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 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 Idaho Governor C.L. "Butch" Otter's State of the State Address PROPOSALS Business Involvement -- Advance the recommendations of the Education Alliance of Idaho (i.e., a coalition of key stakeholders of the Idaho education system formed as a result of a charge from Governor Otter to the Idaho Business Coalition for Educational Excellence to develop strategic recommendations for setting Idaho on a trajectory to become a global leader in education). Finance -- Call for a little more state support for public schools and significant, targeted investments. -- Shift priorities from how much we are spending to how much children are learning. High School, Mathematics, Science -- Invest in a third year of math and science in high school. High School, Postsecondary Entrance -- Pay for all juniors to take college entrance exams. Postsecondary, Financial Aid -- Look forward to the time when we can resume building on the Opportunity Scholarship Fund to ensure money is never a barrier to qualified students going on after high school. Teacher Pay-For-Performance -- Establish a pay system for teachers that emphasizes performance, not tenure. ACCOMPLISHMENTS Business Involvement, Postsecondary -- Acknowledge the expaning role of the business community, the Idaho National Laboratory and the Center for Advanced Energy Studies in their collaboration with colleges and universities on research and technology transfer issues. Finance, Student Achievement -- Acknowledge the fact that Idaho students continue to out-perform national averages on math and reading and generally score higher on achievement tests, despite the fact that the state spends far less per student than the national average. Postsecondary, Community Colleges -- Acknowledge that efforts to provide more affordable higher education options are paying off, as The College of Western Idaho is one of the fastest-growing community colleges in the nation. Technology -- Congratulate the Idaho Education Network's (i.e., an entity formed to ensure high-speed broadband access for all students) expansion into every corner of the state where schools are using the Network to offer master's degree programs, POST Academy training, firefighter and paramedic training, and professional development courses for teachers. -- Congratulate the high school students who have earned 1,300 college credits by using the Idaho Education Network. http://gov.idaho.gov/mediacenter/speeches/sp_2011/State%20of%20the%20State%202011.pdf Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels' State of the State Address PROPOSALS Finance -- End practices like raiding teacher pension funds, and shifting state deficits to our schools and universities by making them wait until the state had the cash to pay them. Teaching Quality -- Should have tenure, but they should earn it by proving their ability to help kids learn.  -- Best teachers should be paid more, much more, and ineffective teachers should be helped to improve or asked to move. Leadership -- Give school leadership full flexibility to deliver the results we now expect.  -- Free school leaders from all the handcuffs that reduce their ability to meet the higher expectations we now have for student achievement.  Local Control -- Repeal mandates that, whatever their good intentions, ought to be left to local control.  School Choice/Charter School -- Honor, trust and respect parents enough to decide when, where and how their children can receive the best education, and therefore the best chance in life. -- Protect families against any possibility of discrimination by requiring that any school with more applicants than room fill it through a lottery or other blind selection process. -- Create more charter schools, and they must no longer be unjustly penalized. They should receive their funding exactly when other public schools do. If they need space, and the local district owns vacant buildings it has no prospect of using, they should turn them over. -- Let families apply dollars that the state spends on their child to the non-government school of their choice. Accelerated Learning -- Empower kids to defray the high cost of education through their own hard work, by entrusting them with this new and innovative choice. If you choose to finish in eleven years instead of twelve, we will give you the money we were going to spend while you cruised through 12fth grade, as long as you spend that money on some form of further education.  ACCOMPLISHMENTS -- Ordered the Board of Education to peel away unnecessary requirements that consume time and money without really contributing to learning.  -- Starting this year, schools will get their own grades, in a form we can all understand: 'A' to 'F.' No more hiding behind jargon and gibberish. http://www.in.gov/gov/11stateofstate.htm?WT.cg_n=GOV_billboards&WT.cg_s=11111_01_SOS Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear's 2011 State of the Commonwealth Speech PROPOSALS Compulsory School Attendance -- Raise the mandatory school attendance age to 18. High School Graduation -- Work together to increase the graduation rate School Finance -- Use Medicaid money to fix a Medicaid problem — don't cut education or other priorities to fix this program. Alternative Education -- Answer concerns about unmotivated students by creating alternative programs. ACCOMPLISHMENTS School Finance -- Protected basic funding for classroom teaching College Completion -- Smoothed the transfer of credits from two-year colleges to four-year institutions. Improved Achievement -- In Education Week's 2011 Quality Counts report Kentucky ranked 19th among the 50 states. -- On the most recent NAEP, Kentucky's 4th and 8th graders outperformed the national average in science. -- In reading, Kentucky was the only state to improve both 4th and 8th grade scores between 2007 and 2009. -- A growing number of Kentucky students are entering college, fewer need remedial help and more are graduating. http://www.governor.ky.gov/NR/rdonlyres/B88ACAA4-3F4E-461E-B514-477D507E1C72/0/20110201SOTC.pdf New Hampshire Governor John Lynch's 2011 Address New Hampshire does not have a state of the state address in years in which a budget or inaugural speech is given. PROPOSALS Finance -- Present a proposal for improving the current formula: Constitutional amendment Technology -- Bring affordable broadband to all of New Hampshire High School -- Set a goal of reducing the dropout rate to zero ACCOMPLISHMENTS [Incumbent Governor] Standards, College Readiness -- Improved standards -- Cut the high school dropout rate in half to a remarkably low 1.7 percent -- Expanded the Community College System's Project Running Start to more high schools, giving students access to college classes and credits. -- Provided options for online learning, internships and night school -- Implemented initiatives such as the FIRST Robotics competition to teaching children things they could never get from a textbook PreK - 3 -- Ensured that every child in every community can attend public kindergarten. Economic/Workforce Development -- Partnered with companies to train workers in the skills they need for today's jobs. In the past four years, trained more than 8,000 workers 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 Washington Governor Christine Gregoire's State of the State Address PROPOSALS K-12/Governance/High School Senior Year -- Create one agency - the Department of Education - which will focus solely on student education with one plan for a seamless system from pre-school to Ph.D. -- Make the 12th grade relevant and exciting. Give our students a leg up in the competitive world of tomorrow by ensuring they leave their senior year on their way to certification, apprenticeship or college credits. Postsecondary Attainment/Postsecondary Affordability/Postsecondary Accountability -- Encourage every student to "complete to compete"— complete an AA, bachelor's or advanced degree so he or she can compete for the jobs of tomorrow. -- Establish tuition flexibility at our colleges and universities to keep the doors of higher education open to all and to maintain high-quality education in good and bad times. -- Adopt the recommendations of the Higher Education Funding Task Force, which increases the number of graduates, requires greater accountability from our colleges and universities, ensure stable funding, and establish a $1 billion Washington Pledge Scholarship Program. ACCOMPLISHMENTS -- Not prominently included, focused on proposals. http://www.governor.wa.gov/speeches/speech-view.asp?SpeechSeq=217 West Virginia Governor Earl Tomblins's 2011 State of the State Address PROPOSALS Global Competitiveness/Increased Completion/Teacher Recruitment/Career Education -- Submit legislation to accomplish these goals: - Refocus emphasis on creating an environment where children learn the skills necessary to be productive citizens so they can compete in our global economy. - Ensure efficient and appropriate use of resources. - Decrease the dropout rate in high school and in college. - Eliminate the high level of teacher vacancies in certain areas of the state. - Focus on developing the vocational skills from the middle school level up. - Design classrooms that will foster the development of 21st century skills. School Staff Compensation -- Propose a one-time, $800 across-the-board enhancement for our teachers. -- Propose a similar one-time salary enhancement for school service personnel. ACCOMPLISHMENTS Teacher Compensation -- Supported efforts in 2005 to fill in all of the steps in the teacher salary scale in statute. When filled in, it ensured that every teacher in West Virginia got an approximate 1.5 percent pay raise every single year. -- Presenting a General Revenue Fund budget that furloughs no teachers. Postsecondary -- Worked hard to create a consistent, comprehensive system of education. Now, community and technical colleges have the independence to focus on teaching the skills needed for the workforce. http://www.governor.wv.gov/Documents/State%20of%20State%20%202011.pdf 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