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    Twelve-hundred delegates from the state of California are in Washington DC  for the annual convention of the National Education Association (NEA). The California delegation is here to take part in a discussion of current topics in American Education and to revise resolutions expressing our official positions on issues related to education. It is my first time to be a part of the delegation from Bakersfield and I find it very exciting to be a part of this democratic process in which almost 9,000 national delegates enter into four days of active debate in the general assembly on the convention floor.

   The highlight of Thursday's afternoon session was when North Carolina Governor Mike Easley addressed the general assembly as NEA's first-ever recipient of the America's Greatest Education Governor Award. Governor Easley is recognized nationally for setting up a Teachers Advisory Cabinet, for collecting annual surveys of teacher working conditions, for demanding fiscal accountability of North Carolina state legislators, for working to reduce the high school drop out rate, and for working with his state legislators to make college affordable and even free to most people in his state.

   Governor Easley told the national delegation of educators, "I am not only interested in building the best possible workforce that I can for my state. I am interested in making sure that every child in my state is using their God-given talents and meeting their highest potential."

   Governor Easley is the author of a children's book called "Look Out College! Here I Come!" and, on the eve of Independence Day, he charged his audience to remember that, "The most patriotic thing you can do today is to learn as much as you can from the high chair to the rocking chair of life-long learning."