In the bad times and in the better times, I have prioritized education. It’s an investment in our children, but it’s also key to keeping Georgia No. 1 for business.
When I took office in 2011, state revenues were still suffering from the Great Recession. I worked to safeguard education funding while making the hard decisions to reduce spending in other important agencies that had already gone through years of cuts.
This year, with the state’s revenues beginning to stabilize, we’ve increased k-12 spending by more than half a billion dollars, allowing most school districts to return to a full 180-day calendar and give our teachers much-deserved raises.
But money isn’t everything.
Parents, students and educators need choice, innovation and the latest technology so every corner of our state has access to high-quality instruction.
At this time, we’re in the process of connecting every schoolhouse in the state to high-speed Internet service, which will help students in every corner of our state attain 21st century skills and become college and career ready. We can’t allow any county in Georgia to stay on the wrong side of the digital divide.
Children have no say on where they live, and sometimes parents don’t have the resources to move to a district with better schools. A family’s zip code shouldn’t determine a child’s future, and we need choices for parents whose kids are trapped in failing schools.
That’s why I championed – and you as Georgia voters overwhelmingly approved – the charter school amendment in 2012. This will give parents another option when they’ve been denied by a local school board.
From pre-K to third grade, students learn to read. After that, they read to learn. It’s my goal to have all students reading at grade level by third grade, because we know if they don’t they are four times more likely to drop out of school. We’ve hired reading mentors in all regions of the state to help educators better teach reading skills.
Because young people acquire many of the skills they need for reading before they enter school, we must make strategic investments early. Georgia is a model for high-quality early learning and was recently awarded nearly $52 million for the Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge Grant to expand on these best practices.
I’m particularly proud of the tireless work my wife Sandra has done to promote reading to youngsters. As Georgia’s first lady and a former public school teacher, she’s taken her “Read Across Georgia” campaign to all 181 school districts in the state. Sandra brings passion and personality to the cause.
A great teacher can make all the difference, and in my second term, we’ll build on our efforts to measure teacher effectiveness by rewarding our best educators and keeping them in the classroom.
These efforts in the long run will improve our graduation rates, which is crucial to maintaining the skilled workforce that businesses seek.
Higher education plays an increasingly important role too. But among students who enter college, far too few earn a diploma.
We were recently one of three states awarded a $1 million grant as part of Complete College America to implement Guided Pathways to Success. This initiative will provide our students with structured degree plans and guarantee course availability to eliminate excess credits, cut college costs, ensure more on-time graduations and save the state millions.
It won’t be long before 60 percent of new jobs will require some attainment of post-secondary education.
I am now implementing the High Demand Career Initiative, partnering our institutions of higher education with leaders in the private sector so that we offer degree programs in areas where we face a shortage of workers.
This program dovetails with my Strategic Industries Workforce Development HOPE Grant program, which pays full tuition for technical college students entering a high-need field.
The money and time that we place in these programs are investments in our economy but more importantly in our people.
There is still much work to be done and many metrics to improve, but together we are building on the progress of those who came before us to benefit those who come after us.
