Governor Gregoire Addresses the Annual Washington PTA Conference (As Written)

May 5, 2007

Good morning. I am honored to be here today among such a group of active, committed parents.

I admire your dedication to making sure our education system is as strong as possible for the benefit of your child and every child.

As a parent of two daughters myself, I understand your desire to make sure your kids have the best education possible to help them succeed in the world.

I know I strongly encouraged my kids to do well in school, just as my mother encouraged me when I was growing up.

Mom set three priorities for me, education, education, and education.

I know I wouldn�t have had the chance to accomplish what I have without the support and motivation provided by my mother.

I hope my kids feel the same way now that they have passed those teenage years. Those of you who are parents of teenagers know what I am talking about.

You are all here today because you share a strong commitment to the theme of your conference: Discovering Endless Possibilities.

We all want our kids to have that opportunity to find their passion and do what interests and excites them.

We want the possibilities for them to be endless, and we know the only way to make that happen is to ensure that they receive a world-class education.

And I am proud to say that the legislative session that just ended was dedicated to making sure that we create a world-class education for every student in our state. Let me tell you just a little bit more.

When I became Governor, it was already clear to me how important education is to the people of our state, and conversations I had with people across Washington confirmed it.

That is why I created a comprehensive study of education in our state, from top to bottom, from early learning to college and vocational training to lifelong learning.

We called it Washington Learns. I was committed to Washington Learns and I chose to co-chair the committee myself � this wasn�t something I was going to start and then hand off to others, so I rolled up my sleeves.

The Washington Learns Steering Committee began with the idea that the economic future of Washington and the success of our students depends on our education system.

We recognized our current system served us well for the competition of the past, but is not suited well for the competition of the future that our children will face.

As our world changes, students must be prepared to compete in the new, global economy.

This requires bold steps, from early learning through graduate school and skills training to create a world-class, learner-focused and seamless education system.

The final report detailed some important themes that we can use to improve our education system. These themes included:

The imperative to give children a great start in their learning experiences and make the most of their inquisitive, eager, and enthusiastic minds and spirits to grow and learn.
The knowledge that great expectations, high standards and focused attention result in students believing in themselves and accomplishing great things.
The need to focus on hands-on experiences to capture students' imaginations and create opportunities for students to be personally involved in their education.
The importance of personalizing education, so each student connects their interests with the skills they need to learn.
The powerful return on investment by providing more teachers professional development, to engage teachers � both experienced and new - in ways to expand their instruction possibilities.
The critical role partnerships with parents, after-school providers, private business and foundations play in expanding the possibilities found within our education system.
The financial support necessary to provide students opportunities in higher education, technical training and skilled trades.
The focus on supporting more capacity in high demand fields to address the future work of the world.

But Washington Learns isn�t just a final report. It�s not a booklet that will sit on a shelf � it is a roadmap for the future.

We took the themes that emerged during our 18 months of study and turned them into policies and budget items to submit to the Legislature.

And I am incredibly pleased to report that nearly all of the major ideas we initiated were ultimately approved! This means that a better education system for all of our children starts right now.

Let me give you a few examples:

We improved early learning by expanding our pre-kindergarten and all-day kindergarten programs and our early reading initiatives.

This comes on top of our effort last year to create a new Department of Early Learning and to initiate the Thrive by Five public/private partnership.

This partnership will support early reading initiatives in communities that need them most.

The research is clear. For every dollar we invest in early childhood education we get $8 in return.

We dramatically increased our investments in math and science, providing additional time for teacher training and coaching, aligning the curriculum to meet international standards, and creating ways to attract more professionals with math and science expertise to teaching.
We expanded hands-on science learning opportunities like the LASER program that provides complete toolkits for learning activities along with teacher training and community support.
We�re going to offer more help to our students who are struggling to pass the WASL, including intensive learning options, test preparation and tutoring.
We are building on our work the last two years. This session we invested about $1.8 billion more in K through 12 education over the next two years than we have in the current biennium.
This includes taking the last step to fully fund Initiative 728 and provide continued full funding of Initiative 732.
Overall, we will invest $900 more per student over the next two years � that�s a 25% increase in per student funding over four years!
We have also begun to correct some of the long-standing funding capacity issues in special education, transportation, and equitable salaries for teachers, administrators and classified employees.
And I want to thank all of you for helping us pass the simple majority for school levies legislation and put it on the ballot � this is a real win for our students!

For those of you thinking about where your kids will go to college, and wondering how you are going to pay for it, we�re making college more affordable and accessible.

We made a huge investment in our 2- and 4-year colleges and universities including almost 10,000 new enrollment slots, nearly 3,700 of which are in high-demand fields like math, science, engineering, nursing and the trades.

For the first time in over a decade, we established a real tuition policy to make the cost of college more predictable and affordable!

We�re capping tuition increases at all our colleges and universities and limiting tuition increases at our community and technical colleges to 2% for the next two years.

We expanded eligibility for the State Need Grant program and invested $85 million more in scholarship programs to give even more people a shot at a college degree.

I am also pleased that we helped our kids in other ways during the past session.

We delivered on our promise to provide health insurance for children. This year we will cover an additional 38,500 Washington kids.

Healthy children learn better, grow better and have a better chance of succeeding in life. We will continue to deliver on our promise to cover all kids because it is a moral duty and an economic necessity that we have a healthy next generation.

We also passed a plan to provide paid family leave so new parents can take the time they need to be with their new babies and adopted children. This gives our families a great start on their way to raising healthy, successful children.

This session provided a down payment toward improving our education system for all Washingtonians.

But it is just a start, and we need to do much more before we reach our goal of a world-class, seamless, learner-focused education system.

The Washington Learns report will continue to guide us as we develop accountability systems, work on school funding and redefine what we mean by �basic education.� I know I can count on each of you to be part of the effort to create such a system.

Our children will succeed if we believe in them and give them the tools they need to be successful. Indeed, the possibilities are endless for our kids if we all do our part.

Thank you.

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