Dear fellow Tennessean:

Throughout my time as Governor, I’ve committed to making education our state’s highest priority. In years when other areas were being cut, we fully funded the Basic Education Program, which funds K-12 education in Tennessee. We even managed to add funding in 2007 while raising standards and tightening up accountability. But we still have a lot of work left to do.

Here’s why: for every 100 students who enter ninth grade in our public schools, only 67 graduate from high school in four years and just 19 ultimately graduate with an associate’s degree in three years or a bachelor’s degree in six years. We must do better.

Tennessee’s economy hinges on our ability to develop a more skilled workforce and, more fundamentally, to give kids a quality education so they can earn a good living. With this year’s tough budget, I didn’t expect to be in a position to do much more for education. But sometimes, the stars line up and create opportunities you didn’t expect. These are the times when we’re obligated as public servants to seize the moment.

Earlier this month, I addressed the General Assembly at the beginning of its special session on education, outlining key measures designed to spur improvement in our state’s educational pipeline – specifically, improving student performance and graduation rates at both the high school and college levels. With the support of the General Assembly, the Tennessee Education Association, parents, teachers, principals and superintendents across the state, this landmark legislation was passed.

First, we’ve made changes to effectively compete in the Race to the Top competition, President Obama’s challenge for innovation in education, and Tennessee subsequently submitted its proposal seeking about $500 million in federal resources.

Key measures of the legislation include the establishment of an Achievement School District to intervene in consistently failing schools, annual evaluations of teachers and principles, the creation of a 15-member teacher evaluation advisory committee to recommend guidelines and criteria to the State Board of Education, the allowance of local school systems to create local salary schedules with state approval, and removing limitations on the use of student growth data.  

With years of solid reform work under our belts, I’m optimistic the U.S. Department of Education will view Tennessee in the same way we see ourselves - a state that is ready to lead the nation with fresh ideas and a new approach to public education.

Nationally, we’re seen as competitive in part because of the hard work we’ve done in high school standards reform through the Tennessee Diploma Project. We’ve also emerged as a national leader in critical areas like science, technology, engineering and math - or the STEM disciplines, as they’re called.

Ironically, one of our greatest assets in public education is one we haven’t used to its fullest potential. Tennessee is the envy of the national education community because we have one of the oldest and most robust databases of student performance in the country, but we don’t effectively use that information to help improve teacher quality and drive change in the classroom. The changes we’ve made now allow us to unlock that data to make better informed decisions on teacher and principal employment decisions, including assignments, promotions and tenure.

The second part of the legislation involves higher education. State government spends over $1 billion a year on higher education, but we’re not seeing good results. Tennessee lags in the nation in completion of bachelor’s degrees, ranked 40th, and associate degrees, ranked 45th.

That’s why this legislation takes up a new approach for funding higher education, based in part on success and outcomes, including higher rates of degree completion, as opposed to the previous, antiquated formula based almost exclusively on enrollment. At a time when state resources are tighter than ever, we’ve got to prioritize how we want to spend those finite dollars, decide what we want to pay for and what outcomes we want to encourage.

At the same time, we’re going to make better use of our community colleges by creating a more tightly-knit system that is more responsive to the needs of the students. The new laws expand common programs and courses to provide consistency across the two-year system.

We must, to the very best of our ability, offer the knowledge and skills to our students that in the years ahead will mean good jobs and stewardship of our state. It’s the right thing to do for our students and our schools, and in fact, we’ve been talking about these ideas for years. In 2010, this is the way the education world is moving. Tennessee can and should lead the way.

This is a historic time for public education in Tennessee, and I am confident the positive changes we’ve made will resonate for years to come.

If you have questions or comments about this issue or any other, please e-mail me at phil.bredesen@tn.gov.