U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan has joined U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota in introducing legislation to crack down on kids who don’t show up for school.

The senators, both Democrats, want to establish a national truancy resource center and a federal grant program for schools, reports Barb Barrett. The competitive grant program would allow schools to work with community groups to discourage truancy, especially in middle school.

The senators say middle school truancy is a strong indicator of drop-out rates in high school.

The grant program’s cost has not been established yet, said Hagan spokesman David Hoffman.

But Klobuchar said she hopes to include it in Congress’ reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act.

Hagan, of Greensboro, is a member of the Senate education committee, which would handle the reauthorization.

President Barack Obama urged students to get serious this year in an address televised to schools across the country.

"I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do," Obama said in his 10-minute address. "So don't let us down — don't let your family down or your country down or most of all, yourself, down."

Obama told the students that good careers require hard work in school.

"You cannot drop out of school and just drop into a good job," he said. "You've got to work for it and train for it and learn for it."

The White House has released a copy of the prepared remarks that President Barack Obama plans to broadcast to school children across the country on Tuesday.

In the remarks, Obama says he has often talked about the responsibilities of teachers, parents and school administrators to help children do well in school. But Obama says students need to take responsibility for their own education:

Maybe you could be a good writer – maybe even good enough to write a book or articles in a newspaper – but you might not know it until you write a paper for your English class. Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor – maybe even good enough to come up with the next iPhone or a new medicine or vaccine – but you might not know it until you do a project for your science class. Maybe you could be a mayor or a Senator or a Supreme Court Justice, but you might not know that until you join student government or the debate team.

And no matter what you want to do with your life – I guarantee that you’ll need an education to do it. You want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a police officer? You want to be a nurse or an architect, a lawyer or a member of our military? You’re going to need a good education for every single one of those careers. You can’t drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You’ve got to work for it and train for it and learn for it. 

Students at Durham's Southern High School will get a chance Tuesday to watch the broadcast with a member of Obama's cabinet - Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson.

Jackson, like other cabinet members visiting schools elsewhere in the country, will talk with a group of students at Southern after the broadcast.

N.C. Republican Party chairman Tom Fetzer sent out a press release late today calling on N.C. school systems to avoid President Barack Obama’s speech on education scheduled for noon Tuesday.

The U.S. Department of Education has encouraged schools to allow students to view the speech and has put out materials for teachers to use along with it, Barb Barrett reports. Despite criticism from Republicans, the White House says the speech is not political and is meant to encourage pupils to work hard in school.

"This speech is clearly political in nature and has no place in the classroom," Fetzer said in a prepared statement. "Our focus should be improving our students’ test scores, not the President’s approval rating."

Fetzer did not mention a visit to Durham’s Southern High School planned by Lisa Jackson, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, to coincide with the speech. Jackson is scheduled to visit students there on Tuesday and watch Obama’s speech with them live.

Several Cabinet and high-level administration officials are being sent to schools around the country to watch the speech with students.

Students at Durham's Southern High School will watch President Barack Obama’s education speech Tuesday alongside Lisa Jackson, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Obama is scheduled to speak at noon Tuesday about education success, and the administration has sent out educational materials to schools to accompany the talk, reports Barb Barrett. The speech and the materials have drawn criticism from some who say Obama is wrongly injecting politics into the public schools, but the White House says the speech will be focused on encouraging children to succeed.

As part of the speech, members of Obama’s cabinet are joining students across the country. Jackson is scheduled to be at Southern. According to the White House, she will join the students in watching the speech live, then engage in a discussion about taking responsibility for education.

The state will work with the Halifax County school district to find a replacement for departing superintendent Geraldine Middleton, said State Board of Education Chairman Bill Harrison.

Under a court order, the state Department of Public Instruction has a role in trying to improve student performance in the troubled district. More than half of the districts schools were labeled low performing because student test scores were so low, reports Lynn Bonner.

The poor performance triggered a provision in state law that would have allowed the state board to fire Middleton and appoint a temporary replacement. Harrison earlier this month said he did not want to fire her.

Middleton announced Monday night she was leaving Halifax for a job in Chicago.

The Halifax school board chairwoman is working closely with the state on the turn-around plan, Harrison said. He expects the relationship to continue as the board looks for a new superintendent.

"I think we'll work together and get someone to go in there and carry on the plan that's been put in place," he said.

Gov. Beverly Perdue’s decline in the polls appears to be bottoming out.

In fact, Perdue has had a slight up tick in her polling numbers, according to the latest survey by Public Policy Polling, a Democratic polling firm in Raleigh.

The firm found that 27 percent of North Carolina voters approve of the job she is doing, while 52 percent disapprove.

Those are still poor numbers, but better than last month when she had a 25 percent job approval rating.

Like most governors, Perdue’s popularity has badly sagged during the deep recession as she has proposed major cuts in government spending, furloughs for state employees, and tax increases, reports Rob Christensen.

But Perdue has improved her standing among Democrats in recent weeks after rejecting a budget proposal because of deep cuts in education and a proposal to tack an income tax surcharge on all taxpayers.

Her positive/negatives among Democrats rose from 38/40 in July to 42/36 in August, according to the survey.

The poll of 749 North Carolina voters was conducted August 4-10 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.

State Rep. Bill Owens says the recent legislative session was the most difficult of his career.

Owens, an Elizabeth City Democrat, spoke to his hometown Rotary Club this week about the recently completed legislative session, according to a report in the Daily Advance.

He told the meeting that the state still needs to sort out who should be in charge of public schools, defended the Racial Justice Act, and said negotiations over the state budget made for a difficult session.

"This has been by far the most trying time I've ever had in my career," Owens said.

Hat Tip: The Insider.

Two members of the Obama administration are coming to North Carolina next week to talk about rural education and the economic stimulus plan.

The White House announced today that Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Education Secretary Arne Duncan will host a community forum at Richmond Community College in Hamlet on Monday.

It is the latest stop in the administration's Rural Tour.

House Speaker Joe Hackney said the legislative session that adjourned today will be remembered for protecting public education during a 20 percent drop in revenue.

"In the context of a severe recession, I feel like we have saved public education and its core mission," he said during a news conference after gaveling the House to a close after seven months. "We did it without pay cuts, without furloughs and, I think, fairly."

Lawmakers return in May for the "short session" held during election years.

He said lawmakers' essential task when the session opened in January was to get through the next two years of a rough economy. 

Hackney said he does not expect the legislature to have to return for a special session if revenue numbers worsen, saying that Gov. Beverly Perdue, a Democrat, has shown she can manage the budget when revenues dip. He also voiced skepticism that a Senate proposal to overhaul the tax system would be ready for lawmakers to take up in the fall.