WAL-MART SUPERCENTER HOSTS EDUCATION 2000 PROGRAM THURSDAY

An America 2000 town meeting on national education goals will be held Thursday via satellite in cities across the nation, including Cape Girardeau.

Wal-Mart stores nationwide have been serving as meeting sites for the monthly series of town meetings.

Thursday's 7 p.m. meeting at the Wal-Mart Supercenter will mark the first time that such a town meeting has been telecast in Cape Girardeau, store manager Terry Godwin said.

Locally, the meeting will be held in the store's training area, he said.

Area educators have been invited to attend. But he added, "We left it open for anybody who wants to come."

Godwin said he expects about 30 people will attend the meeting in Cape Girardeau.

America 2000 is a grassroots movement involving nearly all of the states, 1,500 communities and about 1,000 local Chambers of Commerce that are working to implement education goals set by President Bush and the nation's governors two years ago.

In a letter to area educators encouraging them to attend, Godwin said: "We at Wal-Mart recognize, as you do, that education is the key to the future of our community."

He added, "One of the ways we think we can help get our community thinking about how to create the best schools in the world is to tap into the energy and creativity of America 2000."

Godwin said that each month U.S. Secretary of Education Lamar Alexander hosts an America 2000 satellite town meeting, a nationwide conversation with hundreds of communities on ways to achieve the education goals.

Thursday's meeting focuses on the goal of seeing that every adult American is literate and possesses the knowledge and skills necessary to compete in a global economy, and exercise the rights and responsibilities of citizenship, Godwin said.

After the telecast, Godwin said, area educators will discuss what might be done to achieve the national education goals on the local level.

"Together we can transform education and create the best schools in the world for our children and grandchildren," Godwin said in his letter.

Godwin said Tuesday he believes the meeting will have a positive impact on local education. "The first thing we think will happen is we will start generating a lot more cooperation between the private sector and the public school systems."

Godwin expects the America 2000 program to continue despite a change in the White House.

"I think it has turned out to be not that much of a political issue," he said. He pointed out that president-elect Bill Clinton has been supportive of the national education goals.

"It's just kind of growing," Godwin said of the America 2000 program.