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 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 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 New York Governor Eliot Spitzer's State of the State Address Accountability -- This year, with the support of the Regents, our partners in this effort, we will take education accountability to the next level. We will set improvement targets for specific school districts, and for specific schools. We will track the progress of individual schools every single year, and we will intervene in districts and in schools that are still failing. Also see the Education Accountability Fact Sheet: http://www.ny.gov/governor/sos/fact_sheet6.html Health -- Fully fund the expansion of the Children's Health Insurance Program -- providing affordable coverage for every single child in this State. -- Pass the Healthy Schools Act to take junk food out of schools. Ask Comptroller DiNapoli to help enforce the State's strong, but widely ignored, physical education requirements by including them in his regular school district audits. Postsecondary, Community Colleges and Economic Development -- Last year we focused on pre-school to grade twelve. This year, we must also look beyond high school to our colleges and universities. -- Over the next five years, hire 2,000 new full-time faculty members for SUNY and CUNY, including 250 eminent scholars – the type of professors whose research draws grants and collaboration from around the globe, and whose stature lifts entire campuses. -- Create an Innovation Fund for cutting-edge research at New York's public and private colleges, similar to the National Science Foundation, and the National Institutes of Health. Supercharging cutting-edge academic research will also supercharge our innovation economy. -- Invest in our community colleges, which train New Yorkers for high-skilled jobs and serve as the gateway to four-year colleges. For the community college students who want to continue their education by transferring to four-year SUNY and CUNY schools, make the process simple and seamless, and give them full credit for the academic courses they have successfully completed. -- Move forward on the University of Buffalo's "2020" expansion as a centerpiece of our strategy to reinvigorate the economy of Western New York. When completed, the University's total student population will grow from 29,000 to almost 41,000. Over 7,000 students, faculty and staff will work and study on a new downtown campus for medicine and health sciences. UB will become an economic engine for Buffalo, and a flagship institution for a world class public university system. -- Create a flagship at the other end our state, as well. Bring together the University at Stony Brook, and the world renowned Brookhaven and Cold Spring Harbor laboratories. The result will be a peerless cross-disciplinary research engine in the areas of cancer, neurobiology, plant genetics and bioinformatics. The economic benefit for Long Island will be tremendous. The chance for New York to lead the world will be unparalleled. -- The finest private and public colleges and universities in America use the funds from permanent endowments to achieve excellence. If we are to join their ranks, we must do so as well. Higher education funding should no longer be a budgetary pawn or a yearly battle. It must be a permanent priority. Given the investments we must make and the sheer size of our higher education system, this endowment initially should be at least $4 billion, which would generate $200 million in operating funds each year. -- Unlock some of the value of the New York State Lottery, either by taking in private investment or looking at other financing alternatives. As we do this, we will assure that the State continues to regulate all lottery games, and that we continue to receive the more than $2 billion annually for K to 12 education that the lottery now provides. Today's endowment dollars will be a down payment on tomorrow's dreams. http://www.ny.gov/governor/keydocs/2008sos_speech.html Vermont Governor James Douglas' State of the State Address Early Learning -- Continue to invest in the healthy development of our youngest children and prepare them to arrive at school ready to learn and thrive. The Building Bright Futures initiative has worked to coordinate and support an integrated system of early childhood care, health and education that is fiscally sustainable. Science, Technology, Engineering, Math (STEM) -- Rethink how science, technology, engineering and mathematics are taught. Requesting that the State Board and Department of Education help schools implement more innovative science, technology, engineering and mathematics curricula. By rethinking how our education resources are deployed, we can make this transformation. We know that our teachers are ready for the challenge; now let's build a classroom framework to support them. Finance -- Cut property taxes directly by $25 million. -- Invest another $25 million in school modernization projects by utilizing the projected $50 million of proceeds from leasing our state lottery. Not only will this proposal ease the financial strain on homeowners, it will help clear the backlog of school construction, giving our students 21st century learning environments in energy efficient buildings, which will save taxpayers money in the long run. Financial Aid, Community Colleges -- Invest $8 million—a 14 percent increase over last year's appropriation—in college scholarships and workforce training programs. http://governor.vermont.gov/speeches/state_of_the_state-1-10-08.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 Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal's State of the State Address Community Colleges -- Give the Community College Commission the power to audit and to develop a uniform method of tracking dollars and students. -- Allow the state to loan the community colleges 50 percent of the funding for capital construction. They raise half; the State would loan them half. However, dormitories should not be included in the major maintenance funding from the State. Those are revenue-generating facilities and they should be able to operate on their own. http://governor.wy.gov/Media.aspx?MediaId=353 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