2008 State of the State Addresses Education-Related Proposals by Issue

The following summary includes education-related proposals from the 2008 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. Accountability 2 Accountability--Sanctions/Interventions 2 Accountability--School Improvement 3 Assessment 2 At-Risk (incl. Dropout Prevention) 1 At-Risk (incl. Dropout Prevention)--Drugs/Alcohol 4 Attendance 1 Bilingual/ESL 1 Career/Technical Education 3 Career/Technical Education--Career Academies/Apprenticeship 1 Choice of Schools 1 Choice of Schools--Charter Schools 1 Counseling/Guidance 1 Curriculum 2 Curriculum--Arts Education 1 Curriculum--Mathematics 2 Curriculum--Science 3 Economic/Workforce Development 22 Finance 4 Finance--Adequacy/Core Cost 3 Finance--Facilities 10 Finance--Funding Formulas 5 Finance--Lotteries 1 Finance--Resource Efficiency 2 Finance--State Budgets/Expenditures 17 Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's State of the State Address Finance -- Shaping a three-year funding plan to enable schools to focus on innovation and accountability to see superior results. We're asking lawmakers to pass a new K-12 funding plan early this year. This is a significant investment that is needed to increase the base student allocation, district cost factors and intensive needs students. It includes $100 million in school construction and deferred maintenance. -- Three-year Education Plan invests more than a billion dollars each year. We must forward-fund education, letting schools plan ahead. We must stop pink-slipping teachers, and then struggle to recruit and retain them the next year. -- Put $7 billion dollars into the Permanent Fund, Constitutional Budget Reserve, the Education Fund and PERS/TRS debt relief. Health -- Combat alcohol, abuse and suicide through Youth Wellness Initiatives. -- Educate kids about healthy eating and physical activities. High School -- Focus on foundational skills needed in the "real-world" workplace and in college. -- It's a privileged obligation we have to "open education doors." Every child, of every ability, is to be cherished and loved and taught. Every child provides this world hope. They are the most beautiful ingredient in our sometimes muddied up world. Stepping through "the door" is about more than passing a standardized test. We need kids prepared to pass life's tests – like getting a job and valuing a strong work ethic. Workforce Training and Postsecondary -- Boost job training and University options. Proposing more than $10 million in new funding for apprenticeship programs, expansion of construction, engineering and health care degrees to meet demands. It's about results and getting kids excited about their future – whether it is college, trade school or military. -- Make attending Alaska's universities and trade schools a reality for more Alaskans through merit scholarships. http://www.gov.state.ak.us/news.php?id=829 Colorado Governor Bill Ritter's State of the State Address Economic Development -- Use the new Jobs Cabinet to align Colorado's economic-development strategies, education programs and regional workforce needs, producing a high-quality, 21st century labor force. -- Double the production of technical certificates and college degrees over the next 10 years. To do that, we need our higher ed systems pulling in the same direction, not competing against each other. Finance -- Allocate $59.5 million for postsecondary education, an 8 percent increase to higher-ed funding. And that follows a $52 million, 7.5 percent increase the year before. Health -- Enroll 17,000 more eligible children into CHP+, and undertake major efforts to enroll more eligible families in Medicaid by simplifying, streamlining and modernizing the application and administrative processes. -- Fully fund the Childhood Immunization Information System. P-16 -- Cut the drop-out rate in half within 10 years. -- Align content standards for pre-school through high school with college admission standards (the "Colorado Achievement Plan for Kids") This will take unprecedented collaboration from the Departments of Education and Higher Education to establish new policies that measure actual student learning and proficiency and prepare all Colorado kids for college or a career in the 21st century. -- Move forward on recommendations from Governor Ritter's P-20 Education Coordinating Council: + Offer full-day kindergarten to 22,000 more children over five years, eliminating the current 3,000-child waiting list for the Colorado Pre-School Program + Create a Colorado Counselor Corps that would deploy 70 guidance counselors into targeted middle and high schools to keep students in school and get them ready for college. Safety --Launch the new School Safety Resource Center. The Department of Public Safety will be identifying sites around Colorado to conduct vulnerability assessments, train faculty and students, and provide additional violence-prevention measures to keep students and teachers safe. Work with local educators and prevention groups to create individually tailored safety plans. -- Protect those who can't protect themselves -- including foster children and those with severe developmental disabilities by requesting funding (nearly $500,000) to increase the number of employees who monitor county foster care programs, from just one -- for the entire state -- to seven. Also, request $10.6 million for staffing, facilities and services for people with developmental disabilities. Student Achievement -- Cut the existing achievement gap separating poor and minority students from more affluent and white students of about 30 percentage points to half (within 10 years). http://www.colorado.gov/cs/Satellite?c=Page&cid=1199955793227&pagename=GovRitter%2FGOVRLayout Connecticut Governor M. Jodi Rell's State of the State Address Child Care/Early Learning -- Provide the Department of Public Health with five additional staff to increase both the number and frequency of inspections of child care facilities Economic/Workforce Development -- Provide $800,000 in additional funding for nursing scholarships and teaching at UConn, our state universities, and community-technical colleges. -- Provide $300,000 for an engineering loan reimbursement program to engineers who work in our State. -- Establish an exciting "Green Collar" Jobs program at our vo-tech schools to train students in energy efficient building, construction and retrofit work. Finance -- Advocate for enactment of a property tax cap. -- Fund youth violence prevention programs and substance abuse counselors. Health -- Fully implement the initiative to enroll children in HUSKY B at birth – and work with schools to identify low-income families for program eligibility.  Safety -- Roll back curfew times, increase on-the-road training requirements and put stiff penalties in place for driving under the influence and violating laws regarding carrying passengers, talking on cell phones, text messaging, speeding and racing. We've lost too many of our young people to tragic accidents. Tuition/Fees -- Waive college tuition at all state colleges for spouses and children of service members killed in action. http://www.ct.gov/governorrell/cwp/view.asp?Q=405310&A=3293 Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue's State of the State Address Early Learning -- Allocate an additional $6.4 million in lottery funds to bring the total number of Pre-K slots up to 79,000. (The first Pre-K class enters college this fall.) Economic Development -- Invest $40 million for venture capital to commercialize research in areas like biosciences and medicine coming out of our universities. Deregulation -- Continue to link flexibility with accountability. Follow through on the work of the Investing in Educational Excellence (IE2) task force by offering new options in exchange for performance.  Grant public schools some of the flexibility that charter schools enjoy through new contracts between the state and the local school systems. These contracts would require clear and measurable accountability standards, and would link flexibility with student achievement.  Finance -- Eliminate the state portion of property tax. -- Invest $65 million in funding two priority needs for schools – transportation (school buses) and 21st century technology.     Parent Involvement -- Institute the "VIP Recruiter" program – Very Important Parent Recruiters.  Invest $14.25 million, targeting our schools with the poorest attendance rates.  Simply put, a child's attendance record is a direct result of parental involvement.  These recruiters will help parents understand the education system, to help them make a connection with their child's teachers.  They will learn how and why to be supportive of their child's education.  Teacher compensation -- Continue to issue the $100 Classroom Gift Card to teachers.  http://gov.georgia.gov/00/press/detail/0,2668,78006749_102386494_103230743,00.html Idaho Governor Butch Otter's State of the State/State Budget Message Quality Assurance In conjunction with the state superintendent and business and education leaders, develop a plan for making Idaho the nation's leader in quality, cost-effective education, with an initial focus on K through 12. --Improve how Idaho students acquire the skills they need for technology-driven workplace changes and competing in the global economy. -- Assess what we spend for education and how we spend it. We'll then compare that with investment levels and best practices of high-performing systems here and abroad. Community Colleges -- Continue startup financial commitment of $5 million for the foreseeable future, as reflected in my budget. -- Double the amount of funding allocated to community colleges from state liquor sales. The College of Southern Idaho and North Idaho College now get $150,000 a year. My plan calls for CSI, NIC and the College of Western Idaho each to get $200,000 – for a total of $600,000. Financial Aid -- Provide an additional $50 million for the Opportunity Scholarship Trust Fund. Teacher Compensation -- Continue to ensure that state employee pay is competitive with comparable private-sector jobs. And we must advance the important cause of ensuring that Idaho's public school teachers are properly paid. Drugs/Alcohol -- Launch the Idaho Meth Project statewide media campaign. http://gov.idaho.gov/mediacenter/speeches/sp_2008/sp_sos2008.html Illinois Governor Rod R. Blagojevich's State of the State and Fiscal Year 2009 Budget Address Finance -- Pass a capital bill to fund necessary investments in aging infrastructure (bridges, roads, schools) and that puts people to work. (Proposing a multi-faceted approach that centers around private investment in the Lottery -- along with other funding mechanisms.) There are too many school children trying to learn their lessons in classrooms that are overcrowded, or going to school in buildings that are old and crumbling and not good places to learn. Let's build them good places to learn. -- Cut spending by 3% across the board, in areas outside health care, education, and public safety. Also, cut more pork, consolidate more administrative functions and close unnecessary facilities. http://www.illinois.gov/gov/budgetaddress/documents/022008SPEECHtext.pdf Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick's State of the Commonwealth Address Finance -- Facilities -- Kindergarten -- Extended Learning -- Start with education and invest in strategies that work. Commit a record $223 million more to support public schools. -- Make significant increases in early education grants, all-day kindergarten programs, and extended learning time. -- Give the 275,000 students and faculty in our public colleges and universities the quality labs, lecture halls and dormitories they deserve. -- Support these budget initiatives and pass the higher ed bond bill. -- Give our cities and towns the tools they need to keep property taxes down. Governance -- Advance the Readiness Project, a 10-year strategic plan for the future of education in the Commonwealth. This plan creates an Executive Office of Education consisting of Early Education and Care (existing), Elementary and Secondary Education (new name for the existing Department of Education) and Higher Education (new department that will include personnel now staffing the Board of Higher Education). Establishes a Secretary of Education. Maintains existing boards -- with two additional members each. Provides the governor with authority to appoint the chair of the UMass board. -- The five objectives of the Readiness Project [Early Learning -- Teaching Quality -- Access -- High School--Transitions -- P-16 -- Student Support]: 1. Provide every child with the opportunity to enter public school ready to learn. 2. Provide every student with outstanding and highly qualified teachers who are respected professionals recruited from among the best and the brightest in the Commonwealth. 3. Provide every student with the support necessary to meet the state's high standards and high expectations. 4. Provide the support and infrastructure needed to ensure the opportunity for every student to have an accessible, affordable and globally competitive higher education. 5. Provide an education system that enables every student to transition successfully from high school to higher education, to the work force ready to succeed and to be a productive, engaged and contributing citizen. http://www.mass.gov/Agov3/video/2008-01-24_sotc.rtf Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm's State of the State Address Focus on four things: 1) A job for every worker. 2) Affordable health care for every family. 3) Safe places to live and work for all of us. 4) Quality education for our citizens - kids and adults. Accountability -- Give our state superintendent broader authority to close schools that consistently fail to meet academic goals. -- Reward colleges and universities when their students complete degrees. Also reward them when they create opportunity for low-income students, and when they find ways to turn research ideas into businesses. Invest more in higher education and expect more in return. Early Learning Significantly expand early childhood education. Economic/Workforce Development -- Create Centers of Excellence across the state to bring alternative energy companies and Michigan universities together to create new products and new jobs. -- Double the number of college graduates to give Michigan the best-educated workforce in the nation. To reach that goal, make progress throughout our education system, from preschool to grad school to on-the-job training. -- Invest more in training for adults already in the workforce. This past year, we took a giant step forward in workforce training when we launched the No Worker Left Behind initiative. Our goal is to give 100,000 workers displaced by changes in our economy access to college education and other training that prepares them for specific high demand jobs. We're offering free tuition for training in areas of need to the first 100,000 workers who sign up. Unfortunately, the huge demand for No Worker Left Behind will soon exhaust the federal funds used to pay for this program. That means Michigan residents who want new skills are on waiting lists when they could be on payrolls. The budget I propose next week will ensure that the thousands who need training are able to get it this year. Finance -- Increase our investment in our K-12 schools and significantly expand early childhood education. Financial Aid -- Expand the vision of the Kalamazoo Promise to communities across our state. (In Kalamazoo, anonymous donors promised full college tuition for every high school graduate.) Tutoring/Mentoring -- Recruiting 10,000 more mentors for kids. High School -- Establish a 21st Century Schools Fund to replace large impersonal high schools that fail, with smaller schools that use firm discipline and strong personal relationships to help students reach high expectations. Free from red tape and bureaucracy, these schools will deploy the new three Rs - rigor, relevance and relationships - to keep students in high school and then get them to college or technical training. Our 21st Century Schools Fund will give school districts the resources they need to create high schools that work. A pioneering group of schools in Michigan is showing us today there is a better way. -- Create 100 more early college high schools to help ensure every student in Michigan leaves high school with the skills it takes to succeed in college and the work place. In the past year, we created six early college high schools, which each partner with a major hospital in our state and a college or university. -- Raise the dropout age to 18. Kindergarten -- Ask all of our school districts to begin offering full day kindergarten. http://www.michigan.gov/gov/0,1607,7-168--184537--,00.html Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour's State of the State Address Early Learning -- Better utilize the existing early childhood programs that already serve 80% of our four-year-olds…by providing financial incentives for them to expand and improve their educational content. Finance -- Pass an honest balanced budget that recognizes we won't be able to increase K-12 spending nearly that much this session (last several years saw an average increase of $130 million per year for K-12 schools). -- Cannot afford continued, large increases in funding higher education this year. -- Fully fund the Mississippi Adequate Education Program. -- Fund education reforms so we can get better results for the money we spend. Find ways to be more efficient and save money. High School -- Continue to support the state superintendent's proposal to redesign high school, to make it more rigorous and especially more relevant to kids who are not on a path to college, as a way to attack our unacceptably high dropout rate. Reading -- Fund the screening of every first grader for dyslexia and other learning disabilities and get them treatment. Teaching Quality -- Compensation: Increase the salaries of teachers with more than 25 years experience. -- Fund mentoring/induction: Give beginning teachers more support as they learn to manage a classroom full of kids. Pay each mentor an extra $1000 for this valuable service. http://www.governorbarbour.com/speeches/2008SOS.htm Missouri Governor Matt Blunt's State of the State Address Economic Development -- STEM -- Increase investment in math and science education. To ensure that the next generation enjoys even greater prosperity, we must provide our students with a world-class education in math, engineering, technology, and science. -- Invest $5 million to create 100 technologically-advanced classrooms and to equip 300 classrooms with advanced math and science curriculum. Exceptional Children -- Invest $5 million for the Thompson Center in Columbia, a world-class treatment and research facility we will help build right here in central Missouri. Combined, this funding will improve the lives of Missouri families struggling with autism. Extended School Days -- Invest $1.1 million for after-school programs, which help students learn, stay fit, stay safe, and stay out of trouble. Finance -- Over four years, we will have invested an additional $1.2 billion in education. -- Significantly increase funding at all levels – from pre-school to graduate school. Elementary and secondary schools receive an increase of $121 million, or more than 4 percent from last year. Missouri colleges and universities receive more than $54.2 million in direct funding, an increase of more than 6 percent. That includes funding to train more doctors, nurses, dentists, and pharmacists to meet the health care needs of Missourians. -- Stop excessive local increases in property tax by developing tax reform that includes truth in taxation and mandatory levy rollbacks. Financial Aid -- Continue to increase scholarship funding -- more than $25 million for A+ student scholarships, helping more than 20,000 Missourians attend community colleges, nearly doubling the program's funding since January of 2005. -- Quadruple investment in needs-based scholarships by allocating $100 million for Access Missouri scholarships. High School -- Invest three-quarters of a million dollars to train nearly 1,000 new Advanced Placement teachers and to help more than 6,000 Missouri students take Advanced Placement tests. Postsecondary -- Invest in better classrooms and labs at the higher education level. -- Make further investments such as $31 million for construction, renovation, and improvement of the Ellis Fischel Cancer Center at the University of Missouri, and another $15 million for the Pharmacy and Nursing Building at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Safety/Student Discipline -- Increase total funding to $1.5 million for Cyber Crime Task Forces grants so that law enforcement can catch predators before they harm a Missouri child. http://gov.missouri.gov/State_of_the_State_2008.pdf New Jersey Governor Jon S. Corzine's State of the State Address Finance -- Budget plan has four elements: One … freeze spending now. Two … limit future spending to revenue growth. Three … capture the enterprise value of our tollways to pay down debt and make capital investments. Four … limit borrowing by requiring voter authorization. -- Passage of the School Funding Reform Act represents a significant shift away from the ad hoc, patchwork system of state aid that has been used over the past decade. The new law replaces a flawed system with an equitable, balanced, and nonpartisan formula that addresses the needs of all students, regardless of where they live. This formula puts the needs of all children on an equal footing, and will give them the educational resources they need for success. http://www.state.nj.us/governor/news/news/approved/20080108.html http://www.state.nj.us/governor/news/news/approved/20080107c.html Pennsylvania Governor Edward G. Rendell's Budget Address 2008-2009 Accountability -- Call for the Department of Education to serve a special watchdog function for fifty-five school districts identified statewide as needing improvement. For these districts, the Department must approve all individual school district plans for investing new taxpayer dollars, so that we can be confident that the resources are being targeted in the most effective manner for the children of these schools. -- Live up to the commitment that by 2014 every student in our schools will be able to read, write and do math at grade level. Dual Enrollment -- Continue to support dual enrollment programs that offer high school students the chance to earn college credit. Early Learning -- Continue to support Pre-K Counts, which together with other early childhood resources means that next year 35% of our eligible children will be enrolled in a quality pre-K program. Finance -- Continue to support the Accountability Block Grant, which is responsible for boosting full-day kindergarten rate up to 63%. -- Provide a 5.9% increase in the Basic Education subsidy, and $30.3 million more for the Special Education subsidy. -- Incorporate the findings of the Costing-Out Study. -- Include a new funding formula that phases-in over six years the funds to help all Pennsylvania school districts reach the funding targets established by this ground-breaking research. This new approach to school funding accomplishes three goals: • Ensures adequate resources for every school district; • Demands the establishment of new measures to provide strict accountability to Pennsylvania taxpayers; and • Charts a course for future funding that is both responsible and sustainable, subject to the challenges of the state budget or the national economy. -- Anticipate that it will take six years to phase in the state share of adequacy funding. -- Rely on strict accountability controls for the use of these new resources. -- Require that new state funds over the Act 1 index rate be spent on programs that improve student achievement such as extra time for learning, new and more rigorous courses, advanced teacher training, early childhood education, bolstering the recruitment of more effective teachers and administrators, and then making sure that the compensation for these school leaders is tied to performance as well. High School -- Continue to support Classrooms for the Future, which has parents, teachers and students abuzz with excitement about this new way of learning in high schools. Science -- Continue to support the nationally respected Science: It's Elementary program. http://www.state.pa.us/papower/lib/papower/08-09_budget/governors-budget-address.pdf Rhode Island Governor Donald L. Carcieri's State of the State Message Compensation -- Health Insurance Benefits -- Remove the designation of any specific health care provider from all local contracts. It will allow one, umbrella health care contract that would include all state, municipal, and school employees. This will save tens of millions of dollars for property taxpayers by creating competitive bidding by the health insurers. Using this approach, the state will achieve over $41M in savings over the life of the contract. Finance --Reduce overall state spending by $300M -- impacting all state employees, all state vendors, contractors and providers, and all municipalities. A reduction of this magnitude will reach across the three major areas of all state spending. 1) Personnel expenses that include: (wages, health care costs, and pensions); 2) Welfare, social service, and entitlement programs; and 3) Payments from the state to municipal governments for schools and other services. -- Ask the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council (RIPEC) to undertake a comprehensive review of the cost of our existing school system. http://www.governor.ri.gov/documents/statemessage08.pdf South Dakota Governor Mike Rounds State of the State Address Finance--Postsecondary Facilities -- Partner with the Board of Regents to renovate and to revitalize the science facilities at public universities, because it is truly important for the future of South Dakota's students and our economic development plans. The private sector already recognizes this important move. Avera recently announced a multi-million dollar donation to South Dakota State University to rebuild and expand Shepard Hall. Therefore, the Board of Regents and I have agreed to a $65 million bonding plan. Finance -- Requesting a 2.5 percent increase in per student allocation for state aid to local schools, which is one percent higher than the anticipated inflation rate as provided by law for the next school year. -- Fix the property tax problem. Statewide, more than $14.1 billion of property value is not taxed because of the laws now in place—that's nearly a quarter of our state's property value of $51 billion. In 1998, we had over 1,400 usable agricultural sales in the state that could be used in assessing agricultural properties. In 2006, we had just 200 for the entire state. It is not possible to fairly and accurately value all of the agricultural land in the state using just 200 sales. We are rapidly approaching the point where the current system is no longer workable. We've had several study committees and many bills introduced over the last several years. I pledge my support in working with you, but the time has come, we need to work together and fix this problem during this legislative session. -- Use the Energy Conservation Revolving Loan to provide low interest loans to schools, cities, counties, universities, tech schools, and state agencies that have developed good ways to save tax dollars by becoming more energy efficient. Preference will be given to energy efficiency improvement projects with the shortest payback period. Financial Aid -- Expand Opportunity Scholarships to even more South Dakota students (3,465 were funded last the past several years) by lowering the ACT requirement from 24 to 23 to allow more than 200 more students to qualify. Teacher Compensation -- Add $4,000,000 in funding for teacher salary enhancements (market compensation, additional training, recruitment for high-need schools). Technology -- Expand the Classrooms Connections Program through additional funding: $2,954,000 for year 3 to purchase 4,600 more laptop computers for high school students and 400 more for their teachers. This year, 41 school districts are in the Classroom Connections Program. 9,600 students have laptops or tablet computers. That's 25 percent of the high school students in South Dakota. If additional funding is approved, 14,200 students will have computers next year, and that would raise the percentage to 38 percent of our high school students. -- Asking for funding to migrate South Dakota's six public universities toward a mobile computing environment. The students that graduate from our high schools and attend one of our public universities will use laptops and tablet computers in their courses of study. It is, therefore, imperative that we start these students on a path toward using computers for learning in our public schools and that our universities be prepared to accept them. http://sd.gov/docs/STATE%20OF%20THE%20STATE%20SPEECH%202008.pdf Tennessee Governor Phil Bredeson's State of the State Address Early Learning -- Invest $25 million to continue meeting the requests of communities across our state for Pre-K classrooms. That is not enough to fund all of the requests that we have, but will keep us moving forward. Finance -- Fully fund the BEP (Basic Education Program). Incorporate the remainder of the tobacco tax money—we estimate it at $87 million—to further fill out the framework of BEP 2.0. Financial Aid -- Change the grade point average for retention of the scholarship from 3.0 to 2.75 (to better accommodate for the increased difficulty of college studies and to help address the fact that nearly 80% of the scholarship winners lose their scholarship during their time in college). -- Keep the merit scholarship intact, but expand assistance to others as well. Take about half of the unallocated lottery reserves, $200 million specifically, and use it to establish an endowment for the Tennessee Student Assistance Corporation (TSAC). Between the earnings from this endowment and a small additional appropriation from the annual lottery surplus, we will be able to assist financially another 12-15,000 deserving and hard-working Tennessee students to earn a college education. http://www.tennesseeanytime.org/governor/viewArticleContent.do?id=1170&page=0 Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, Jr.'s State of the State Address Assessment -- Kids are given way too many standardized tests, with little information flowing back. Let's find a way to allow teachers to do what they do best: teach. Continuing Education -- Aspire to produce true lifelong learners. Economic Development, Partnerships -- Reach beyond the fundamentals of education. Be more creative, innovative and flexible in adapting to the frequent changes in the labor market. Our approach to education, and life, must be a partnership with family, community and business. Finance -- Make historic investments in education. But investment must be coupled with new ideas and reform. We must raise standards, be more imaginative, re-evaluate how we test students and be realistic about our 21st Century workforce needs. Leadership -- Bolster principals with the accountability and responsibility they need to manage their schools. Principals should be given the ability to reward the good teachers and replace the bad ones. They need the tools to assess accurately how students in their schools are faring. Parental Involvement -- Encourage parents to reach higher with our kids. Spend more time with them and be a part of their education. Teachers cannot do it alone. We must read with them. Study with them, or attend Back to School Night. Scheduling/School Calendar -- Do not allow students, buildings and teachers to sit idle for three months every year. We don't have a good way to provide year-round contracts to our teachers: let's do it by beginning with math and science. We don't have good options for our kids to remediate or accelerate in their studies during the summer months: let's find them. We aren't ensuring that our students are prepared to meet the workforce needs of tomorrow: let's get it done. Teaching Quality -- Compensation: Continue our current rate of increasing compensation over the next four years so that, for the first time ever, Utah can surpass the national average. -- Preparation/Recruitment: Increase the number of educators being trained in our colleges. Right now 2,300 teachers graduate annually. In four years we can, and should, have 1,000 more teachers coming out of our colleges every year to teach in our classrooms. http://www.utah.gov/governor/news/2008/news_01_22_08.html Virginia Governor Tim Kaine's State of the Commonwealth Address Early Learning -- Expand the Virginia Preschool Initiative from 13,000 to nearly 20,000 children will give a better start to those children who need it most. Expansion will be based on Start Strong Council, including education experts, business leaders, children's advocates, local officials, and legislators of both parties and draws on the experiences of the existing pre-k program, the pilot projects and last fall's report by the JLARC.    -- Increase state support for cities and counties offering pre-k programs, make more at-risk students eligible and utilize high-quality private providers so that more money can be spent on education, instead of bricks and mortar. -- Enhance quality and accountability, build collaboration among public, private and Head Start programs, and strengthen the early childhood workforce. Finance, Standards, At-Risk -- Ensure that the gains made in early education are maintained by fully funding the rebenchmarking of the Standards of Quality for K-12 and maintaining the "At Risk" monies that the General Assembly has traditionally approved. Teacher Compensation -- Continue to fund the progress made in raising teachers' salaries toward the national average by funding the state share of a 3.5% pay increase for teachers and other instructional staff effective July 1, 2009.  Postsecondary and Economic Development -- Encourage high school graduates to continue their education at universities, four year colleges, career and technical schools, and community colleges by giving those institutions what they need to serve students who will ultimately become the workforce driving Virginia's economic engine. -- Make significant new investments in higher education to help create high-tech jobs through research and innovation.  This is particularly important at a time when job growth is slowing.  Proposing a $1.6 billion bond package to continue the acceleration of top notch higher education system. This investment, to be phased in over the next 5 to 7 years, will provide facilities across the Commonwealth for researchers to develop new, cutting-edge technologies and turn them into commercial assets. The bond package centers largely on engineering, science, business, and health professions.  It will support higher education system's continuing efforts to build a more talented workforce that is fully prepared to compete in a global economy.  Beginning these needed projects now will be less costly than in future years, saving taxpayers millions of dollars.  And the bond package fits well within our conservative debt service guidelines. -- Supplement these capital projects by operational funds for increased base adequacy funding, more financial aid, and an expanded focus on competitive research opportunities. -- Place the main responsibility for workforce development in the Virginia Community College System. http://www.governor.virginia.gov/MediaRelations/Speeches/2008/SOTC.cfm Finance--Taxes/Revenues 8 Governance 2 Governance--Deregulation/Waivers/Home Rule 2 Governance--State Boards/Chiefs/Agencies 1 Health 13 High School 11 High School--Advanced Placement 1 High School--College Readiness 1 High School--Dual/Concurrent Enrollment 1 High School--Early Colleges/Middle Colleges 1 International Benchmarking 1 Leadership 2 Mentoring/Tutoring 1 No Child Left Behind 1 No Child Left Behind--Choice/Transfer 1 No Child Left Behind--School Support 2 Online Learning--Virtual Schools/Courses 2 P-16 or P-20 3 P-3 16 P-3 Child Care 1 P-3 Ensuring Quality 1 P-3 Kindergarten 5 P-3 Kindergarten--Full-Day Kindergarten 1 P-3 Preschool 6 Parent/Family 3 Postsecondary 8 Postsecondary Accountability 1 Postsecondary Affordability--Financial Aid 16 Postsecondary Affordability--Tuition/Fees 6 Postsecondary Affordability--Tuition/Fees--Prepd/College Savings Plans 1 Postsecondary Finance 5 Postsecondary Governance and Structures 3 Postsecondary Institutions--Community/Technical Colleges 5 Postsecondary Participation--Access 3 Postsecondary Students--Adults 4 Postsecondary Success--Completion 2 Reading/Literacy 2 Remediation (K-12) 2 Scheduling/School Calendar 3 Scheduling/School Calendar--Extended Day Programs 2 School Safety 8 School/District Structure/Operations 2 School/District Structure/Operations--Transportation 1 Special Education 2 Standards 2 State Longitudinal Data Systems 1 STEM 8 Student Achievement 1 Student Achievement--Closing the Achievement Gap 1 Teaching Quality 5 Teaching Quality--Certification and Licensure 1 Teaching Quality--Compensation and Diversified Pay 13 Teaching Quality--Induction Programs and Mentoring 2 Teaching Quality--Preparation 2 Teaching Quality--Recruitment and Retention 5 Teaching Quality--Recruitment and Retention--At-Risk Schools 1 Teaching Quality--Tenure or Continuing Contract 1 Technology 4 Technology--Computer Skills 1 Technology--Devices/Software/Hardware 1 Technology--Internet Safety 1 308