Governors’ State of the State Addresses signal policy priorities for the coming year and allow state policymakers to get a sense of trending issues in their state and other states of interest. This year to date, 44 governors have delivered their address, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on education reverberated across many of them. Governors discussed reopening schools and the importance of in-person learning; they also mentioned the implications of federal pandemic relief funds and the policy challenges ahead across the P-20 spectrum (from early learning through workforce development).
This year, as we have done every year since 2005, we summarized all of the education-related mentions and proposals in governors’ addresses, and we identified six top trends:
- K-12 funding.
- Workforce development and CTE.
- Teacher staffing.
- Physical and mental health.
- Postsecondary affordability.
- Learning recovery and success.
- See our interactive map for complete summaries of education policy priorities outlined in each governor’s State of the State address.
This report is a collaboration with the National Governors Association. We are grateful for this partnership.
