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	Easley Touts Education at Annual Meeting By Kati Knowland March 26, 2008 Greensboro, N.C. — Governor Mike Easley spoke to attendees at the 66th North Carolina Chamber Annual Meeting about the important strides the state is making to improve education, focus on workforce development and curtail the drop-out rate. Easley noted that continuing to focus on workforce development and education is the most important part of transforming the state's economy from a low-skill economy to a high-skill, more diversified economy. He went on to discuss the increasing high school drop-out rate and what needs to be done to increase the number of students who graduate. "You can screw up a lot of things in education by experimenting too much. High school is not one of them," he said. Easley said that high school simply isn't working for students. As the students recognize that, they are dropping out — nationally, more than 30 percent of high school students are leaving high school before they graduate. "They know that a high school degree will not get the job done anymore in this global economy. … They've got it figured out. They know they need more." Comparing high school to a retail establishment, Easley pointed out that if only about 65 percent of customers who came into a store actually walked out with a product, the owners would adjust the inventory. "Suppose it was free. You didn't even charge anything for it, and over 30 percent of the people walked in and walked out without taking anything. … That's what high school is. It's a product that we provide, and we provide it free, and kids are walking out of there every single day because they know it's not going to get them where they need to be."
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