ECS
2013 State of the State Addresses
Education-Related Proposals by Issue


Education Commission of the States • 700 Broadway, Suite 810 • Denver, CO 80203-3442 • 303.299.3600 • fax 303.296.8332 • www.ecs.org

The following summary includes education-related proposals from the 2013 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
3
+ Accountability--Rewards
2
+ Accountability--School Improvement
3
+ Assessment--High Stakes/Competency
1
+ At-Risk (incl. Dropout Prevention)
6
+ Attendance
2
+ Bilingual/ESL
1
+ Business Involvement
3
+ Career/Technical Education
4
- Choice of Schools
4
ArizonaGovernor Janice K. Brewer's State of the State Address
PROPOSALS

Reading/Literacy
-- Develop comprehensive reading assessments to identify students falling behind.
-- With the help of the State, local schools will connect students with reading experts.

School Safety
-- Expand State funding for School Resource Officers.

Accountability/Standards
-- Raise standards and increase accountability for students, schools and teachers.

School Finance/Accountability
--Implement the nation's first comprehensive performance funding plan for districts and charter schools. This plan will reward schools that earn high marks or see real improvement in performance
(Not scrapping attendance-based funding formulas but rather, augment that system with an innovative approach to promoting school performance, while maintaining local control).

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

School Choice
-- Expanded school choice.

Reading/Literacy
-- Funded the Move on When Reading program.

Full Text: http://www.azgovernor.gov/dms/upload/GS_011413_SOS2013.pdf


DelawareGovernor Jack Markell's State of the State Address
PROPOSALS

Economic/Workforce Development
-- Develop a Delaware Skills Bank – an inventory of essential tasks for in-demand occupations in the state – and use it to ensure that training programs provide workers with the right opportunities. Once workers have completed the training they need to fill in-demand jobs, make sure that employers know it, by providing these workers with a Career Readiness Certificate that employers respect and trust.

Dropout Prevention
Implement the Youth ChalleNGe program supported by the Delaware National Guard. This is a residential program for a couple dozen Delaware high school dropouts. Through education and mentoring from Guard members, the program targets young people who can get back on a path to a degree and a rewarding life and career. And because Maryland has all of the necessary facilities and because the Department of Defense picks up 75 percent of the cost, this is a very cost-effective way to serve these young people.

Health
-- Increase ten-fold the number of trained, front line mental health personnel in our middle schools.

P-3
-- On track to increase from 20 to 80 the percentage of high need children in child care enrolled in quality-rated early learning programs.

School Choice
-- Create a best-in-class information system on Delaware's schools that provides a clear picture of the different strengths in each school.
-- Give parents the option of a common application to make it easier to apply to multiple schools.

Teacher Compensation
-- Re-examine that pay structure in order to incentivize teaching in high-need schools and critical subjects, raise starting teacher pay, and reward teacher leadership.

Teacher Preparation
-- Strengthen the standards for entry into the teaching profession.  
-- Introduce rigorous exit assessment for our preparation programs, which includes demonstration of content knowledge as well as teaching skills.

Teacher Retention
-- Create a Teacher Leaders role which will keep excelling teachers in the classroom by encouraging them to be role models in their schools, and earn more for putting their experience to work in the classroom.

Youth Engagement
-- Provide more opportunities for after-school and summer activities that get kids off the streets and give them exposure to the arts, nature, and physical activity and ensure the staff running these activities receive training in suicide prevention.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Health - Suicide Prevention
-- Funded new training for front line school personnel in Kent and Sussex Counties to recognize early signs of trauma in children, and we worked together with Johns Hopkins School of Medicine to offer the highest-quality training to all of our high schools in detection and prevention of depression in teenagers.

Student Achievement/Graduation Rates
-- Moved thousands of students from below or average to higher levels of achievement. 
-- Steadily improved graduation rates.
-- Increased number of high school students taking advanced coursework.

Curriculum - Foreign Language
-- Started 340 students in a world language immersion program. Ten thousand Delaware students will participate in the program over the next decade. 

Full Text: http://governor.delaware.gov/speeches/2013stateofthestate/2013_sots_address.shtml

MaineGovernor Paul LePage's State of the State Address

PROPOSALS

Accountability
-- Develop a ranking system for Maine schools. Each school will be graded A-B-C-D or F.
-- Help schools that are failing and reward schools as they improve.

Choice
-- Give more educational options to all kids and fund schools that best fit the student's needs.

State Policymaking
-- Hold a Governor's Conference on Education this March. We are bringing national experts to Maine to demonstrate what other states are doing to improve education.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Career/Technical Education
-- Passed legislation to strengthen vocational education.

Charter Schools
-- Passed charter school legislation.

http://www.governing.com/news/state/maine-governor-lepage-state-of-state-2013.html

OhioGovernor John R. Kasich's State of the State Address
PROPOSALS

Choice/P-3 Kindergarten
-- Expand school choice for kindergartners who live in poverty.

Finance
-- Provides a total of $1.2 billion in new funds over the next two years. Ohio will be providing more in state aid to its K-12 system than they received at the height of the one-time federal stimulus money in 2011.
-- Implement the school funding plan. Ohio's poorest and urban districts will get a bigger share of overall school funding than the wealthiest districts. They also get more per pupil before funding guarantees are factored in. Additionally, the poorest schools in Ohio receive $1.1 billion while the wealthiest receive less than half of that. The very poorest district will receive $7,500 per pupil-- $7,500 per pupil in the very poorest district – and the wealthiest will receive $110. The plan applies equally to all districts based on their property tax wealth and residents' income, as well as the individual characteristics of the students they serve.

Vocational Education
-- Give a a 16 percent increase to vocational education.
-- Beef up the academics in those vocational schools

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Accountability - Reporting Results
-- Created the A through F Report Card, and also a building-by-building comparison.

Choice
-- Expanded school choice for parents with children in failing schools.

Postsecondary - Performance Funding
-- 50 percent of the money 4-yr universities receive from the state to run operations will to them upon a student's graduation, not on enrollment.
Reimburse community colleges when students complete a courses.

Reading/Literacy
-- Enacted Third Grade Reading Guarantee.

Full Text: http://www.governor.ohio.gov/Portals/0/2013%20State%20of%20the%20State%20Transcript.pdf


+ Choice of Schools--Charter Schools
7
+ Choice of Schools--Choice/Open Enrollment
2
+ Choice of Schools--Tax Credits
1
+ Choice of Schools--Vouchers
3
+ Civic Education
2
+ Counseling/Guidance
1
+ Curriculum--Foreign Language/Sign Language
1
+ Curriculum--Mathematics
1
+ Economic/Workforce Development
19
+ Finance
24
+ Finance--Facilities
3
+ Finance--Federal
1
+ Finance--Funding Formulas
1
+ Finance--Lotteries
1
+ Finance--Performance Funding
1
+ Finance--State Budgets/Expenditures
6
+ Finance--Taxes/Revenues
3
+ Governance
3
+ Health
2
+ Health--Mental Health
1
+ High School
3
+ High School--College Readiness
3
+ High School--Dropout Rates/Graduation Rates
1
+ High School--Dual/Concurrent Enrollment
2
+ High School--Exit Exams
1
+ High School--Graduation Requirements
1
+ Integrated Services/Full-Service Schools
1
+ Online Learning--Digital/Blended Learning
3
+ Online Learning--Virtual Schools/Courses
1
+ P-16 or P-20
1
+ P-3
4
+ P-3 Child Care
1
+ P-3 Early Intervention (0-3)
1
+ P-3 Finance
1
+ P-3 Kindergarten
4
+ P-3 Kindergarten--Full-Day Kindergarten
2
+ P-3 Preschool
16
+ Parent/Family
1
+ Postsecondary
5
+ Postsecondary Affordability
5
+ Postsecondary Affordability--Financial Aid
6
+ Postsecondary Affordability--Tuition/Fees
3
+ Postsecondary Finance
12
+ Postsecondary Finance--Efficiency/Performance-Based Funding
7
+ Postsecondary Finance--Facilities
1
+ Postsecondary Institutions
1
+ Postsecondary Institutions--Community/Technical Colleges
3
+ Postsecondary Online Instruction
1
+ Postsecondary Participation--Access
3
+ Postsecondary Success--Completion
4
+ Postsecondary Success--Developmental/Remediation
1
+ Reading/Literacy
13
+ Scheduling/School Calendar
2
+ Scheduling/School Calendar--Extended Day Programs
1
+ School Safety
9
+ Service-Learning
1
+ Special Education
4
+ Special Populations
1
+ Special Populations--Military
3
+ Standards
1
+ State Longitudinal Data Systems
1
+ State Policymaking
6
+ State Policymaking--Task Forces/Commissions
5
+ STEM
5
+ Student Achievement
5
+ Teaching Quality
5
+ Teaching Quality--Certification and Licensure--Alternative
1
+ Teaching Quality--Certification and Licensure--Natl. Bd. for Prof. Teach. Stds.
1
+ Teaching Quality--Compensation and Diversified Pay
5
+ Teaching Quality--Compensation and Diversified Pay--Pay-for-Performance
7
+ Teaching Quality--Compensation and Diversified Pay--Retirement/Benefits
3
+ Teaching Quality--Evaluation and Effectiveness
5
+ Teaching Quality--Preparation
3
+ Teaching Quality--Professional Development
1
+ Teaching Quality--Recruitment and Retention
7
+ Teaching Quality--Tenure or Continuing Contract
3
+ Technology
5
+ Technology--Devices/Software/Hardware
1
+ Youth Engagement
1
323