Interview: Cecilia Holden, President

Cecilia Holden

President & CEO myFutureNC

What have been some highlights this year for myFutureNC?

We are a nonprofit that was started by the work of the myFutureNC Commission that began in 2017. This initiative led to the state establishing the educational attainment goal to have 2 million North Carolinians between the ages of 25 and 44 hold a high-quality credential or postsecondary degree by 2030. The North Carolina General Assembly codified this goal into state law to ensure our state remains economically competitive now and into the future by providing the workforce necessary to fill the jobs across the state. The pandemic occurred three months into the launch of the new nonprofit; however, over the last year or so, the importance of this work has been elevated. Data shows that individuals who lost their jobs during the pandemic more likely had lower levels of education. In the midst of the pandemic, economic development has continued to flourish in urban North Carolina. We are an in-migration state and most of the jobs we have been able to attract, such as the entry of Apple, will require higher levels of education. Our work has not slowed during the pandemic and, if anything, we’ve been able to reach more people.

What is your near-term outlook?

Coming out of the pandemic, there is about $10 billion being infused from the federal level specifically for education in North Carolina. If we’re able to strategically leverage these resources, we will be better positioned to see improvements in educational attainment in areas where there may previously have been limited resources. These resources may also allow us to adjust and do things a little more creatively. Looking at the data, it shows that those born in poverty are likely to remain in poverty; however, we believe that education is the gateway to upward mobility, as well as a main driver of North Carolina’s economy. Our work is state-led but the work must be locally owned and driven. We are lifting up and catalyzing action at the local levels to help us achieve our goal.

Key drivers of Raleigh-Durham’s success are the region’s innovation, education and collaboration.

century technology skills, develop professional life skills, participate in open data projects and explore workplace environments.

K-12 At the early stages of education, public and private schools appear to have experienced two very different pandemics.

While North Carolina’s private schools added 3,282 children to their classes for the 2020-21 school year, amounting to a 2.2% increase compared to 2019-20, the state’s public schools witnessed a 5% drop in enrollment, representing 70,000 fewer students. The phenomenon is not exclusive to North Carolina with media outlets reporting similar trends across the United States.

The lion’s share of the state’s public schools opened the 2019-20 school year offering remote learning only, gradually transitioning to a mix of in-person and online classes, with most districts ultimately switching to fulltime, daily face-to-face instruction by the end of that school year. The difference in performance with private schools lies in the fact that private education promoted in-person class offerings with much more availability compared to public schools while following strict COVID-19 safety precautions.

The heavy promotion of in-person classes from private schools does not mean that public schools did not get to dabble in innovation in their own right. Durham Public Schools is making its very first virtual K-12 academy a permanent school in fall 2021: Ignite! Online Academy. ( )