It is difficult to imagine another individual who has had a greater positive impact on education in this state than Jim Hunt. The nation’s first “education governor,” Jim Hunt is a nationally recognized leader in education, and he has been at the forefront of state and national education reform.

James B. Hunt Jr. was born in Greensboro, North Carolina. He grew up on a farm in Wilson County, where he and his wife Carolyn now raise beef cattle. He received a bachelor’s degree in agricultural education in 1959 and a master’s in agricultural economics in 1962 from North Carolina State University. He earned a law degree from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill School of Law in 1964.

From 1964 to 1966, he served as a Ford Foundation economic advisor to Nepal. He served as North Carolina’s lieutenant governor from 1973 to 1977 and as governor from 1977 to 1985. Reelected in 1992 and again in 1996, Governor Hunt served a historic fourth term.

The nation’s first “education governor,” Jim Hunt is a nationally recognized leader in education, and he has been at the forefront of state and national education reform. Smart Start, his nationally recognized early childhood initiative, helped North Carolina children get better childcare, immunizations, and family services. Smart Start, has been emulated by states across the nation and received the prestigious Innovations in American Government Award from the Ford Foundation and the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

A national leader on education issues, Governor Hunt’s Excellent Schools Act of 1997 raised standards and pay for teachers. Hunt also focused on the improvement of teaching quality, set high standards for K-12 public schools, and was a national leader in ensuring rigorous accountability for student performance. In the 1980s, Hunt and the Carnegie Corporation of New York created the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, which he chaired for 10 years. North Carolina has more nationally board-certified teachers than any other state in the nation.

In the last decade of his governorship, the schools of North Carolina increased NAEP scores more than any other state in America. At the end of his tenure as Governor, he had led North Carolina in raising teacher pay to the national average—an increase of one third in his last four years. His work has been recognized with numerous national awards, and in 2006, he was named one of the 10 most influential people in American education, along with Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

Jim Hunt received the Dr. Robert E. Bridges Lifetime Achievement Award from WakeEd Partnership in 2021.