State of the State Address
The results of the special session on education will change the way that both K-12 and higher education work — for the better — in the years ahead. In short, we are on track with the budget plan approved last spring and have further adjusted it "on the fly" with additional spending reductions to match the additional revenue shortfalls that have occurred.
by Phil Bredesen * | print pdf | pages 1 2 3 |
February 1, 2010
Lieutenant Governor Ramsey, Speaker Williams, Speaker Pro Tem DeBerry, Members of the 106th General Assembly, Justices, Constitutional Officers, friends, guests, and my fellow Tennesseans.
Once again, I stand before you tonight to report on the state of our state and to present and recommend a budget prepared in accordance with the requirements of our Constitution.
As we begin, I want to once again recognize the men and women of our state who are serving our country abroad this evening. As we gather here, about 1,200 members of the Tennessee National Guard are deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. This coming Friday, we'll see off more than 3,000 members of our 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment being redeployed to Iraq. Most of these men and women spent 2005 there and now five years later are returning again. Included among these soldiers returning to Iraq is a member of this body, Lieutenant Colonel John Mark Windle. Since 9/11, nearly 20,000 Tennessee National Guard Soldiers and Airmen have deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. In their response to our nation's war on terror, these men and women have proved again Tennessee's claim on the title "The Volunteer State."
I've invited some representatives of these men and women to join us here tonight and would ask you to each stand as I introduce you, and then we would all like to show our appreciation:
Master Sergeant Rosie Biggs has been deployed with the 168th Military Police Battalion out of Dyersburg. This battalion conducted detainee operations in Iraq, and she returned last fall to Tennessee.
Captain David Roberts returned in December from his fourth deployment to Afghanistan, his third as a member of the Tennessee Army National Guard. He was a Security Force Team leader and completed over 250 missions.
Senior Airman Jessica Webb is a member of the 118th Airlift Wing and recently won the 2009 Airman of the Year award for the entire Tennessee Air National Guard. When she is not serving as a Command Post Controller, she is one of Tennessee's teachers, working at Love Chapel Elementary in Erwin.
And finally, I'd like to ask General Max Haston to stand with these representatives of his soldiers and airmen. General Haston is Tennessee's new Adjutant General and took over from Gus Hargett just last month. He comes from a family with a long and distinguished history of service in our Guard. At the change of command ceremony last month, his father, Jerry Haston, who was a Master Sergeant for 44 years in the Tennessee Guard, watched his son be promoted to Major General and saw him assume command of the Tennessee National Guard. I can tell you there was one proud Master Sergeant at that ceremony.
For each of these men and women here tonight, and for all of the colleagues they represent, would you please join me in showing your appreciation?
These Tennesseans are with us tonight to receive your thanks on behalf of their colleagues. Once again, there are Tennesseans who are missing. Since I stood before you last year, another 11 Tennesseans have lost their lives in the war on terror, for a total now since 2001 of 114 brave men and women. As we have done in the past and as is proper tonight, I ask you to join me in recognizing their sacrifice with a moment of silence.
I want to begin this evening by thanking the members of the General Assembly for the extraordinary job you have just done in our special session on education. I know the weeks were stressful, but the way you conducted your business is exactly the way it is supposed to work.
There was nothing superficial about the results: the changes you made to the law were real and will change the way that both K-12 and higher education work — for the better — in the years ahead. A lot had been worked out ahead of time by representatives from both parties and both chambers as well as the education community, and the result was a genuine melding of ideas from different points of view. It was a better product for that. Both individuals and organizations with specific interests found ways to keep those interests in check and come together for a common good. There was no splitting along partisan fault lines; the final vote was genuinely bipartisan. There's a governor's race going on, and two of the candidates, from different parties, are major players in the legislative process. In a lot of places, this would be a prescription for trouble, but one of my favorite memories of the session was seeing Jim Kyle and Ron Ramsey sitting next to each other, at the end of my table, calmly and productively working on moving the reforms forward.
In the end, not only was the vote bipartisan, but it was also overwhelming and made clear to everyone that these reforms are not a Bredesen plan, they're not a Democratic plan, they're not a Republican plan. These reforms are Tennessee's plan, and that is going to make a lot of difference in the years ahead.
I want to also say a special word of thanks to the Tennessee Education Association, the TEA, the teachers' union. To Earl Wiman and Al Mance, and to my friend Jerry Winters and all the members you represent, thank you. I know you become a political whipping boy from time to time, and I know you have a job to do for your teachers. Your cousins in some other states have not always been as concerned with putting students first as they might be. But if anyone ever had any doubt about your dedication to the good of the children of our state, the way in which you handled yourselves in the special session have put them to rest. You're good to work with; you've taught me a lot. You are a class act, and I thank you.
I want now to talk for a moment with the teachers in our state. I do understand that some of the changes we have made, especially those regarding the use of student achievement in teacher evaluation, cause some of you concern. I've talked with a lot of teachers these past few weeks. Some hate these changes, some love them, many are concerned but waiting to see. I want you to know that I understand and respect your concerns and understand that teaching is a profession that has many more dimensions than can be measured by a student's performance on a written test. I also understand that there are many factors beyond your control: the influence of home and parents and the personalities of the students themselves. Let's work together to find an approach that is both fair to your teaching profession and gives our citizens confidence that the money they have invested in our schools is being used well.
The reforms you approved in our higher education system were far-reaching as well. There is now a lot of work to be done to flesh out those reforms, and I plan to spend a good deal of time during my final year as governor working to move this along.
There has already been one very positive development. Dr. Shirley Raines at the University of Memphis has been working for some time now to put together a coalition of life sciences organizations to work with the university to help grow its standing as a research institution. The General Assembly's approval of the UT Energy Campus at Oak Ridge has brought her long-simmering effort to a boil.
In the past week, this has enabled Dr. Raines to finalize a memorandum of understanding with nine of these organizations, including St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and the University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center. This Memphis Research Consortium holds great potential: it can help the university to grow its research mission, and it can help lay the foundations for an even more robust biotech economy in Memphis.
Almost three weeks ago, standing right here, I challenged the University of Tennessee to become one of the top 25 public research universities in the United States in the next decade. Tonight, I challenge the University of Memphis to do the same in its peer group. Dr Raines, I challenge you to lead your university to become one of the top 25 metropolitan research universities in the next decade. To both Dr. Simek and Dr. Raines: you have a job to do. We consistently reach those upper levels in our sports programs; there is no reason we can't do the same with our academic achievements, either in Knoxville or in Memphis.
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