North Carolina's commitment to education has been strengthened in recent years with legislative and financial support for improving student achievement through high standards; teacher accountability; an emphasis on teaching the basics of reading, writing and mathematics; and moving state control of schools to the local, community level. Legislation passed in 1996 allowed for the state's first public charter schools, up to 100 of them, and the first ones approved began operating in 1997. In 2000, 78.1% of North Carolinians age 25 and older were high school graduates; 22.5% had obtained a bachelor's degree or higher.
North Carolina has a rich educational history, having started the first state university in the United States, in 1795, and the first free system of common schools in the South in 1839. North Carolina led the nation in the construction of rural schools in the 1920s. In 1957, Charlotte, Greensboro, and Winston-Salem were the first cities in the South to admit black students voluntarily to formerly all-white schools. But, as was the case throughout the South, widespread desegregation took much longer. In 1971, the US Supreme Court, in the landmark decision Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, upheld the use of busing to desegregate that school system. The remainder of the state soon followed suit.
North Carolina established a statewide testing program in 1977 and increased high school graduation requirements in 1983, becoming the first state to require that students pass Algebra I in order to earn a diploma. North Carolina has been active in providing special programs for gifted students. Governor's School, a summer residential program for the gifted, was founded in 1963. Other talented students are served by the highly regarded North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, which began operating in 1965, and the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, located in Durham, which opened in 1980.
The total enrollment for fall 1999 in North Carolina's public schools stood at 1,275,925. Of these, 934,725 attended schools from kindergarten through grade eight, and 341,200 attended high school. Minority students made up approximately 40% of the total enrollment in public elementary and secondary schoolsin 2001. Total enrollment was estimated at 1,265,810 in fall 2000 and is expected to reach 1,390,000 by fall 2005. Expenditures for public education in 2000/01 were estimated at $7,630,436. Enrollment in nonpublic schools in fall 2001 was 96,262.
As of fall 2000, there were 462,275 students enrolled in college or graduate school. In the same year North Carolina had 120 degree-granting institutions. The University of North Carolina (UNC) was chartered in 1789 and opened at Chapel Hill in 1795. The state university system now embraces 16 campuses under a common board of governors. The three oldest and largest campuses, all of which offer research and graduate as well as undergraduate programs, are UNC-Chapel Hill, North Carolina State University in Raleigh (the first land-grant college for the study of agriculture and engineering), and UNC-Greensboro. North Carolina had 59 community colleges as of 2000.
Duke University in Durham is North Carolina's premier private institution and takes its place with the Chapel Hill and Raleigh public campuses as the third key facility in the Research Triangle. In addition to the public institutions and community colleges, there are also 42 private, four-year schools, of which Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem and Davidson College in Davidson are most noteworthy. Additionally, the state has two private junior colleges, plus seven theological seminaries. In 1997, minority students comprised 25.7% of total postsecondary enrollment.