Governor Signs Education Bills From Special Session

Governor Phil Bredesen says he’s pleased with the outcome of the two bills on education passed by the Tennessee General Assembly in a special session last week. The governor signed the bills into law Tuesday.

At a signing ceremony, Bredesen said the bills ended up pretty much where they would have if he’d been allowed to work in vacuum. He says the measures – particularly the new community college design – should begin to take shape this year – the last year of his term.

“The process of starting underway, it’s not going to get done on my watch, but starting underway, the redesign of the courses so they’re common across the community colleges, so we know what courses are acceptable to the four-year schools and not, that certainly can be begun right now.”

Bredesen says he thinks the new rating system for teachers in the K-through-12 system will also be well begun by next fall.

The governor used the state’s application for $500 million in federal funds from the “Race to the Top” program as the impetus for the special session.

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The governor praised legislative sponsors of the two bills and said the parties affected – particularly school teachers – helped contribute to the shape of the final bill.

“… where we ended up , you know, was about where I think we would have been if I’d been allowed to sort of do it in a vacuum…. As you start out this, having … roughly half of the evaluation be on performance strikes me as a reasonable place to be. And you know, putting two-thirds of that on objective scores and one third on other things that teachers might, would agree with, and contribute, would also be a reasonable place. So I think we’re in a very natural place and I think we can bring this quickly to a head and get it done.”

The governor signed Senate Bill 5, the “Race to the Top” bill, and Senate Bill 6, the “Complete College Tennessee” bill, this afternoon.

The “Race to the Top” bill is the underpinning for Tennessee’s application for $500 million in federal education funds, an application signed here and delivered in Washington last Tuesday.

The “Complete College” bill is expected to result in a system of standardized general education courses in community colleges, easier transfer of two-year graduates to four-year universities, and a higher rate of graduation of students finishing degree requirements in six years.

“Look I don’t have some number in mind. I mean, I know that we are, as I’ve said, we are well below the national averages in terms of the number of college graduates. And our rate is not sufficient to catch us up. One thing I’m very clear on is, we’re not going to compete, in the long term, with states that have much higher rates of college graduates in the kind of economy we’re going to have. So let’s get underway, whether that ends up at 22 percent or 25 or 28. …You’d love it to be 80.”

The governor has argued that having more people in the work force with degrees would attract better-paying jobs to the state.