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

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 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 Alabama Governor Robert Bentley's State of the State Address PROPOSALS Finance -- Continue to fund the Reading Initiative, AMSTI, Distant Learning and Advanced Placement. P-3 - Preschool -- Increase funding and expansion of voluntary Pre-K programs.  Administered by the Office of School Readiness, local, voluntary Pre-K programs may apply for grants but will be required to meet certain criteria.  School Improvement -- Address and turn around chronically failing schools. School Safety -- Develop a strategic plan for preventing and responding to incidents of active shooters.  Teacher Compensation -- Offer a two-and-a-half percent pay raise for teachers and support personnel. ACCOMPLISHMENT Economic/Workforce Development -- Launched a statewide effort to bring education and business together so our workforce will not only be well-trained, but also highly skilled by creating the College and Career Ready Task Force.  P-3 - Preschool -- Alabama's Voluntary Pre-K program once again is ranked Number One in the nation by the National Institute for Early Education Research. Teacher Issues -- Formed a Teacher Cabinet.   Full Text: http://www.governor.alabama.gov/news/news_detail.aspx?ID=7528 Delaware Governor 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 Iowa Governor Terry E. Branstad's 2013 Condition of the State Address PROPOSALS Finance -- Permanently change the school finance formula so that "allowable growth" will be replaced by 100% state aid, meaning no longer will the school aid formula trigger automatic increases in local property taxes -- Cut the current 4% cap on valuation growth for residential property and agricultural land in half to two percent and apply it to all classes of property. Quality Teachers and Leaders -- Update the teaching system by elevating the teaching profession with a new teacher leadership and compensation structure that provides five career pathways in order to offer new professional opportunities -- Implement the Teach Iowa Initiative to recruit top students to become teachers. Increase beginning teacher pay by 25%, from $28,000 to $35,000 per year, and attract top students with a priority placed on hard-to-hire subjects, like math and science, with awards also going to future teachers in other majors as well. This initiative includes a pilot to expand the traditional one-semester of student-teaching to a year-long apprenticeship in partner schools.  Stronger clinical experiences stand to better prepare future teachers.  College and Career Readiness -- Establish a college or career ready seal that high school students may earn in addition to their diploma. Beginning next school year, students will have the option, at the state's expense, of taking a college-entrance or workforce readiness test.   ACCOMPLISHMENTS --  Launched the Governor's science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, initiative. This initiative is already enhancing learning opportunities for Iowa children by putting outstanding STEM programs in more than 800 sites statewide. --Launched Skilled Iowa to bring new workforce skills to the unemployed, under-employed, and those simply seeking better long-term careers. This initiative initiative builds on the STEM program to ensure workers get the skills they need to fill the high-paying jobs of today and tomorrow. Already, 2,400 Iowa businesses have signed up for Skilled Iowa and 18,000 Iowans have used Skilled Iowa resources to certify their skills with a National Career Readiness Certificate.  Link to full text: https://governor.iowa.gov/2013/01/%E2%80%9Cour-opportunity-our-iowa-%E2%80%9D-gov-terry-e-branstad-delivers-2013-condition-of-the-state-address/ Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin's 2013 State of the State Address PROPOSALS Finance -- Increase education spending by $13.5 million in order to fund recently enacted reforms. STEM -- Emphasize STEM in all levels of public education. Teacher Compensation -- Invest $8.5 million of supplemental funding to pay for teachers' health benefits. ACCOMPLISHMENTS Accountability -- Developed an A-F grading system for public schools. High School -- College and Career Readiness -- Implemented high school exit exams. -- Aligned the high school diploma with college, career and citizen ready standards. Reading/Literacy -- Put reforms into place to help ensure that every third grader can read at grade appropriate level before they advance to the fourth grade. Postsecondary -- Awarded almost 2,000 more college degrees and career tech certificates than the previous year. Technology -- Developed a new, voluntary program for schools known as "Open Range" that will be available to help schools begin their own IT consolidation efforts, improve their technology and free up more dollars in the process. Full Text: http://www.ok.gov/governor/documents/2013%20State%20of%20the%20State%20-%20Text%20as%20Prepared%20for%20Delivery.pdf Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell's 2013 State of the Commonwealth Address PROPOSALS Accountability -- Create an A-F school ranking scale to empower parents and students to demand excellence -- Establish a statewide Opportunity Educational Institution to provide a high quality education alternative for children attending any chronically underperforming public elementary or secondary school. The Opportunity Educational Institution will be a new statewide school division to turnaround failing schools. If a school is consistently failing, the Opportunity Educational Institution will step in to manage it. If the school has failed for two years, the Institution can take it over and provide a brand new approach to a broken system. Choice of Schools -- Pass a Constitutional amendment to allow the state Board of Education to authorize charter applicants. -- Eliminate the requirement that local school boards who originate a charter school application must first apply for authorization from the state Board of Education. Finance -- Add another $50 million to more than double our rainy day fund from $304 million to nearly $740 million by the end of this biennium Reading/Literacy -- place one reading specialist in each school that scores below 75% in the 3rd grade Standard of Learning test Special Education -- fully fund the state share for staffing standards for blind and visually impaired students Teaching Quality -- recruit, incentivize, retain and reward excellent teachers and treat them like the professionals that they are. Give teachers their first state supported pay raise since 200. Budget amendments provide over $58 million for a 2% pay raise for all SOQ [standards of quality] funded instructional personnel. --Implement the Educator Fairness Act to streamline the bureaucratic grievance procedure to benefit teachers and principals. Extend the probationary period for new teachers from three to five years, and require a satisfactory performance rating as demonstrated through the new performance evaluation system to keep a continuing contract. -- Provide funding to support new teachers who teach science, technology, engineering, or mathematics in our middle and high schools -- Provide $15 million for school districts to reward their well-performing educators. This strategic compensation plan based on a model developed in the Salem school system will be implemented through local guidelines that best fit each school division's unique characteristics -- Start the Teach for America program in the Commonwealth. -- Propose a new method to obtain waivers from bureaucratic red tape, putting the algebra readiness and early reading intervention initiatives into the SOQ, and expand character education and youth development programs. Postsecondary -- Make college more affordable and accessible by increasing TAG grants from $2800 to $3100 per student. This will benefit up to 21,000 Virginians. Target an additional $31 million for our public colleges and universities to continue to add more slots for in-state students, and bring tuition rate increases down. I've asked our college presidents and boards to further increase operating efficiencies and keep 2013 tuition increases for in-state students to no more than the CPI to help lower student debt. ACCOMPLISHMENTS Finance -- Three years ago, we closed a cumulative budget shortfall of $6 billion, without raising taxes. The results: Three consecutive budget surpluses, totaling $1.4 billion. -- Audited multiple state agencies, finding over $1 billion dollars and bolstering efficiency. We eliminated and consolidated dozens of boards, commissions, agencies and programs -- Increased the percentage of K-12 funding going into the classroom from 62% to 64% -- Reformed and stabilized the Virginia Retirement System. While other states march towards pension insolvency, we put the most new funding in history in the system, and our reforms will reduce the system's total unfunded liabilities $9 billion by 2031. Postsecondary and Economic Development Our 2011 landmark "Top Jobs for the 21st Century" higher education reform legislation has made the college dream more affordable and accessible. Our bold statutory goal of 100,000 new degrees over the next 15 years, with a focus on STEM-H degrees, is supported by more than $350 million for higher education over three years. Over the past two years we've added over 3,800 slots for undergraduate in-state students, and tuition increases this year averaged 4%, after a decade of double digit increases. High School -- Graduation rates are up. The statewide dropout rate has fallen by more than 25 percent. Reading/Literacy Ended social promotion to 4th grade if students cannot read well School Safety -- Established a School and Campus Safety Task Force to review all security policies in effect in our schools and colleges, and to make initial recommendations by January 31st. STEM There are now more STEM teachers and programs and less bureaucracy. Full text: http://www.governor.virginia.gov/news/viewRelease.cfm?id=1591 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