I will take this case to the highest court in the land. It is right and it will prevail.
Parents must also have choices within our public school system. The people who are paying the bills should have a say in where their child goes to school.
So let's pass public school choice. Let's give parents the choices they need to ensure their child gets the best education possible.
And let's make sure what they are learning is relevant to the workplace. Last year, I asked former Superintendent of Schools Bert Grover to assist me in improving our nationally acclaimed school-to-work and youth apprenticeship programs.
And he has delivered a stunning new vision for connecting learning to work. At its foundation is a consolidated school-to-work effort at the state level with new options for students to pursue applied learning.
Dr. Grover and I propose consolidating the state school-to-work program into the Department of Workforce Development. Right now it is disjointed and split between three agencies. I will appoint Dr. Grover as a leader on the Governor's Council on Workforce Excellence to help us continue to develop new ways of connecting work and learning.
And to give students and parents more options for technical education, I am proposing a statewide initiative to allow high school students unprecedented access to our top-rated technical college system.
The average age of students on our technical college campuses is 28. Often students leave high school with no career in mind, only to realize 10 years later they need more education in order to succeed.
We should help our students reach that conclusion earlier in life.
If Johnnie decides his junior year he would like to become a carpenter and join his father's construction business, let's get him ready.
I want to give students in every school district the option of attending a technical college their junior and senior year of high school, actually earning their high school diploma from the technical college if they choose.
From there, the student could go on for a technical college degree, transfer to a four-year degree program or enter the workforce as a well-trained worker.
I envision the creation of a Kindergarten-through-Grade 14 public school system where work and learning are fully connected, where education is more relevant to both the workplace and the student, and where technical education is a natural next step for our students.
Essential to making education relevant is making our schools accountable for their performance. We must set concrete, rigorous academic standards for our schools and measure our students' learning.
Tonight I am proposing model academic standards in math, science, English and language arts, geography and history. I'm bringing these standards forward as the starting point in a process that will lead to a first-ever set of state model standards.
These are not squishy cultural or social standards. I'm talking about strict academic standards in core subject areas. For example:
Our math standards require each student to calculate with efficiency and accuracy; selecting appropriate methods and procedures.
In history, each student must be able to identify, cite and discuss important historical documents that have influenced government in the United States and explain the nature of their influence.
And we even have a standard I know everyone in this chamber will like -- a standard for our aspiring journalists. It requires that each student distinguish fact from opinion in an article, identify propaganda techniques and fallacious reasoning, and integrate knowledge from the article into prior knowledge about the topic.
These standards represent the fundamental knowledge and skills our students must have to succeed in the workplace.
And these standards should be tested in a high-stakes graduation test. You don't pass, you don't graduate.
If you can't do basic math. If you can't read a job application. If until this past Sunday you thought the French Quarter was in France, you have not earned the honor of being a high school graduate in America's State.
MPS is proof that standards drive excellence. When the first students took their graduation math test, only 21 percent passed.
But instead of making the test easier and lowering the bar of excellence, MPS and its math teachers made sure their students crossed the bar. Last time out, 96 percent of the students passed the test.
Tonight, I would like to applaud Bob Jasna and the MPS math teachers for setting the bar high for Wisconsin when it comes to educational standards. Please welcome Bob, Josietana Hill, a math teacher from Madison University High School; and Donnie Wallace, a Vincent High School student.
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And let me be clear: The standards we are creating are model standards. A bar set by the state. But I want communities to have the flexibility to set their own standards -- taking into account the unique needs and the priorities of the community.
Therefore, I'm asking local school districts to adopt their own standards by the 1998 school year, with a graduation test in place by the 1999 school year.
And I'm asking the Department of Public Instruction to develop the graduation test, based on the five core subject areas. Local school districts will have the flexibility to work with parents, employers and local teachers to refine the test to meet the needs of their communities.
School districts will have to answer to their parents and taxpayers if their test is less rigorous than those of a neighboring school district.
In these chambers, and across Wisconsin, we must demand excellence in our schools.
To coordinate this endeavor, I am proposing the creation a Standards Development Council, chaired by the Lt. Governor, with a representative from the Department of Public Instruction, and the chairpersons and ranking minority members of the education committees of the Senate and Assembly. The council will be charged with conducting a statewide public process to approve or modify the standards I'm proposing tonight. I'm asking the council to report its recommendations by September of this year.
Tonight is the culmination of a year and a half of work in bringing the issue of academic achievement to the forefront of public debate. A year ago, I convened a National Education Summit with IBM's Lou Gerstner. There, the nation's governors and business leaders reached an agreement on the need for standards.
And tonight I'm asking you to join me in taking this to the next level -- developing a consensus on what our children should be learning in school.
I'd like to speak for a moment to the parents of Wisconsin. What we're talking about tonight is what will be taught to your children. What I'm proposing is no less than a blueprint for what will go into the heads of your children.
It is critical that you review every line -- every word -- of these standards. Your voice, not just the voices of the education experts, is what we need to hear as we define what academic standards our students should meet.
Let me know what you think.
As you review these standards, you'll notice every one of them includes a technology component. Technology must be an integral part of every facet of education.
Tonight I'm announcing one of the most exciting and far-reaching initiatives I've ever undertaken as Governor. It will revolutionize how and what our students learn, how our schools teach, and, in some cases, even what a school is.
Let me introduce you to Technology Education Achievement in Wisconsin. Or simply, TEACH Wisconsin. A $200 million investment in the future of our classrooms over the next two years. And a $500 million investment over the next five years.
TEACH Wisconsin is my commitment to ensuring every school, every student and every teacher has the hardware, the software and the knowledge to open new education worlds through the use of technology.
TEACH Wisconsin will put the world at the fingertips of every student. It will liberate teachers and students from the bounds of classroom walls.
TEACH Wisconsin will break down the barriers between educational institutions, making the University and Technical College Systems relevant to students years before they hear their first Pomp and Circumstance.
The only tether in education will be the size of our imaginations and our willingness to apply the resources at our disposal.
My budget will contain $65 million over the biennium in ongoing block grants to school districts for educational technology. $50 million in annual bonding will be available as loans to school districts to upgrade electrical and network wiring. And these grants and loans will be apart from the revenue limits on schools to avoid painful local spending decisions.
We are building a Sonet Ring around Wisconsin. A fiber optic highway connecting the schools of our state. No other state will have anything like it.
And I'm ensuring all school districts have access to this Sonet Ring and a high-speed data link for no more than $250 per month -- that compares to the $2,500 monthly fee many schools pay now.
Our Cooperative Educational Service Agencies will receive $8 million over the biennium to provide training programs for teachers to learn better use of technology. If teachers can't teach students to navigate the Sonet Ring, our investment is wasted.
I've set aside a combined $15.2 million for the University of Wisconsin System and Technical College System for continued development and expansion of the student information system, distance education, classroom technology, and teacher training.
I'd like to thank University of Wisconsin System President Katherine Lyall and Wisconsin Technical College System President Ed Chin for their vision and partnership in making technology come alive for our students.
The financial commitment I'm making to educational technology is not one-time phantom money. Even though this will be a tight budget, we must make a long-term investment in future of our children.
And I'm challenging each legislator and leader in this chamber today to adopt a school and help get it wired. That means joining the Wiring Wisconsin team this spring, rolling up your sleeves and helping your adopted school pull wires into classrooms. I will be adopting a school from my home district.
When it comes to investing in technology for tomorrow's classrooms, no other state comes close to America's State.
Now, for those of us who went to school with Laura Ingalls Wilder and thought technology was indoor plumbing, it is sometimes hard to picture exactly how this technology can dramatically transform your children's classroom.
So I would like to show you the backpack of the future.
One day, your child will be carrying home schoolwork on this notebook instead of a spiral notebook. They will study and get their information from CD Roms instead of textbooks. And instead of needing a pencil case, they will need a holder for their floppy disks and CDs.
But one thing will never change. They'll still need an apple for the teacher.
To show you the classroom of the future, I would like to bring in some friends of mine from Washburn and Milwaukee. They will show you that we're not exaggerating when we say this new technology is awesome.
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Let's go to High Mount Elementary School in Milwaukee and meet Wisconsin Johnson, a paleontologist from the Milwaukee Public Museum. Wisconsin Johnson is our Indiana Jones.
Hello, Dr. Johnson and kids. Can you tell us what you're doing? (He answers)
That's great. Could the students tell me what they think about this program and distance education? (Students answer)
How has this technology helped you learn? (Student answers)
Let's bring in our friends from Washburn in Northern Wisconsin, who shared the dinosaur project with Hi Mount.
Can you tell me what you thought about taking a class on dinosaurs from a teacher in Milwaukee? (Student answers)
How did the class work? (Students answer)
Thanks kids. To wrap up, could Wisconsin Johnson tell us how the Internet was used in conjunction with the project? (He answers)
What a great way to learn. Students from opposite ends of the state learning together.
The technology we just used is the Fiber Optic Video Network. This is the classroom of tomorrow.
Technology is the great equalizer. It gives every student, whether poor or wealthy, rural or urban, access to the best teachers, best information and best education possible. The student from Elroy will have the same opportunities as the student from Brookfield.
This is the challenge that lies before us. To create the classroom of the future where every student can achieve at a high level and graduate with the skills to contribute.
In these chambers, let us make sure our children are able to lead this state to even greater heights well into the next century.
Conclusion
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Legislature, Constitutional officers, people of Wisconsin: This week has been euphoric.
This week the world watched as our ambassadors, the Green Bay Packers, the pride of Wisconsin, ascended to the pinnacle of athletic achievement.
But it strikes me that what we witnessed this week was not merely a sporting victory. The Green Bay Packers have come to symbolize our entire state and our way of life. A hometown team, still owned lock stock and barrel by a community, winning it all.
America's team in America's state.
And this team is built on more than athletic prowess. After the NFC championship game, I was invited to the locker room to celebrate with the players and coaches. Of course I expected the type of party we've seen on TV when other teams win a championship - loud voices, champagne flowing, confident predictions of future victories. But what I witnessed stood in stark contrast to the self-adulation common to professional sports.
I walked into the locker room to see an entire team on bended knee, being led in the Lord's prayer by our 300-pound Minister of Defense. And there wasn't a dry eye among the warriors of the gridiron.
In that moment - even more than on the playing field of Lambeau - the Packers represented who we are in Wisconsin.
We know from where our strength comes. We are humbled by our victories. We are thankful for what has been entrusted to us.
And as I continue to travel this Great State of Wisconsin:
¨ ¨I'm awed by the never-ending chorus of optimism that rings from every community.
¨ Inspired by the deep and abiding faith that characterizes our people.
¨ ¨Invigorated by our sheer determination to succeed.
¨ ¨And humbled by the deep honor of being your Governor.
We are America's State. And together we will make tomorrow even better than today.
From Sue Ann and me, God bless you and God Bless the Great State of Wisconsin.
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