Our State’s Goal


North Carolinians (25-44) with high-quality credentials or postsecondary degrees

Why is the state’s educational attainment goal 2 million by 2030 for ages 25-44?

On February 20, 2019, the myFutureNC Commission released A Call to Action for North Carolina that proposed a statewide attainment goal, along with benchmark measurements, focus areas, and a comprehensive list of priorities, to serve as a beacon for better coordination of our state’s education sectors over the following 12 years.



Recommendations included the target age range and year (page 34) for achieving the goal that balances a desire to measure and promote ambitious, near-term improvements with the longer-time horizon required to realize systemic change across the educational spectrum. The numeric target itself reflects the myFutureNC Commission’s desire to set an ambitious goal post that will spur that change. Once the myFutureNC Commission identified the age range, ECOnorthwest researched nationwide attainment and other performance indicators to set a realistic goal number for North Carolina.

Achieving the goal by 2030 will require the state to exhibit attainment growth that exceeds the maximum growth observed in any state over the past decade (Dyke & True, 2018).