RALEIGH (December 19, 2024) – North Carolina’s business community has a vested interest in its public schools. And it needs to act on it, the state’s incoming Superintendent of Public Instruction says.

“My idea of ‘public schools’ is to focus on both of those words,” State Superintendent-Elect Maurice “Mo” Green says in the accompanying video.

“The ‘public’ part is critically important, because that means all of us. And that does mean the business community as part of all of us, right? So they have a critical part to play in the education of our children.”

Green says that involvement will vary from place to place. And he offers some examples.

When he was the school superintendent in Guilford County, the system created a STEM Early College at N.C. A&T State University.

The state had been providing $300,000 to help start such schools. But then it stopped.

“The General Assembly said they’re not going to provide that money. It was, then, the business community that provided those dollars and in fact provided over a million dollars to start that school, which is now, U.S. News & World Report will say, it’s the second-best high school in the state of North Carolina.”

Green also discusses businesses voicing what sorts of graduates they need as employees – and providing high school students with internships and apprenticeships.

“I think there are a myriad of ways (the) business community must be involved in the public education in North Carolina,” he says.