Governor Phil Bredesen today addressed a special session of the Tennessee General Assembly to urge swift passage of a range of education-reform proposals designed to spur improvement in Tennessee’s education pipeline – specifically, improving student performance and graduation rates at both the high school and college levels. Collectively, the proposals are known as the “Tennessee Education Innovation Plan.”The two bills that comprise the Plan were introduced today as the special session on education convened. The “Tennessee First to the Top Act of 2010” will make changes in law as part of the Volunteer State’s push in the U.S. Department of Education’s Race to the Top competition. Second, the “Complete College Tennessee Act of 2010” will make changes in law needed to improve college completion rates, which lag behind the nation.
The first opportunity is the federal government’s Race to the Top competition. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, signed into law by President Obama in February 2009, provides $4.35 billion for the Race to the Top Fund, a competitive grant program designed to encourage and reward states that are implementing ambitious plans in four core education reform areas.
The second opportunity comes as Bredesen concludes nearly year-long talks with a bipartisan group of state lawmakers on how to improve higher education in Tennessee, consisting of colleges and universities in the Tennessee Board of Regents and the University of Tennessee systems.
The Volunteer State lags the nation in completion of bachelor’s degrees, ranked 40th, and associate degrees, ranked 45th. On average, only 46 percent of full-time students at four-year schools graduate within six years, and only 12 percent of full-time community college students attain associated degrees within three years.
Bredesen urged lawmakers to move swiftly to approve the Tennessee Education Innovation Plan.
“Our Race to the Top application is due at the U.S. Department of Education in Washington on January 19th – just one week from today,” Bredesen said. “In the November guidelines, the federal government made it clear: Those states that will be the most competitive will be the ones that have new policy changes in place at the time of the application. But I want to be clear, while our share of $4 billion would be significant, there are no guarantees. Furthermore, money can’t be the main reason for making these changes. The fact is, 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.”
