Editor’s Note: Phil Kirk’s speech is open to the media.
ELON COLLEGE – Phil Kirk, chairman of the state Board of Education, will speak to education and academic deans at 10 a.m. Friday in McKinnon Hall in the Moseley Center on the Elon College campus.
The deans and other members of the North Carolina Association of Independent Colleges and Universities are holding a daylong meeting at Elon. The association is comprised of the state’s 37 private colleges and universities.
Gov. Jim Hunt appointed Kirk, who is also president of the N.C. Citizens for Business and Industry, the state’s largest business lobby, to the state Board of Education in 1997. The longtime Republican held top-level posts under GOP Govs. Jim Holshouser and Jim Martin.
As chairman of the board that oversees the education of 1.2 million children, Kirk is leading the current effort to end social promotions. He also is urging high schools to be honest about their dropout rates.
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