Two of the four foundations who bankrolled a governor's conference in Cary earlier this week said they did not request that the public and press be kept out.

Former Gov. Jim Hunt's eponymous institute at UNC Chapel Hill organized the session on Sunday and Monday for governors from across the country to discuss education initiatives. All of the events, except for a Sunday speech by U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, were kept private, even though they involved the governors of 22 states — 16 Democrats and six Republicans. Institute spokeswoman April White said Monday that the privacy was to encourage candor but also a requirement of the groups funding the sessions, which were held at the Umstead luxury hotel in Cary.

Officials at two of the four foundations that contributed, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the State Farm Companies Foundation, said they imposed no such requirement or request. Dome is attempting to get comments from the two other foundations involved, Atlantic Philanthropies and the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundations.

UPDATE: White said today she misspoke Monday and that the closed sessions were a decision of officials at the Hunt Institute, who stated those conditions when applying for the funding. Also, an earlier version of this post incorrectly identified the institute's location, which is at UNC Chapel Hill.

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan will be in Cary this weekend for what his office is calling a "major policy speech" focusing on international standards for school achievement.

Duncan will be offering the keynote address Sunday night at the Governors Education Symposium, a meeting sponsored by the James B. Hunt, Jr. Institute for Educational Leadership and Policy, Lynn Bonner reports.

Duncan's speech will be the second in a series of four leading up to the opening of competition for $5 billion from the "Race to the Top"  fund — money Duncan will dole out to states to encourage school improvements.

The fund is part of the stimulus money Congress approved earlier this year.

Former N.C. Gov. Jim Hunt told Congress today that schools across the country have to develop similar standards for education subjects such as algebra, science and reading. 

But Hunt doesn't want the federal government to do the job unless all else fails. Instead, he is pushing a states-run effort to develop standards, Barb Barrett reports.

"The standards are all over the place," Hunt testified this morning to a House education committee. "We need to have a set of common standards for the country for all of our schools. … They need to be fewer, clearer and higher."

The National Governors Association and several education groups are working to develop higher standards for high school graduates.

Hunt, who led North Carolina for 16 years, is now chairman of the James B. Hunt Jr. Institute for Educational Leadership and Policy at UNC-Chapel Hill.

More after the jump.

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Who didn't play hooky to see Barack Obama?

As noted previously, three governors in town for a training session at the Hunt Institute for Educational Leadership showed up at an Obama event Monday: Gov. Brian Schweitzer of Montana, Gov. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and former Gov. Roy Romer of Colorado.

Though they were on the guest list, Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter and Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley did not show.

They had a good reason, of course. The Hunt Institute had scheduled discussions on education all day Monday in Chapel Hill, and seeing Obama meant making a 40-minute drive to Raleigh and missing a healthy chunk of the three-day session.

But it's worth noting who else didn't make the drive: Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe, Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle, former West Virginia Gov. Bob Wise, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Guam Gov. Felix Perez Camacho.

Camacho and Pawlenty have a good excuse: They're Republicans.

For their part, Sebelius, Napolitano and Kaine may not have wanted to fuel further speculation that they'll be picked as Obama's vice president (though that didn't stop Schweitzer from glad-handing.) And Doyle and Sebelius have already done their duties here.

Update: Sebelius and Napolitano were at an Obama fundraiser in Chapel Hill. 

A few notable politicians were not in the audience today.

Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue, who endorsed Barack Obama, was the most notable absence at an event at the N.C. State Fairgrounds, especially since her former Democratic opponent Richard Moore was on hand.

U.S. Senate candidate Kay Hagan and lieutenant governor candidate Walter Dalton were also not in the audience. Neither has endorsed Obama.

A few out-of-state politicians expected to attend were no-shows.

Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter and Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley were supposed to be at the event, according to an advance e-mail from Obama staffer Jen Psaki.

The governors are in town to attend a Hunt Institute training session in Chapel Hill. Three of their colleagues from the session that Psaki said would be at the event were there, however.

Former Gov. Jim Hunt was also not in attendance, though he has been at Obama events in the past. 

John Edwards is also here.

The former North Carolina senator is at the Barack Obama event at the N.C. State Fairgrounds, with three governors of other states in tow.

The governors are in town for a training session at the Hunt Institute for Educational Leadership at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Update: Edwards got a standing ovation from the crowd of about 600 Obama supporters as he came into the room from behind a black curtain around 12:54.

The traveling press corps is also here, which means that the event is likely to start soon.