Mission Statement

"Strengthening Our People and the Economy Through Education and Research"

History

In the past three years, the fifteen counties that comprise the 11 th Congressional district of western North Carolina (WNC) have experienced a net loss of nearly 6,000 largely old line manufacturing jobs. This represents nearly 10% of all manufacturing jobs in the district. In the early 1990s, WNC's per capita income was 4% below the per capita income of the North Carolina piedmont and the gap has now widened to 6%. The per capita income is vital to WNC because it undergirds the quality of life of our citizens.

The trend in America, as well as in WNC, is for old line manufacturing jobs to move to third world countries. As we begin the 21^st century, it is apparent that we are beginning a Third Industrial Revolution where knowledge is the basis of the creation of wealth.

Nearly four years ago Congressman Charles H. Taylor of the 11 th Congressional District of North Carolina called a meeting of college presidents to put together a plan whereby WNC could participate in and even lead this new technology revolution. Out of this meeting came the Education and Research Consortium (ERC) of the Western Carolinas, a non-profit organization whose board is composed of the presidents of Brevard College, Mars Hill College, Montreat College and Western Carolina University. Also included in the ERC's activities are Furman University in South Carolina, UNC Asheville and the area's community colleges. The ERC's goal is to work cooperatively to bring to WNC and the upstate of South Carolina, as an integrated region, the economic and quality of life benefits this new technology offers. In support of the work of the ERC, Congressman Taylor, who is the first congressman from WNC to sit as a sub-committee chairman on the Appropriations Committee in the U.S. Congress, has pledged to work toward $100 million of funding which would be a part of achieving that goal.

The first steps of the ERC were: (1) to immediately foster activities and programs to enhance the quality of WNC education, kindergarten through university, including public, charter, private and home schools; (2) to work to establish and substantially expand technology infrastructure including high speed Internet access for schools and industries; (3) to work with state and local government officials, chambers of commerce, financial institutions, and private capital sources to promote an understanding of the need for the development of new technology in the region. The success of the consortium and its endeavors has moved beyond expectations since that first meeting in 1997.

Through the consortium, WNC was chosen as the first in-the-nation pilot program entitled An Adventure of the American Mind. This program trains teachers to use the vast digitized primary resources of the Library of Congress in the classroom and provides them the hardware and software needed to do so. Currently, over 300 teachers have completed this training course. The program will reach a total of over 600 teachers directly and twice that number through a "teacher to teacher" mentoring program. Of course, our students will be the ultimate beneficiaries of this innovative program.

Congressman Taylor has obtained $8 million to design and fund a regional workforce development center which includes high tech training tools as well as laboratories for lasers and robotics in manufacturing.

The Pisgah Forest Institute, dedicated to science-based instruction, conducts accredited Earth/Environmental Science workshops for high school science teachers. These ERC-sponsored workshops are held at Brevard College and the Cradle of Forestry and use the Pisgah National Forest as a laboratory. Now in its second year, the Institute will have reached a total of 125 teachers this summer and it has a waiting list of an additional 100 teachers.

The Adventure of the American Mind Computer Literacy Initiative, a computer training program for at-risk 6^th, 7^th, and 8^th graders, was inaugurated at UNC-A and is also in its second year. Twenty boys and girls from Asheville City Schools will be working hard this summer in UNC-A's computer labs to improve their computer competency level.

Finally, in a project that will provide the needed infrastructure for the new economy, Congressman Taylor and the Library of Congress are designing and funding a plan to bring affordable high-speed Internet access to the schools, hospitals, libraries, and businesses of the area.

Altogether, Congressman Taylor has obtained $25 million of his long-term goal of $100 million.

The Congressman would especially like to thank the members of the Education and Research Consortium, their staffs, and Jack Cecil of the Knowledge Coalition. Thanks also to the community colleges and K-12 public, private and charter schools for supporting the efforts of the ERC.