation establishing the commission: http://www.ncleg.net/Sessions/2009/Bills/Senate/PDF/S1069v5.pdf

Through a partnership between the Golden LEAF Foundation, North Carolina Rural Economic Development Center, and the Center for Community Self-Help, a program has been established which will provide loans to assist small businesses during difficult economic times.  Both the Golden LEAF Loan Program and the Rural Center Loan Program will be administered by Self-Help and will be able to provide roughly $27.5 million in loans to North Carolina business owners.

I worked diligently with the General Assembly to have $500,000 appropriated to the Rural Center for programs to benefit small businesses and I am glad to see that it is being used in conjunction with this larger initiative.

Small businesses are the backbone of our economy and this is a great program to assist them in remaining viable during times of hardship. 

For more information about how to apply for these loans, please contact Self-Help Senior Loan Officer Jane Hatley at 828-771-2817 or by e-mail at jane.hatley@self-help.org

I'm excited to announce that today, Governor Perdue and I launched the North Carolina e-Learning portal.  This website provides links connecting students, parents, teachers and citizens with the numerous electronic and web-based learning opportunities offered by various educational partners across the state.  Through the site students of all ages will be able to access educational curriculum outside of the traditional classroom setting.  The site is certainly a dramatic step forward for education in North Carolina, and as chair of the e-Learning Commission, I hope to continue to grow the educational opportunities provided to all North Carolinians through the utilization of technology.

The site can be found at http://www.elearningnc.gov