Smart Start, North Carolina's early childhood initiative, was enacted in 1992 by the North Carolina General Assembly to great fanfare and accolades as well as political turmoil. The chapters in this book trace the history of Smart Start and report on qualitative studies conducted between 1993 and 2001. Collectively, the chapters tell the story of innovative early efforts to redesign the early childhood system by ""reinventing government"" through public-private partnerships, and how, over time, Smart Start was ""tamed"" into submission to become little more than just another bureaucratic government program, to ""business as usual.""