In a visit to Wilmington on Wednesday, former Gov. Jim Hunt said that education is the largest challenge facing North Carolina today.
 
Hunt, in town to speak at the Children’s Museum of Wilmington’s Great Friend to Kids awards event, made that point to a group of local high school students before addressing the audience at the awards luncheon, held at Cape Fear Community College’s Union Station.
 
“Teacher pay ought to be raised to the national average,” he said, noting that teachers have not had a pay raise for several years. He also voiced objection to the current proposal to pay new teachers a higher salary while leaving existing teachers’ pay at current levels.
 
“Teachers ought to be rewarded for increasing their education and skills; they ought to be encouraged to become better,” Hunt responded to a question about the legislature removing increased pay levels for teachers who earn advanced degrees. “Taking that [pay raise] away is a slap in the face to teachers.”
 
Asked about state budget director Art Pope’s rejection of the UNC-system’s budget proposal, which Pope termed “not realistic” and asked university officials to rework, Hunt said, “We can do both: raise teacher pay to the national average and support our colleges and universities.”
 
Pope stated in a Feb. 28 memo to university leaders that they are asking for too much money at a time when the state needs to focus its funding priorities on Medicaid and raises for K-12 teachers and state employees.
 
Hunt’s talk at the awards luncheon focused on a few of his accomplishments in his four terms as governor – 1977-1985 and again 1993-2001 – that benefited Wilmington, such as completing Interstate 40 from Raleigh to Wilmington and convincing movie magnate Dino di Laurentiis to build his studios in the Port City rather than in South Carolina.
 
The former governor praised the business recruitment work done in earlier decades by Wilmington’s Committee of 100.
 
“That was the strongest economic development group in North Carolina,” he said.
 
Hunt emphasized the importance of early childhood and K-12 education and said that educational initiatives should focus on “what’s best for our children.”
 
“Economic development and education go hand in hand,” he said.
 
The former governor also lauded the Children’s Museum of Wilmington, which he toured earlier Wednesday, for its focus on early childhood development through opportunities for hands-on learning activity.
 
“Children are all born with the same number of brain cells. Their capacity for intelligence happens when those brain cells are connected up,” he said, noting that the care and stimulation a child receives very early in life helps those brain cells to connect. “The first three years [of a child’s life] are the most important.”
 
Hunt was the recipient of the museum’s annual Innate Love of Learning award. Ben and Amy Wright and their family received the Inspiration award; Fernando Moya, director of neonatology at New Hanover Regional Medical Center, received the Unsung Hero award; violinist and strings teacher Ann Stohl received the Curiosity award; and Eric Irizarry, principal of D.C. Virgo Middle School, received the Imagination award.