John Edwards is ending a pilot scholarship program.

The former North Carolina senator had started a privately funded program at Greene Central High School offering to pay the cost of tuition, fees and books at public college for one year if students worked at least 10 hours a week, took college prep courses and stayed out of trouble.

In his presidential run, Edwards often touted the program as a model for a national program he would start.

No longer running for president, Edwards recently informed Greene County officials that he would end the program, which cost a total of $600,000 for the first two years and helped 190 students go to such colleges as East Carolina University, Lenoir Community College and N.C. State.

The program will help a third class of students who graduated this spring attend college in the fall.

"The program was a huge success," said Pamela Hampton-Garland, director of the program. "The numbers soared. The interest from students and parents and the community rose. It seemed the whole notion of college access changed." (N&O)

Mary Fant Donnan is counting on the Triangle.

The candidate for the Democratic nomination for labor commissioner said that Wake, Durham and Orange counties will be key in her upcoming runoff with former commissioner John C. Brooks.

Because there are no other statewide runoffs next Tuesday, Donnan said that turnout will be pretty low except in areas where a local runoff is also on the ballot.

In Durham County, a countywide school board runoff, and in Orange County, a county commissioner district-wide runoff will draw voters to the poll. And Donnan said past results show Wake County typically does well in runoff turnout because of a general interest in state government.

"There's a fair amount to do in the Triangle because all three counties have something that will bring voters out already," she told Dome.

She said that legislative runoffs in Wayne, Greene and Pitt counties could also draw voters.

John Edwards today called for an $8 billion effort to make a college education more affordable and accessible for students who are wiling to work part-time.

Based on a pilot program at Greene Central High School, which serves a rural area, Edwards college opportunities could be made more broadly available, Rob Christensen reports.

"It's about making sure more young people have the opportunities that are now available in Greene County," Edwards told the hundreds of students and parents crowded into a high school gym for the morning graduation ceremonies.

Starting in 2005, Edwards initiated a privately-funded "College for Everyone" program that provides one year’s tuition fees and books at a public college. In exchange, students must work at least 10 hours a week in college, take college preparatory courses in high school and stay out of trouble.

The program has increased the college going rate at Greene Central from 54 percent to 74 percent, according to the Edwards campaign.

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