2011 State of the State Addresses Education-Related Proposals by Issue

The following summary includes education-related proposals from the 2011 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 6 Accountability--Reporting Results 1 Accountability--Sanctions/Interventions 1 Accountability--School Improvement 2 Assessment 4 At-Risk (incl. Dropout Prevention) 1 At-Risk (incl. Dropout Prevention)--Alternative Education 1 Attendance 2 Bilingual/ESL 1 Business Involvement 5 Career/Technical Education 4 Choice of Schools 3 Choice of Schools--Charter Schools 8 Choice of Schools--Charter Schools--Cyber Charters 1 Choice of Schools--Charter Schools--Finance 1 Choice of Schools--Choice/Open Enrollment 2 Choice of Schools--Tax Credits 2 Choice of Schools--Vouchers 2 Choice of Schools--Vouchers--Privately Funded 1 Class Size 1 Curriculum--Foreign Language/Sign Language 1 Curriculum--Mathematics 1 Curriculum--Science 1 Economic/Workforce Development 18 Alabama Governor Robert Bentley's State of the State Address PROPOSALS Teacher Compensation/Benefits -- Ask teachers to contribute more to their individual retirement and to health care insurance programs. -- Repeal the DROP Program which has overly taxed our retirement system. State Funding -- Don't reduce state-funded teacher units. -- Don't cut classroom sizes. -- Don't cut the length of the school year or contract days for teachers or support personnel. -- Devote $5 million dollars in the education budget specifically for classroom teaching supplies. -- Protect: Alabama Reading Initiative; Alabama Math, Science and Technology Initiative; and ACCESS Distance Learning. Advanced Placement -- Expand our programs that prepare students for college by increasing the number of AP teachers in our high schools. Economic/Workforce Development -- Strengthen our work force training programs in our two-year college system. Local Decisionmaking -- Give flexibility to local school boards to prioritize and make decisions that affect the schools in their districts. -- Remove restrictive language from legislation that dictates decisions made by these schools board and give them additional funding and flexibility so they can put the money to highest and best use. Postsecondary Finance -- Increase state funding for higher education and give our presidents more flexibility in their budgets. Special Education -- Provide significant increases in state funding for disabled and special needs children and adults. ACCOMPLISHMENTS -- N/A: Newly Elected Governor http://www.governor.alabama.gov/downloads/SOTS-2011.pdf Alaska Governor Sean Parnell's State of the State Address PROPOSALS Postsecondary Scholarships -- Give, in the next three years, 30,000 high school students the opportunity to earn an Alaska Performance Scholarship. ACCOMPLISHMENTS Job Training, Postsecondary Scholarships -- Implemented the Alaska Performance Scholarship giving more than 9,000 high school seniors the opportunity to earn scholarships for university or job training. Facilities, Vocational education -- Built and renovated schools across the state--adding gyms and space for vocational education. Postsecondary Finance, Tax Credits -- Boosted tax credits for gifts to higher education and job-training institutions. http://www.stateline.org/live/details/speech?contentId=540473 Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie's State of the State Address PROPOSALS Make education our top priority. Pre-K -3 -- Utilize federal, state and private resources to develop a leadership position in the Governor's office for early education. This person will coordinate efforts across departments and in the private sector as we lay the groundwork for the future establishment of a Department of Early Childhood. Finance -- Implement what is an overdue increase in the alcohol tax and a fee on soda and similar drinks. We can no longer ignore the fact that consumption of these and other such products contribute to rising public health costs. Revenues from these fees will be used to repair the public health infrastructure and also to fund prevention and education programs. Governance -- Immediately resolve the appointed school board issue. In the coming weeks, the legislature needs to give me the enabling legislation allowing the Governor to appoint the school board [voters approved a Constitutional amendment but implementation details will be handled through legislation]. College Access and Completion -- Increase the number of college graduates by 25 percent by 2015 (Hawaii Graduation Initiative). We can achieve this goal by keeping education affordable and reaching out to students across the state who have not been traditionally well served at the University of Hawaii (UH), including Native Hawaiians and neighbor island students. -- Organize a Hawaiian language university-within-a-university. Language is a key element in ensuring that the Hawaiian culture remains strong and perseveres into the future for the benefit of all. When our young children master language, they master themselves. When they master themselves, they can achieve anything. Postsecondary Facilities -- Convene a group of experts and University officials to consider the future of sports and the future of development on Oahu to make a definitive decision on Aloha Stadium and any future stadium we might build. Other than maintenance related to health and safety, I will divert all other capital improvement dollars for Aloha Stadium to other projects. Right now, multimillion dollar plans to extend the life of Aloha Stadium by 20 years could take 40 years to implement. It is time to reprioritize. Economic Development -- Strongly support measures to increase the capacity of research programs at the University. These programs play a big part in our economic recovery by bringing external dollars into the State and building innovative industries. The University's current research activity brings $450 million to the table. Use a new program -- The New Day Work Projects -- to directly attack unemployment and jumpstart business activity. It will provide an economic boost that will reverberate throughout the state. Utilize the bonding power of the state, partner with willing private parties, streamline processes, and provide work that will result in paychecks for families across our islands. This includes ambitious capital improvement plans for the University of Hawaii system, including the UH West Oahu campus and the Palamanui campus in Kona, which will provide new educational opportunities for students. ACCOMPLISHMENTS N/A - Newly-elected Governor http://hawaii.gov/gov/our-voyage-together.html Illinois Governor Pat Quinn's State of the State Address PROPOSALS Employee Training - Increase support for the Employer Training Investment Program, to invest in the state's workforce to meet the changing needs of business. P-20 - Begin at birth to provide the foundation that is needed to prepare our children for high school and success in college and careers. Postsecondary Access - Revamp the higher education system to increase access for all students. Regional Superintendent Funding - Eliminate state funding for the salaries and office costs for regional school superintendents. Scholarship Programs - Increase funding for the monetary assistance program, which provides scholarships for qualified needy students, with a particular focus on community college students. - Abolish the legislative scholarship program. College scholarships--paid for by Illinois taxpayers--should only go to those that have true financial need for them. School District Consolidation - Propose the formation of a commission to review the number of school districts in the state. Illinois currently has 868 districts and our fiscal reality demands consolidation. ACCOMPLISHMENTS P-20 - Appointed member of the first P-20 Council in Illinois. http://www2.illinois.gov/budget/Documents/FY%202012/FY12_Budget_Speech.pdf Kansas Governor Sam Brownback's State of the State Address PROPOSALS P-3 -- Dedicate $6 million this year from the Children's Initiative Fund to the development of early childhood education centers in our most needy school districts. -- Focus more funding on early childhood reading. Economic Development -- Establish a three-year, $105M University Economic Growth initiative to enhance job growth in key economic sectors such as Aviation, Cancer Research, Animal Health, and Engineering. Each university will be required to provide through private sector or reprogrammed funds 50% of the cost of the program initiative. -- Create a Governor's Economic Council: Chaired by myself, this council will consist of some of our state's most successful men and women who are leaders in the private sector.  The Council will assure strategy integration, coordination and accountability across all of the state's economic development agencies and initiatives. Finance -- Proposed budget provides school districts with more overall state funding and will also stabilize state support for higher education for the first time since the Great Recession began. -- Let the Legislature resolve school finance… not the courts, so we can send more money to the classroom, not the courtroom. Define suitability and end the confusion. This will provide a definition of what we need to undertake reform of our school finance formula and provide our school districts with stable, sustainable funding for the future.  Reading/Literacy -- No child should pass the 4th grade without being able to read. Rural (Economic Development, Declining Enrollment) -- Create Rural Opportunity Zones, or ROZes, to provide a state income tax waiver for any individual relocating from out-of-state into any participating county that has experienced double digit percentage population decline the last ten years. ACCOMPLISHMENTS N/A: Newly-Elected Governor https://governor.ks.gov/media-room/speeches/2011/01/12/2011-State-of-the-State-Message Michigan Governor Rick Snyder's State of the State Address PROPOSALS District Finance - - Clarify the powers of financial managers, both municipalities and schools. Economic Development, Postsecondary - - Focus on connecting workforce development efforts with community colleges and economic development organizations to develop clear paths for people in need to get the skills they need. P-20 - - View our educational system from pre-natal to lifelong learning, or "B-20". School District Operations - - Encourage local jurisdictions, both municipal and school, to move to service consolidation. School District Intervention - - Allow for earlier intervention in a school district. ACCOMPLISHMENTS N/A: Newly-Elected Governor http://eupnews.com/2011/01/transcript-of-governor-snyders-state-of-state-address/ Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour's State of the State Address PROPOSALS School Choice/Options -- Make dual enrollment easier and more common. -- Reform charter school law so more children can benefit. Resource Allocation -- Put more resources into the classroom and reduce what is spent on administration. Teaching Quality -- Focus on improving the quality of teachers coming out of our colleges of education, while simultaneously using technology more in teaching our kids. District Finance -- Adopt budget recommendation for 2012 and school districts will have more than $450 million in their reserve funds. ACCOMPLISHMENTS Student Achievement -- The last NAEP scores were up more than the national average, and the dropout rate is going down. Economic/Workforce Development -- Created the Department of Employment Security and expanded it to take over workforce development and job training. -- Established the State Workforce Investment Board and the Workforce Enhancement Training (WET) fund, which annually puts $20 million into workforce development and skills training at 15 community colleges. Graduates of WET-fund financed programs make $4,300 more per year than before training. -- Research universities have become more effective engines of economic growth. -- Improved, skilled workforce has been a reason companies have come to Mississippi. http://www.governorbarbour.com/news/2011/jan/1.11.11%20Gov.%20Barbour%27s%20State%20of%20the%20State%20Address%20TEXT.pdf Missouri Governor Jay Nixon's State of the State Address PROPOSALS Pre-K-3 -- Fund programs to get youngsters off to a good start, like First Steps, Head Start, and Early Childhood Special Education. Economic Development -- Roll three worker training programs into one, and align it with our Compete Missouri incentives. Worker training assistance will be available to businesses as small as Ardent Outdoors, which employs 15 people in Macon, and as large as Boeing, which employs thousands. -- Provide an additional $5 million for job training, giving employers more resources to maintain a highly skilled workforce, and sharpen their competitive edge. Finance -- Protect our investment in K-12 classrooms. -- Partner with school districts to allow additional federal funds received to be used to keep stable funding for our K-12 classrooms - not only for fiscal year 2011, but also for fiscal year 2012. College Access and Completion -- Do more to help students make the leap from high school to college. Budget millions of dollars for Missouri's most successful college scholarship programs, including: Bright Flight, to help keep our top students at our excellent Missouri institutions; Access Missouri, which serves students with the greatest financial need; and A+, which has helped more than 50,000 students afford and attend college. -- Give a $500 bonus to A+ and Access Missouri recipients who score well on Advanced Placement exams in math and science. -- Extend our A+ program so that outstanding students all across the state are guaranteed access to A+ college scholarships. For too long, too many excellent Missouri high school students have been unable to get A+ scholarships - through no fault of their own - simply because their schools weren't designated as A+ schools. Student Achievement -- In the next ten years, Missouri student achievement must rank in the nation's top ten, if we expect to compete for the best jobs in the global economy Technology -- Bring broadband to every corner of the state. Connect tens of thousands of homes in rural Missouri to a network of vital community services like fire and police, schools and hospitals, libraries and government. ACCOMPLISHMENTS College Access and Completion -- Kept tuition and fees flat for two years running. Even if some schools impose modest tuition increases next year, we'll have protected Missouri families from the sharp tuition spikes seen in other states. -- College enrollment jumped by 10,000 students last year, hitting record highs at more than half of Missouri's universities, and boosting applications at all of them. Economic Development -- Put Missouri's first State Parks Youth Corps in action. At a time when it's been especially tough for young people to find jobs, the State Parks Youth Corps put money in the pockets of more than 1,000 young workers - at no cost to the state. The National Association of State Park Directors gave our State Parks Youth Corps its top award for innovation in 2010. Technology -- MoBroadbandNow partnership was a stunning success. Finance -- Reformed and modernized the state pension system, which will keep it solvent now, and for years to come. -- Required insurance companies to start providing meaningful coverage for the diagnosis and treatment of children with autism. http://governor.mo.gov/newsroom/speeches/2011/2011_State_of_the_State.htm Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman's State of the State Address PROPOSALS Economic/Workforce Development -- Create a Nebraska Internship Program to increase the number of college and university students interning with Nebraska businesses. P-20/Virtual High Schools --Support the Department of Education, the University of Nebraska and Nebraska's P-16 Initiative in their joint efforts to develop a virtual high school to allow: ---->High school students to take courses ranging from basic Spanish to AP courses. ---->Rural Nebraska communities to to hire foreign language, math and science teachers. ---->To complete course work on their timetable in the evenings or on weekends. ---->To expand learning beyond the traditional school day and school year. Accountability -- Focus on education accountability. Truancy Reduction -- Support Senator Ashford's efforts to reduce truancy. Postsecondary -- Invest a one-time $25 million in the University of Nebraska's Innovation Campus. -- Maintain higher education funding for the University of Nebraska, state colleges and community colleges. ACCOMPLISHMENTS -- Have made fundamental investments in education and the economic vitality of the state and as a result Nebraska has made significant progress. -- Prioritized education in the two-year budget despite a nearly $1 billion projected shortfall. State funded state aid to education in FY12 remains at $810 million and increases by $50 million to $860 million in FY13. -- Thanks to the leadership of the Legislature, Nebraska is moving to statewide reading and math assessments. http://www.governor.nebraska.gov/news/2011/pdf/2011%20State%20of%20the%20State%20-%20FINAL%20READING.pdf Nevada Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval's State of the State Address PROPOSALS Accountability -- Improve accountability report cards. Choice of Schools -- Use open enrollment, better charter school options, and vouchers to make private school education a possibility for more families and provide more parental choice. Governance -- Reform K-12 governance. Support the recommendations of Nevada's Promise to provide an improved governance model in which the governor appoints the state board of education and the superintendent of public instruction. Teaching Quality -- End teacher tenure. An important first step is to eliminate the protection of seniority when decisions about force reductions must be made. -- Rely heavily on student achievement data in evaluating teachers and principals. As incentives, provide $20 million in performance pay for the most effective teachers. -- Eliminate costly programs that reward longevity and advanced degree attainment. Student Promotion -- End social promotion. Students who cannot read by the end of third grade will not be advanced to the fourth grade. Economic Development -- Redesign the Commission on Economic Development and recommend a 50 percent increase in General Fund dollars to run it. -- Create a new entity, Nevada Jobs Unlimited, as a public-private partnership existing largely outside state government. With a private sector mentality, it will be more nimble. And it will be a Cabinet-level agency, with the governor joining the lieutenant governor, Senate majority leader, Assembly speaker, and representatives of higher education and other critical stakeholders on the board. A majority of the board members will come from the private sector to ensure the focus is squarely on jobs. -- Develop a more strategic focus that connects degree programs and the state's economic development efforts. Finance -- Reduce Basic Support in our K-12 schools by $270 per pupil. The change in total support from current spending is just over nine percent. -- Create a Block Grant Program that encourages districts to be innovative and results-oriented. If one district chooses to continue class size reduction, so be it. If another district wants to pursue other programs, we will no longer hold them back. Flexibility, local autonomy, and accountability are the keys. -- Change the level of reserves required for debt service in all those counties with bond funds. School improvements, maintenance, and equipment purchases will continue – which means no construction jobs will be lost. Simply put, these tax dollars were unnecessarily locked away in one of those separate buckets. -- Use $425 million of these funds to offset the $440 million in lost local funding. The money will stay in education and be used in the district of origin. Replenish these funds over time as the Local School Support Tax rebounds. -- Make temporary use of room tax revenue now slated for teacher salaries in order to defray the costs of overall education spending. Pay-for-performance is still included in the budget, just on a different scale. Postsecondary Finance, Tuition, Financial Aid -- Redirect nine cents of property tax from Clark and Washoe Counties. Restrict this money to the support of universities and community colleges in those counties, because property values rise and economic growth occurs where universities contribute to economic development. -- Reduce state, local, and student revenue for the Nevada System of Higher Education by less than seven percent. With the loss of one-time stimulus dollars, the total reduction is 17.66 percent. However, the Regents have the option of bringing tuition and fees more in line with other Western States, so many of these funds can be recovered. -- Grant autonomy over tuition to the Regents. Nevada's tuition rates are well below our Western neighbors – the Regents have long asked for the authority to raise them. Reserve 15 percent of any increased tuition to ensure access for those who need financial aid. As we increase autonomy, we will also increase performance indicators so that graduation rates, completion times, and access are measures of success. -- Budget an additional $10 million to preserve the Kenny C. Guinn Millennium Scholarship. ACCOMPLISHMENTS N/A Newly-elected Governor http://nv.gov/WorkArea/linkit.aspx?LinkIdentifier=id&ItemID=4294969086&libID=4294969085 New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's State of the State Address PROPOSALS Accountability -- Reform poor-performing schools or close them. Economic Growth, Postsecondary -- Acknowledge that our system of colleges and universities is essential to our economic growth. Finance -- Continue to examine the amount and structure of municipal and school aid programs. -- Cut out-of-classroom costs and focus efforts on teachers and children. Leadership -- Empower principals. School Choice -- Expand the charter school program beyond the 6 approved this year and the 73 currently operating; this is a top priority. -- Attract the best charter school operators to the state. -- Increase authorizing capacity so charter school operators may start schools here. -- Implement the interdistrict school choice law passed last year. -- Pass the Opportunity Scholarship Act (gives businesses tax credits for funding scholarships for low-income students to attend private schools) to help children in failing schools. Teacher Compensation--Pension and Benefits -- Reform pension and health benefit systems for teachers; the state must begin to make its pension contributions. -- Raise (modestly) the retirement age. -- Curb the effect of COLAs -- Ensure a modest but acceptable contribution from employees toward their own retirement system. Teacher Evaluation -- Improve the measurement and evaluation of teachers; there is a task force of teachers, principals and administrators working on that now. Teacher Non-Renewal, Tenure -- Demand that when teacher layoffs occur, they be based on a merit system and not merely on seniority. -- Empower schools to remove underperforming teachers. -- Eliminate teacher tenure. Teacher Pay-for-Performance -- Reward the best teacher based on merit at the individual teacher level. ACCOMPLISHMENTS School Choice -- Created a permanent interdistrict public school choice program. -- Approved 6 new charter schools, with many more to come soon. http://www.state.nj.us/governor/news/news/552010/20110111d.html New York Govenor Andrew M. Cuomo's State of the State Address PROPOSALS Economic Development, Postsecondary - Establish 10 economic regional councils across the state. Higher education will be the key economic driver. Finance, Student Achievement - Acknowledge that NY spends more money on education than any other state but is number 34th in the nation in terms of results. - Redesign portion of state education funding to create two competitive funds that reward performance: (1) school performance: $250 million competition fund for district that increase classroom performance (e.g., improving grades of historically underperforming children) and (2) administration efficiency: $250 million competition for districts that find administrative savings through efficiencies, shared services, etc. Governance - Create program to reward local governments that save money by consolidating. ACCOMPLISHMENTS N/A: Newly-Elected Governor http://governor.ny.gov/sl2/stateofthestate2011transcript North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue's State of the State Address PROPOSALS Graduation Rate, College/Career Ready - Acknowledge that while the high school graduation rate has increased to 74 percent, that is not good enough to reach NC's goal for every child to graduate high school ready for a career, college or technical training. Teaching Quality - Demand that all teachers and administrators meet our standards of excellence or we will replace them. Two-Year College Degree - Rebranding a College Promise and North Carolina's Career and College Promise. By consolidating existing programs and nurturing partnerships between high schools and our community college system, career training and a college degree will be more affordable to our students. Any high school junior who signs up at school for the Career and College Promise--who meets criteria while maintaining high academic standards will be eligible to earn a two-year college degree at no cost. State Budget, Teaching Positions - Fund every current state-supported teacher and teaching assistant position. - Will not eliminate teachers to find budget savings. ACCOMPLISHMENTS College/Career Ready - Launched the Career and College Ready Set Go! initiative challenging educators at all levels to focus on one single goal: to prepare all students to graduate ready for a career, college or technical training. Federal Aid - Won federal Race to the Top funds. Virtual Schools, Educator Accountability - Providing a 21st century education imbedded with technology (46,000 high school students are taking courses from the NC Virtual Public School), more career and academic choices for students of all ages and a new level of accountability for teachers and administrators. http://www.stateline.org/live/details/speech?contentId=542519 North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple's State of the State Address PROPOSALS Economic/Workforce Development -- Invest in research and development in the university system. -- Foster a culture of entrepreneurship where all four-year universities operate business incubators that support start-up enterprises of all kinds. -- Build, educate and retain the workforce. Postsecondary Education -- Encourage young people to seek advanced education. -- Make post-secondary education more affordable for all of our young people. -- Begin a new approach to funding higher education based on the outcomes that education leaders and citizens would like to see from their college campuses. School Finance -- Finish the job of funding adequacy and move to the great challenge of improving the quality of instruction in our schools. ACCOMPLISHMENTS N/A: Newly-Elected Governor http://governor.nd.gov/events/2011-state-state-address Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber's Inaugural Remarks PROPOSALS Quality Schools, Postsecondary Success --By 2020, the end of this decade — by the time the children entering kindergarten this year graduate from high school — we should live in a state where our children are ready to learn before they get to school; where they have the resources and attention to learn and our teachers have the time and support to teach; where dropout rates are steadily falling and graduation rates are steadily rising; where all Oregon high school graduates are prepared to pursue a post-secondary education without remediation; and where 80 percent of them achieve at least two years of post-secondary education or training. Economic Development, Career Pathways -- We should live in a state that creates family wage jobs and career pathways that lead to those jobs; and where the average per capita income exceeds the national average in every region. Finance -- Shift our pattern of investments toward children, education and workforce development in a manner that is financially sustainable over the long term. -- Move from a two-year budget to a ten-year budget frame; from a current service level budget to true outcome-based budgeting. ACCOMPLISHMENTS N/A - Newly-elected Governor http://governor.oregon.gov/Gov/media_room/speeches/index.shtml#january_2011 Texas Governor Rick Perry's State of the State Address PROPOSALS Dropout Rate, Employer Tax Incentives, Virtual High School - Improve efforts to reduce the dropout rate by requiring students to either be enrolled or working towards a GED if they want to get and/or keep their driver's license. - Create an incentive program for employers who encourage their employees to continue their high school education. - Offer employers a $1,500 tax incentive for every employee who earns their diploma or GED after receiving two hours off per week with pay to study or go to class. - Expand Virtual School Network, with a Virtual High School that will enable students who have dropped out to earn a diploma online and give students access to classes their own schools may not offer. Postsecondary/Veterans - Support what one school calls "College Credit 4 Heroes." The Texas Workforce Commission is working with the Higher Education Coordinating Board and the community colleges on a plan to offer veteran credit for their skills and experience. The goal is to accelerate them into the Allied Health Occupation, which are critically needed across our state. Shared Services - Encourage districts to enter into shared service arrangements with other entities in their area. STEM - Expand STEM academies. Tuition Freeze - Renew my call for a four-year tuition freeze, locking tuition rates at or below the freshman level for four years. - Challenge institutions of higher education to develop bachelor's degrees that cost no more than $10,000 including textbooks. ACCOMPLISHMENTS Postsecondary Cost Efficiency - Ordered a review of cost efficiencies at universities as a way to make education more affordable. One idea that emerged from that review is called "Outcomes-Based Funding" in which a significant percent of undergraduate funding, would be based on the number of degrees awarded. http://governor.state.tx.us/news/speech/15673/ Utah Utah Governor Gary Herbert 2011 State of the State Address PROPOSALS School Finance -- Funding our children's education must be the number one budget priority. Reading/All-Day Kindergarten/Workforce Development/STEM -- Address Education Excellence Commission Action Plan this session, including: ----> Ensure reading proficiency by the third grade ----> Match classroom instruction to real-world jobs-especially in the areas of science, engineering and math. ----> Focus on all-day kindergarten. Accomplishments -- Not prominently included. http://www.utah.gov/governor/news_media/article.html?article=4169 Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin's 2011 Budget Address [Budget Address: No State of the State Address for 2011] PROPOSALS Finance -- Make an ongoing reduction of $23 million from the General Fund transfer to the Education Fund. This reduction will require continued spending restraint by hardworking school boards and local communities to hold back property tax increases. Release one-time federal funding of $19 million to give local communities additional time to make further spending reductions, but they must be made. Pre-K -3 -- Make Vermont the national leader in early childhood education. Expand the state's pre-kindergarten program for ages three, four, and five, by lifting the cap on the number of students counted in Pre-K funding. Vermonters will be able to exercise local control and vote to spend money without the heavy hand of Montpelier preventing them from doing so. -- When this cap is lifted, over time, if half of Vermont's eligible children are enrolled in a Pre-K program – an optimistic goal – the cost to the state's Education Fund would be about $14 million. Economic Development Create a sustainable higher education income tax credit that will enable Vermont students who stay here and work here to reduce their college debt. Technology -- Two weeks ago, I launched Connect VT, an ambitious plan to deliver broadband and cell service to every corner of Vermont. To get this essential project done, in addition to using federal funds and private investments, I propose spending $13 million from our two-year capital budget and fully utilizing the $40 million revenue bond capacity of the Vermont Telecommunications Authority. These investments will expedite the build out of fiber optics lines and wireless networks across our state, including the most rural areas that for economic reasons are least likely to attract private providers. ACCOMPLISHMENTS N/A - Newly-elected Governor http://governor.vermont.gov/newsroom-budget-address Finance 17 Finance--Adequacy/Core Cost 1 Finance--District 3 Finance--Facilities 3 Finance--Federal 3 Finance--Funding Formulas 3 Finance--Resource Efficiency 1 Finance--State Budgets/Expenditures 13 Finance--Taxes/Revenues 2 Governance 7 Governance--School Boards 2 Governance--State Boards/Chiefs/Agencies 2 Health 1 High School 7 High School--Advanced Placement 3 High School--College Readiness 6 High School--Dropout Rates/Graduation Rates 2 High School--Dual/Concurrent Enrollment 1 High School--Graduation Requirements 2 Leadership--District Superintendent 2 Leadership--District Superintendent--Compensation and Diversified Pay 1 Leadership--Principal/School Leadership 4 Online Learning--Virtual Schools/Courses 2 P-16 or P-20 5 P-3 5 P-3 Grades 1-3 4 P-3 Kindergarten 1 P-3 Kindergarten--Full-Day Kindergarten 3 P-3 Preschool 2 Parent/Family 1 Postsecondary 8 Postsecondary Accountability 1 Postsecondary Affordability--Financial Aid 6 Postsecondary Affordability--Textbooks 1 Postsecondary Affordability--Tuition/Fees 5 Postsecondary Affordability--Tuition/Fees--Prepd/College Savings Plans 1 Postsecondary Faculty--Compensation 1 Postsecondary Finance 13 Postsecondary Finance--Efficiency/Performance-Based Funding 1 Postsecondary Institutions 2 Postsecondary Institutions--Community/Technical Colleges 3 Postsecondary Participation--Access 6 Postsecondary Participation--Affirmative Action 1 Postsecondary Students 1 Postsecondary Success--Completion 7 Postsecondary Success--Developmental/Remediation 1 Postsecondary Success--Transfer/Articulation 1 Privatization 1 Promotion/Retention 3 Reading/Literacy 2 Remediation (K-12) 2 Rural 2 Scheduling/School Calendar 1 Scheduling/School Calendar--Extended Day Programs 1 School Safety 2 School/District Structure/Operations--District Consolidation/Deconsolidation 2 School/District Structure/Operations--Facilities 1 School/District Structure/Operations--Shared Services 2 Special Education 2 Special Populations--Military 1 Standards 2 Standards--Common Core State Standards 1 State Policymaking 5 STEM 6 Student Achievement 8 Teaching Quality 6 Teaching Quality--Compensation and Diversified Pay 5 Teaching Quality--Compensation and Diversified Pay--Pay-for-Performance 3 Teaching Quality--Compensation and Diversified Pay--Retirement/Benefits 5 Teaching Quality--Evaluation and Effectiveness 8 Teaching Quality--Paraprofessionals 1 Teaching Quality--Recruitment and Retention 1 Teaching Quality--Tenure or Continuing Contract 5 Technology 4 Technology--Computer Skills 5 Technology--Equitable Access 1 Technology--Teacher/Faculty Training 1 Textbooks and Open Source 1 Youth Engagement 1 329