2012 State of the State Addresses Education-Related Proposals by Issue

The following summary includes education-related proposals from the 2012 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 7 Accountability--Reporting Results 6 Accountability--Sanctions/Interventions 3 Accountability--School Improvement 2 Assessment 4 Assessment--College Entrance Exams 3 Assessment--Formative/Interim 1 At-Risk--Alternative Education 1 Attendance 3 Career/Technical Education 7 Career/Technical Education--Career Academies/Apprenticeship 1 Choice of Schools 4 Choice of Schools--Charter Schools 11 Alabama Governor Robert Bentley's State of the State Address PROPOSALS Choice, Charter Schools --Create a limited number of charter schools. District Flexibility --Propose the School Flexibility Act of 2012, to allow more decision-making at the local level. Allow local school systems to develop their own innovative strategies, free from state or federal bureaucracy. Finance --Budget proposal includes protecting +Alabama Reading Initiative +ACCESS Distance Learning +Alabama Math Science and Technology Initiative +Advanced Placement +Pre K programs. Teaching Quality, Leadership --Ensure that every child's classroom and school is led by a highly effective, professional educator free to use their talents to create a stimulating and innovative learning environment in their own classroom. --Form a "Teacher Cabinet", made up of teachers, administrators, school board members and parents to provide the administration with unfiltered feedback on the needs of public schools. Teacher Expenditures on Classroom Supplies --Propose a dollar-for-dollar tax credit for every teacher who spends their money on their classroom. Career/Technical Education, Workforce Development --Propose new investment in Alabama's workforce development and career tech programs. ACHIEVEMENTS http://blog.al.com/bn/2012/02/alabama_gov_robert_bentleys_st.html District of Columbia Mayor Vincent C. Gray's State of the District Address PROPOSALS High School - Graduation Rates -- Raise graduation rates. P-3 - Child Care -- Expand access to universal, high-quality infant and toddler care. P-3 Systems - Ensuring Quality -- Test, learn and teach important best practices about early childhood development. Student Supports - Integrated Services -- Offer a new resource in our Early Success plan - $12 million, state-of-the-art early childhood Educare Center in the Kenilworth-Parkside Promise neighborhood, which will provide services to 171 children and their families. Student Achievement -- Help more students move beyond mere proficiency to advanced levels of achievement. Workforce Development - Workforce Demand -- Fundamentally redesign how we approach job training adapted to the needs of the 21st century. It must be data-driven and must equip people with the hard and soft skills necessary to compete for the jobs of tomorrow. Charter Schools -- Be a model of how the best public schools can operate in a healthy, virtuous competition with the best public charter schools to spur creativity, learning and achievement that prepares young people to compete in the new economy. School Structure - Facilities -- Continue to implement our comprehensive school-modernization plan, rebuilding or renovating our schools. ACCOMPLISHMENTS Special Education -- Expanded the quality of special education programming, enabling us to serve students closer to home and reduce the number of students attending non-public schools by 20 percent in just the past 11 months. Student Achievement -- Seen gains in student performance as measured both by our DC-CAS test and by the National Assessment of Educational Progress. P-3 - Preschool -- Became the first city in America to offer universal pre-K, and we are now ranked #1 in the nation in pre-kindergarten enrollment. School Structure - Facilities -- Opened a new H.D. Woodson High School; renovated Langley School; modernized and expanded facilities at Woodrow Wilson High School, Anacostia High School and Janney Elementary; restored Takoma Education Campus, where we invested $25 million unexpectedly in the aftermath fire in December of 2010; began the modernization of Cardozo High School; and broke ground on a new Dunbar High School. A new Ballou Senior High School and many others will soon follow. Youth Engagement/Professional Development -- Engaged over 14,000 youth in the reformed Summer Youth Employment Program last year, teaching them the culture and value of an honest day's work for an honest day's pay. http://mayor.dc.gov/DC/Mayor/About+the+Mayor/News+Room/Text+of+the+State+of+the+District+Address Georgia Governor Nathan Deal's State of the State Address PROPOSALS Finance -- Appropriate an additional $146.6 million to fully fund enrollment growth in K-12 schools. -- Put an additional $3.7 million toward funding for school nurses, and move school nurses and the school nutrition program and transportation funding into the Quality Basic Education funding formula. These funds will be allocated using the same formula local districts are accustomed to, but they will have complete flexibility in how to spend them.  -- Appropriate an additional $55.8 million to fund salary increases for teachers based on training and experience.  P-3 and Reading -- Provide funding for increasing the Pre-K school year for 84,000 students by 10 days, bringing it to 170 days.  -- Make a concerted effort to increase the percentage of children reading at grade level by the completion of 3rd Grade. The best evidence tells us that children not meeting this standard often fail to catch up and are more likely to drop out of school, go to prison and have higher unemployment rates later in life than their reading-proficient peers.  Students must "learn to read" in order to be able to "read to learn" and when we fail to invest in our youngest students, we are forced to spend money on remediation for the remainder of their academic careers.  -- Budget $1.6 million for a reading mentors program. This program will assist schools and teachers as they work to help more young Georgians achieve this strategic benchmark – reading at grade level by the completion of 3rd grade. Charter Schools and Innovation -- Put in place strategies that provide students with opportunities to practice and apply what they are learning in a high-quality, real-world environment. This is one reason we allotted nearly $20 million of our Race to the Top money for the creation of an Innovation Fund.  This initiative asks schools to partner with businesses, non-profits and postsecondary institutions and places a primary focus on developing applied learning opportunities.  -- To spur innovation, recommend $8.7 million in supplemental grants in both the Amended budget and next year's budget for state chartered special schools affected by the Georgia Supreme Court ruling on charter schools.  -- Develop a plan to ensure that charter schools can thrive in Georgia.  Postsecondary and Job Readiness -- Clarify the mission of our schools. Students graduating from our high schools … those young men and women who have done everything asked of them by our K-12 system … should be fully ready for postsecondary study or a job! Ensure that there is a more seamless transition from High School to further study … and from postsecondary study to the workforce.  Financial Aid -- For every student who earned HOPE this year, maintain the same HOPE Scholarship award amount next year. -- Appropriate $20 million for the needs-based one percent student loan program which eases the burden of affording a college education Postsecondary and Economic/Workforce Development -- Ensure that postsecondary institutions maintain an intense focus on employability and creating job opportunities. In today's competitive global environment where technology is constantly reshaping the economy, that means abandoning the "ivory tower" model and adapting to meet the needs of business.     -- Add $111.3 million in funding to address anticipated enrollment growth in both the technical college and university systems. -- Work together to ensure that Georgia has the craft professionals to meet present and forecast demand. Boost the state's pipeline by launching Go Build, a public-private initiative that will round out the state's workforce development program by educating young people and the public at large about the skilled trades. Already, the business community is unable to fill many positions calling for highly-skilled industrial and commercial construction professionals, jobs that on average pay 27% more than the average Georgian currently brings home.  -- Be a destination for cancer research and a resource for every family battling this disease. Georgians deserve a world-class, public medical university, and it will be a priority of this administration to have a medical college among the top 50 nationally. Within this push, the Georgia Health Sciences University will seek to become the state's second National Cancer Institute designated Cancer Center, alongside the Winship Cancer Center at Emory. Invest $5 million to support this goal of a second Georgia-based Cancer Center. In order to address the need for additional health professionals in Georgia, we have been investing in the expansion of undergraduate medical education for several years.  We must now take the next step in this process by funding 400 new residency slots in hospitals across the state.  ACCOMPLISHMENTS Finance -- Restored the Rainy Day Fund.  The balance today is $328 million, an increase of 183%. -- Passed structurally balanced budgets that fund the essential services without raising taxes. Financial Aid -- Appropriated $20 million for the needs-based one percent student loan program which eases the burden of affording a college education. Half of the newly-appropriated $20 million funds went to students who had no assistance from their families. http://gov.georgia.gov/00/press/detail/0,2668,165937316_165937374_180385525,00.html Maine Governor Paul LePage's State of the State Address PROPOSALS Student Achievement -- Create an educational system that can help us compete globally. Maine can and must lead the nation [in student performance]. -- Improving education in Maine starts with one simple step: putting students first. That is not a slogan. It is not a cliche. We all must ask ourselves "What is best for the student?" -- Ensure children's educational needs are determined by their families – not by their street address. Teaching Quality/Effectiveness -- Introduce a series of reforms related to Maine's teacher effectiveness policies. Career and Technical -- Ensure that every student has access to a wider array of educational opportunities. Increase access to, and improve upon, Maine's Career and Technical Education System. Students should have the ability to choose to study trades, and develop skills before joining the workforce. ACCOMPLISHMENTS Charter Schools -- Passed charter school legislation. Finance -- Increased general purpose aid to K-12 education by $63 million. http://www.maine.gov/tools/whatsnew/index.php?topic=Gov_Speeches&id=345707&v=article2011 Michigan Governor Rick Snyder's State of the State Address PROPOSALS -- n/a ACCOMPLISHMENTS Preschool -- Launched the Office of Great Start to focus on youngest kids. Teacher Quality - Tenure -- Reformed teacher tenure. School Choice -- Lifted cap on charter schools. School Safety -- Passed an anti-bullying law. http://www.michigan.gov/documents/snyder/011812_OUTLINE_State_of_the_State_2012_final_374006_7.pdf Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant's State of the State Address PROPOSALS P-3 --Monitor the learning opportunities in licensed child care centers. --Combine the functions of the department of health and department of human services for inspection and monitoring of licensed child care centers, in order to streamline services and improve the state's ability to identify the quality of early childhood learning programs. --Gather additional information from ongoing programs such as Building Blocks, Excel by 5, Allies for Quality Childcare Project, and the Quality Rating System, to provide the metrics needed to determine best practices for early childhood learning. Charter Schools --Pass a charter school act. K-12 Finance --Make an executive budget recommendation that will level fund MAEP (Mississippi Adequate Education Program, state funding formula). --Seek to replace the funding for high growth areas. --Set aside 2% of state revenue to replenlish state's rainy day fund. Teen Pregnancy --Begin the public discussion of how to reduce teen pregnancy in Mississippi. --Governor has asked the director of the department of human services and the state health officer to provide, within 30 days, an aggressive plan to address the state's teen pregnancy rate and suggestions on how to curb it. Reading, Dylslexia --Put reading at the forefront of the state's educational plan. --Encourage teachers and parents who believe a child is dyslexic to seek assistance from the Mississippi Dyslexia Program at the department of education. Work to improve state response to this challenge to success. School/District Structure, Operations --Ask the legislature to pass the Education Administration Consolidation Bill, which mandates that districts' non-educational duties (i.e., centralized human resources, centralized purchasing, centralized transportation and other duties) be consolidated to one central county office by 2014. Teaching Quality, National Board Teacher Certification, Teach for America, Mississippi Teachers Corps --Make sure teachers graduate from college prepared to teach. Dr. Hank Bounds (state superintendent) and Dr. Tom Burnham (commissioner of higher education) are working to increase minimum entrance standards for teacher training programs at state universities. --Fully fund the national board certified teacher program. --Once data are available from a pilot program to quantify the characteristics of a quality teacher, recommend a teacher "Pay for Performance" program based on student attainments and not on subjective evaluations. --Make executive budget recommendation allocating $12 million toward Teach for America and the Mississippi Teachers Corps. Local districts will add a portion to this appropriation to keep participating teachers in the classroom. Dual Enrollment, Economic/Workforce Development --Ask the state department of education, the community colleges and the Mississippi Department of Employment Security to come together to implement a dual enrollment process to allow students on the verge of dropping out of school to enroll in a community college workforce training program. Economic/Workforce Development--Research --Create the Biomass Center for Excellence, a partnership of the public, private and education sectors to coordinate and promote biomass research, development and manufacturing. ACCOMPLISHMENTS n/a http://www.governorbryant.com/governor-phil-bryant-gives-his-first-state-of-the-state-address/ (scroll down to beginning of address) New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's State of the State Address PROPOSALS School Choice - Charters -- Reform the process for authorizing charter schools. School Choice - Vouchers -- Establish tax credits to provide scholarships for low income students in the worst-performing schools in the state to enable them to attend a better school, either out of the district or a private school. Teacher Quality - Seniority -- End the system of "last in, first out." If layoffs are necessary remove the least effective teachers instead of just the most junior ones. Teacher Quality - Tenure -- Reform tenure – by measuring teacher effectiveness, both with professional observation, and objective, quantifiable measures of student achievement – and then by giving tenure to those with strong evaluations, and taking it away from those whose ratings are unacceptably weak. Teacher Quality - Compensation -- Pay teachers more when they are assigned to a failing school or to teach a difficult subject. Teacher Quality - -- End forced placements. Teachers should not be assigned to schools without the mutual consent of the teacher and the principal. ACCOMPLISHMENTS School Choice - Charters -- Passed the Urban Hope Act. This new law will allow school districts in Newark, Camden and Trenton to partner with experts in the private sector to build and operate renaissance schools in these districts so in need of change. Teacher Quality - Retirement -- Reformed the pension system which led to every teacher's pension being more secure today. http://www.state.nj.us/governor/news/news/552012/approved/20120117c.html Ohio Governor John Kasich's State of the State Address PROPOSALS Career/Technical Education --Bring vocational education back strong in K-12 education. Charter Schools --Ask the legislature to exercise proper oversight of charter schools. Urban --Change urban education in Ohio. SStudy successful schools in urban areas. Economic/Workforce Development--Research --Use university research to commercialize, and create jobs and spinoff companies. Workforce Development, Community Colleges --Ask companies to forecast workforce needs so the state can point students to where the jobs are. --Match community colleges with business community needs and forecasting. --Develop workforce training reform plan. Postsecondary Completion --Improve completion rates for technical degrees, community college degrees, and university degrees. --Increase graduation rates for all universities. Postsecondary Finance, Facilities --Have universities collaborate on single capital bill. --Increase postsecondary collaboration to reduce duplicative programs across campuses. ACCOMPLISHMENTS Accountability --Allow parents, teachers to take over a school that continues to fail. --Public reporting on how schools are doing statewide. Teacher Evaluation --Took teacher evaluation framework to state board of education. Teachers want to make sure there are multiple ways for them to be measured. Teach for America --Brought Teach for America to Ohio. Vouchers, Charters --Went from 13,000 vouchers to 30,000 families. Next year there will be 60,000 vouchers. --Lifted the charter school cap. Postsecondary, Economic Development --Created a course at several universities, community colleges to train students in risk management to work in Cleveland financial sector. http://governor.ohio.gov/Portals/0/2012%20State%20of%20the%20State%20Address%20Transcript.pdf South Carolina Governor Nikki R. Haley's State of the State Address PROPOSALS Schools of Choice - Charter Schools -- Support charter school expansion and do not cut spending. Transportation -- Give local school districts more control over school buses. Postsecondary - Finance -- Evolve the way higher education is funded. The intention is twofold: reward the schools that well-serve our students while providing real motivation for those that need to improve. -- Adopt a new accountability-based funding formula for higher education, based on merit and accountability, not on which school is the most popular. ACCOMPLISHMENTS --n/a http://www.governor.sc.gov/News/Pages/RecentNews.aspx Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam's State of the State Address PROPOSALS Economic Development -- Focus on education to make sure that Tennessee is a state that attracts companies and keeps its best and brightest graduates in state with good-paying, high-quality jobs. Make sure graduates have strong enough skills to meet companies' needs. Educator Quality -- Make the evaluation process better. The State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE) will be spending the year talking to teachers and principals statewide to evaluate the evaluation system, and after gathering and analyzing that information, there may be changes that need to be made. -- Recruit, retain and reward the best and brightest employees through the TEAM Act (Tennessee Excellence, Accountability and Management Act). Federal -- Be one of the first states to receive a waiver from the federal government's No Child Left Behind law. Build an accountability system that measures growth and improvement and gives every school a chance to success by doing better each year. Finance -- Rather than cutting the education budget, continue to fund the Basic Education Program (BEP) cost increases. -- Restore over $100 million out of $160 million of slated cuts that had included programs like the Coordinated School Health Program, extended teacher contracts, etc., to protect vital services Postsecondary Finance, Financial Aid and Costs -- Increase higher education's operating budgets. -- Increase the amount of money available in need-based scholarships. -- Keep tuition increases to a minimum to encourage more access to more students. -- Provide state funding for a number of new buildings and lab facilities on state campuses. Postsecondary Governance -- Strengthen the Tennessee Higher Education Commission's tie to the Governor's Office. THEC functions as a policy arm for higher education issues, and like the policy chief for K-12 education reports to the governor, it makes sense that higher education should have a similar structure. ACCOMPLISHMENTS Charter Schools -- Expanded charter school opportunities. Financial Aid -- Made lottery scholarships available to students for summer school to encourage them to finish faster and to help universities use their campuses year round. Teaching Quality -- Reformed tenure laws. http://forward.tn.gov/stateofthestate/files/2012StateoftheStateAddress.pdf Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell's State of the State Address PROPOSALS Dual Enrollment -- Promote greater dual enrollment in high school and community college. Finance -- Increase funding for K-12 education by $438 million over this biennium. Funding will go towards: + Communities in Schools program + For all 10th graders to take the PSAT + Hire more teachers in science, technology and math + Improve financial literacy + Increase dollars going to the classroom + Start up of new health science academies + Strengthen the Virginia Retirement System for teachers and school employees + Strengthen Virginia's diploma requirements P-3 - Reading/Literacy -- Fund policies to ensure all young people can read proficiently by third grade. Postsecondary - Finance -- Invest over $200 million in new funding for colleges and universities. -- Institute a dynamic new funding model for higher education. + Reward institutions for increasing the number of degrees, especially in STEM-H fields; improving graduation rates, and expanding practical research. + Require colleges to be more accountable and efficient by re-prioritizing 5 percent of their current general fund dollars by 2014 to meet the key policy goals enacted last year. School Calendar -- Repeal the state mandate that school divisions begin their school term after Labor Day unless they receive a waiver. Give local districts the flexibility to choose. School Choice -- Expand charter schools -- Require a portion of the state and local share of Standards of Quality (SOQ) student funding to follow the child to an approved charter school. -- Make approval process and acquisition of property easier for new charters. Teacher Quality - Evaluations and Employment (tenure) -- Implement an improved evaluation system. -- Remove continuing contract status from teachers and principals and replace with annual contract status. Virtual Schooling -- Ensure that a portion of the state and local share of SOQ student funding follows the student to the virtual school sector. -- Implement new regulations for accrediting virtual schools and teachers. Vouchers--Tax Credits -- Provide a tax credit for companies that contribute to an educational scholarship fund. ACCOMPLISHMENTS Finance -- Invested wisely for the future in education. http://www.governor.virginia.gov/MediaLibrary/Speeches/2012/SOC.cfm Choice of Schools--Charter Schools--Research 1 Choice of Schools--Vouchers 5 Civic Education--Professional Development 1 Continuous Impr/Performance Mgmt. 2 Continuous Impr/Performance Mgmt.--Promising Practices--Schools 1 Curriculum 1 Curriculum--Foreign Language/Sign Language 1 Demographics--Condition of Children/Adults--Welfare 1 Distance Learning/Virtual University 5 Economic/Workforce Development 12 Economic/Workforce Development--Research 3 Economic/Workforce Development--STEM 6 Economic/Workforce Development--Workforce Demand 3 Federal 1 Finance 24 Finance--Facilities 1 Finance--Federal 2 Finance--Funding Formulas 4 Finance--Resource Efficiency 2 Finance--State Budgets/Expenditures 2 Governance 3 Governance--Deregulation/Waivers/Home Rule 1 Health--Teen Pregnancy 1 High School 3 High School--Advanced Placement 3 High School--Dropout Rates/Graduation Rates 4 High School--Dual/Concurrent Enrollment 6 High School--Graduation Requirements 1 High School--International Baccalaureate 1 Instructional Approaches 1 Leadership 1 Leadership--Principal/School Leadership--Evaluation and Effectiveness 2 Leadership--Principal/School Leadership--Preparation 1 No Child Left Behind 2 No Child Left Behind--Flexibility 1 P-16 or P-20 1 P-3 Early Care & Intervention 2 P-3 Early Care & Intervention--Child Care 1 P-3 Early Care & Intervention--Health & Mental Health 1 P-3 Early Grades 2 P-3 Early Grades--1-3 1 P-3 Early Grades--Kindergarten 3 P-3 Early Grades--Kindergarten--Full Day 1 P-3 Early Grades--Preschool 7 P-3 Systems 2 P-3 Systems--Ensuring Quality 3 P-3 Systems--Evaluation/Economic Benefits 1 P-3 Systems--Finance 2 P-3 Systems--Governance 3 P-3 Systems--Teaching Quality/Prof. Dev. 1 Postsecondary 1 Postsecondary Accountability--Student Learning 1 Postsecondary Affordability--Financial Aid 7 Postsecondary Affordability--Tuition/Fees 1 Postsecondary Affordability--Tuition/Fees--Undocumented Immigrants 1 Postsecondary Finance 13 Postsecondary Finance--Efficiency/Performance-Based Funding 1 Postsecondary Finance--Facilities 3 Postsecondary Governance and Structures 2 Postsecondary Institutions--Community/Technical Colleges 6 Postsecondary Participation--Enrollments (Statistics) 2 Postsecondary Success--Completion 3 Postsecondary Success--Completion--Completion Rates (Statistics) 4 Postsecondary Success--Transfer/Articulation 1 Reading/Literacy 12 Rural 1 Scheduling/School Calendar 3 Scheduling/School Calendar--Extended Day Programs 1 School Safety 2 School Safety--Bullying Prevention/Conflict Resolution 1 School/District Structure/Operations--District Structure 1 School/District Structure/Operations--Facilities 4 School/District Structure/Operations--School Structure--Class Size 1 School/District Structure/Operations--Transportation 1 Special Education 2 Special Populations--Immigrant Education 1 Standards 2 Standards--Common Core State Standards 2 State Policymaking 7 Student Achievement 7 Student Supports--Integrated Services 1 Students--Promotion/Retention 3 Teaching Quality 6 Teaching Quality--Certification and Licensure 2 Teaching Quality--Certification and Licensure--Highly Qualified Teachers 1 Teaching Quality--Certification and Licensure--Natl. Bd. for Prof. Teach. Stds. 1 Teaching Quality--Compensation and Diversified Pay 2 Teaching Quality--Compensation and Diversified Pay--Pay-for-Performance 6 Teaching Quality--Compensation and Diversified Pay--Retirement/Benefits 6 Teaching Quality--Employment--Reduction in Force 1 Teaching Quality--Employment--Tenure or Continuing Contract 10 Teaching Quality--Evaluation and Effectiveness 16 Teaching Quality--Induction Programs and Mentoring 1 Teaching Quality--Preparation 3 Teaching Quality--Preparation--Alternative Preparation 1 Teaching Quality--Professional Development 2 Teaching Quality--Recruitment and Retention 2 Teaching Quality--Recruitment and Retention--At-Risk Schools 3 Teaching Quality--Recruitment and Retention--High-Needs Subjects 1 Technology--Instruction 2 Urban--Change/Improvements 1 Youth Engagement 1 359