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 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 Alabama Governor Bob Riley's State of the State Address Early Learning -- Pre-Kindergarten -- Invest an additional $20 million to triple the number of children who benefit from voluntary First Class pre-K. By providing affordable access, First Class fills the gap that has left working families with too few options. Ethics -- Ban double dipping in our two-year system, our four-year system, in K through 12 and in every state agency. Finance -- Pass a balanced budget that will not only continue to fund priority programs by protecting them from cuts but expand them. These priorities are: the Reading Initiative, Math, Science and Technology Initiative, and ACCESS distance learning program. Technology -- Create the Alabama Internet Initiative with a goal of ensuring that every home and every business has high-speed Internet access and will have it within the next four years. http://governorpress.alabama.gov/pr/sp-2008-02-06-sots2008.asp 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 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 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 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 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 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