He was a lot better than mike sleazy easley who just loves raising taxes and who lied about the lottery money going to education. Hunt was great governor, especially for a damn democrat.

As a native Tar Heel (that currently lives in Atlanta), I do have some standing to opine on the Jim Hunt administration. I can easily state that Hunt is overrated nationally as a past governor. On the plus side, he was relatively progressive on education in that all students were encouraged to take the SAT and go to college, and the state has many quality public colleges and universities. I also believe that the state schools of the Arts and Math & Science were established under Hunt. His administration also encouraged more diversification in the state's economy and improved the overall business environment. Nevertheless, he expected his successors to continue with his long-term projects when he readily abandoned those of his predecessors, he allowed infrastructure to noticeably deteriorate while funneling a disproportionate amount of public resources into the eastern part of the state (especially the area around is home county), and he left a near fiscal crisis due to his own overspending and creative accounting. The bottom line is that while Jim Hunt wasn't terrible for North Carolina, he certainly wasn't the golden governor outsiders often perceive him to be.

Here is an old Southern Democratic warhorse who did a fairly good job for his state.

I was born and raised in North Carolina and of all the governors that NC has had, he is my favorite.  Hunt was a good old Southern Democrat who did a lot for teachers and education.

Good governor, great education policy.