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 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 Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe's State of the State Address PROPOSALS Finance -- Increase per-pupil funding by 2%. -- Push more of the funding that comes into the state meant to close achievement gaps into active efforts to help students, while still allowing districts to save some funding in reserve. Finance, Postsecondary -- Increase higher education funding by 1% to help institutions with rising enrollment; ask administrators to be measured and modest when looking to raise tuition, as this funding increase will unlikely alone cover growing operational costs. -- Tie funding for higher education institutions more closely to coursework completion and graduation rates, not simply to enrollment. Postsecondary Completion --Double the number of college graduates by 2025 in order to stay competitive. ACCOMPLISHMENTS Standards, Student Achievement -- Acknowledge that stronger standards and increased funded are producing positive results; we've come from consistently settling among the bottom few states in the nation to number 6 in the nation for K-12 education. http://governor.arkansas.gov/newsroom/index.php?do:newsDetail=1&news_id=2686 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 Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley's 2011 State of the State Address PROPOSALS College Affordability -- Continue to make college more affordable for more families. Governance Structures -- Merge the Higher Education Commission and Department of Education. Postsecondary Completion -- Support Complete College Maryland in this year's budget. -- Rethink the way we fund higher education so there is a greater incentive for completing college on time. ACCOMPLISHMENTS School Finace -- For the past four years, every year, we've increased education funding. -- Last year, we chose to make the largest investment we've ever made in public education. University Tuition -- Alone among the 50 states we chose to freeze in-state tuition four years in a row. http://www.governor.maryland.gov/speeches/2011SOTS.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 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 South Dakota Governor Dennis Daugaard's State of the State Address PROPOSALS Postsecondary Readiness and Completion -- Ensure that every student who wants to go to college is fully prepared to enter and graduate. Technical Education -- Expand technical education opportunities, through partnerships with our tech schools and private businesses, so that high school students can have exposure to skilled, technical fields. -- Sponsor a bill to increase the bonding capacity of our postsecondary tech schools, to allow them to continue to expand their campuses and add new programs in technical fields. STEM -- Work toward new approaches to strengthen education in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Finance, Local Control -- Allow local school boards and school administrators to run their own districts. -- Sponsor bills to repeal the 100 student minimum for state aid to school districts and to remove the cap on school district reserve fund balances. Encourage Careers in Health Care -- Partner with health systems, professional organizations, educational institutions, and local governments to increase efforts to encourage students to consider careers in health care. -- Encourage local school districts to give high school credit toward graduation for training in fields like EMT, dietetics, or nursing assistants. -- Continue to promote the privately-funded DakotaCorps scholarship, which rewards young people who commit to staying in the state and entering health care and other high-need fields. ACCOMPLISHMENTS N/A: Newly-Elected Governor http://sd.gov/governor/docs/State%20of%20the%20State,%20Jan.%2011,%202011.pdf Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam's 2011 Legislative Package PROPOSALS Charter Schools •    Lift the cap on charter schools and allow open enrollment •    Allow the state's Achievement School District (part of First to the Top) to authorize charter schools Teacher Tenure •    Make tenure tied to classroom performance; extend probationary time from three to five years College Completion •    Extend use of the lottery scholarship for summer courses and cap the total number of hours based on required degree completion ACCOMPLISHMENTS N/A - Newly Elected Governor http://news.tnanytime.org/node/6721 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