The following summary includes education-related proposals from the 2013 state of the state addresses. To assure that this information reaches you in a timely manner, minimal attention has been paid to style (capitalization, punctuation) or format. To view the documents, click on the blue triangle next to the state.
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| Governor Bob McDonnell's 2013 State of the Commonwealth Address
PROPOSALS
Accountability
-- Create an A-F school ranking scale to empower parents and students to demand excellence
-- Establish a statewide Opportunity Educational Institution to provide a high quality education alternative for children attending any chronically underperforming public elementary or secondary school. The Opportunity Educational Institution will be a new statewide school division to turnaround failing schools. If a school is consistently failing, the Opportunity Educational Institution will step in to manage it. If the school has failed for two years, the Institution can take it over and provide a brand new approach to a broken system.
Choice of Schools
-- Pass a Constitutional amendment to allow the state Board of Education to authorize charter applicants.
-- Eliminate the requirement that local school boards who originate a charter school application must first apply for authorization from the state Board of Education.
Finance
-- Add another $50 million to more than double our rainy day fund from $304 million to nearly $740 million by the end of this biennium
Reading/Literacy
-- place one reading specialist in each school that scores below 75% in the 3rd grade Standard of Learning test
Special Education
-- fully fund the state share for staffing standards for blind and visually impaired students
Teaching Quality
-- recruit, incentivize, retain and reward excellent teachers and treat them like the professionals that they are. Give teachers their first state supported pay raise since 200. Budget amendments provide over $58 million for a 2% pay raise for all SOQ [standards of quality] funded instructional personnel.
--Implement the Educator Fairness Act to streamline the bureaucratic grievance procedure to benefit teachers and principals. Extend the probationary period for new teachers from three to five years, and require a satisfactory performance rating as demonstrated through the new performance evaluation system to keep a continuing contract.
-- Provide funding to support new teachers who teach science, technology, engineering, or mathematics in our middle and high schools
-- Provide $15 million for school districts to reward their well-performing educators. This strategic compensation plan based on a model developed in the Salem school system will be implemented through local guidelines that best fit each school division's unique characteristics
-- Start the Teach for America program in the Commonwealth.
-- Propose a new method to obtain waivers from bureaucratic red tape, putting the algebra readiness and early reading intervention initiatives into the SOQ, and expand character education and youth development programs.
Postsecondary
-- Make college more affordable and accessible by increasing TAG grants from $2800 to $3100 per student. This will benefit up to 21,000 Virginians. Target an additional $31 million for our public colleges and universities to continue to add more slots for in-state students, and bring tuition rate increases down. I've asked our college presidents and boards to further increase operating efficiencies and keep 2013 tuition increases for in-state students to no more than the CPI to help lower student debt.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Finance
-- Three years ago, we closed a cumulative budget shortfall of $6 billion, without raising taxes. The results: Three consecutive budget surpluses, totaling $1.4 billion.
-- Audited multiple state agencies, finding over $1 billion dollars and bolstering efficiency. We eliminated and consolidated dozens of boards, commissions, agencies and programs
-- Increased the percentage of K-12 funding going into the classroom from 62% to 64%
-- Reformed and stabilized the Virginia Retirement System. While other states march towards pension insolvency, we put the most new funding in history in the system, and our reforms will reduce the system's total unfunded liabilities $9 billion by 2031.
Postsecondary and Economic Development
Our 2011 landmark "Top Jobs for the 21st Century" higher education reform legislation has made the college dream more affordable and accessible. Our bold statutory goal of 100,000 new degrees over the next 15 years, with a focus on STEM-H degrees, is supported by more than $350 million for higher education over three years. Over the past two years we've added over 3,800 slots for undergraduate in-state students, and tuition increases this year averaged 4%, after a decade of double digit increases.
High School
-- Graduation rates are up. The statewide dropout rate has fallen by more than 25 percent.
Reading/Literacy
Ended social promotion to 4th grade if students cannot read well
School Safety
-- Established a School and Campus Safety Task Force to review all security policies in effect in our schools and colleges, and to make initial recommendations by January 31st.
STEM
There are now more STEM teachers and programs and less bureaucracy.
Full text: http://www.governor.virginia.gov/news/viewRelease.cfm?id=1591 |  |
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