Basing an entire grade for "quality of teaching" on a prescribed set of licensing standards would be like giving Mark Twain a D- on an English paper because he wrote it with the wrong color ink. Results must count for something.
While we reject the simplicity of this criticism, we must take the call for higher standards to heart and do all we can to help prepare our teachers.
Tonight, we give our teachers a chance to show the nation that they are indeed the best by helping them become certified by The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. Currently, only one teacher in our state is nationally certified.
To help develop the best and the brightest for our classrooms, I am proposing that the state help pay for the cost of taking the national certification test. And when they pass it, we'll give them a $3,000 bonus.
And we're asking teachers to help us raise the bar of excellence for our classrooms by participating in a peer review and mentoring program. If we have a struggling math teacher, let's pair her with the school's best math teacher so she can improve her skills. The state will provide grants for training assistance. Teachers helping teachers raise quality in the classroom. It just makes sense.
We can't talk about education in Wisconsin, however, without taking some time to focus on Milwaukee. Nowhere is change more desperately needed than in our largest city. In recent years, we've developed some innovative programs to help raise the quality of Milwaukee's schools.
But change is not coming swift enough. Graduation rates are dropping, and the dropout rate soared to nearly 14 percent. We lost 3,400 kids last year in Milwaukee schools - that's equivalent to the entire Stoughton School District.
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When welfare threatened to consume a new generation of children, we pursued aggressive reforms but eventually scrapped the broken system and built a better one.
We must be prepared to do the same for Milwaukee Public Schools. The state of Wisconsin pays for 85 percent of the cost to educate the children of Milwaukee and we will not tolerate failure any longer.
MPS recently hired Dr. Alan Brown as its new superintendent and he deserves a chance to reverse this downward spiral. But it must be very clear that more of the status quo is completely unacceptable.
Tonight, we demand results from Milwaukee Public Schools. MPS must meet four standards of improvement by June 1, 2000.
MPS must improve its graduation rate to 90 percent.
It must raise its attendance rate to 91 percent.
It must cut its dropout rate to 9 percent.
And it must raise its third-grade reading performance to 90 percent of the statewide average.
If MPS fails to meet all four standards, it will be dissolved. Operation of the district will be turned over to a three-member commission appointed by the mayor of Milwaukee, the state superintendent of Public Instruction and me. The school district will be turned immediately into a full charter, giving the commission ultimate flexibility in rebuilding the schools of Milwaukee.
We also should immediately give MPS and Superintendent Brown some important tools to help them meet these standards.
Restore the ability for MPS to close failing schools and allow the superintendent to reassign staff without regard to seniority.
Restore permission for MPS to convert private schools to charter schools.
Provide $2.5 million for MPS to create after-school programs so our students remain engaged in their education and stay out of trouble.
And forgive the student loans of minority teachers who commit to educating the children of Milwaukee.
We must also stop wasting money busing our students from one part of Milwaukee to the other. We must immediately put 10 percent of our busing money toward building more neighborhood grade schools in Milwaukee.
Three years from now, I expect the nation to be touting Milwaukee as the model for revitalizing urban education in America.
There is nothing - nothing - more important to me as governor than making sure each and every child in this state gets the world-class education they deserve. We should pledge tonight that we will not lose one more generation of children in Milwaukee to poor schools.
It's time for MPS to stand and deliver or step aside.
Environment:
I am the youth of Wisconsin. My dream is to live in the most beautiful place in the world. A place with clean water to drink, green hills to hike and bountiful lakes to fish.
My friends, we live in the most beautiful state in America.
God is surely looking down upon our great state with pride at how we have cared for and nurtured the bountiful resources he bestowed upon us.
Just look at the remarkable comebacks by our wildlife. Our elk have now given birth to 11 calves and the timber wolf is no longer endangered.
With 600 nesting pairs of bald eagles, we're now sending our eaglets to other states to help with the national recovery effort. Four eaglets were sent to the National Arboretum in Washington where federal officials hope they will soar above the Nation's Capitol, just a few miles away.
Just think how long our eagles will be able to stay afloat from all the hot air that rises from that building.
We have more trees in which our eagles can nest as well. The first statewide forest survey in 14 years showed that nearly one-half of Wisconsin's total land area is forest - 15.3 million acres -- a greater percentage than when the first inventory was taken in 1936.
The growth of our forest accentuates our landmark efforts to preserve more land for public enjoyment. Most recently we bought 2,000 acres along the Menominee River, 1,400-acres of the Bill Cross Rapids and the 8,700-acre Willow Flowage, one of the largest buys in state history.
We have now preserved 200,000 acres of land since 1987, roughly equivalent to one-quarter the size of Rhode Island.
And together this past year, we passed the most far-reaching environmental initiatives in a generation.
We have worked too hard together to build this record of environmental stewardship to allow anything to threaten what we've accomplished. Many people are concerned about the proposed Crandon mine. I am the first person in this room who does not want a mine that in any way is going to harm or damage our environment - especially our great rivers.
That is why we must move beyond the rhetoric to the cold, hard facts... In the spirit of the Wisconsin Idea, UW-Madison professor Anders W. Andren will chair an independent council of five scientists from his university, UW-Milwaukee and Marquette University. These scientists bring impeccable credentials to the project as well as a sense of duty to the people of Wisconsin.
They will review the proposed mine, inside and out; evaluate every worst-case scenario; and use the very best science to determine whether this mine can be operated without harming our environment.
If this independent body determines that the mine is not safe; it will not be built - period.
Our heritage is of a people who know how to cultivate the resources without destroying our environment.
As we move forward, we can take great pride in knowing that our children and grandchildren will reap the benefits of our environmental stewardship.
Health Care:
I am the youth of Wisconsin. My dream is for every member of my family to be healthy and safe so they live long lives.
There is nothing we, the people of Wisconsin, value more than each other. Our families are the fabric of this great state, and when a family member becomes sick or dies too young, that fabric is weakened.
Therefore, we place a high priority on the health of our families in Wisconsin. And keeping our families healthy means keeping them safe from crime.
Already one of the lowest in the nation, our crime rate dropped another 5 percent last year. And it seems that criminals may be finally heeding our zero tolerance message.
Ladies and gentlemen, the number of convicts entering our prisons went down last year. Our first decline in a decade! We saw a 2.5 percent drop in our male institutions and 4.7 percent in our female.
In Wisconsin, we fight crime equally hard on the front end and the back end.
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Our education reforms, economic programs, central city initiatives, and anti-drug investments all aim to steer youth away from crime. And by the dropping crime rates, we can see these investments paying off.
We also work harder than any other state at making sure a criminal's first trip to prison is his last. That's why we're putting prisoners to work, to develop their skills and make them pay their way in society. We now have approval for work programs in six of our prisons - an important step toward reducing recidivism.
At our women's prison in Taycheedah, inmates are rebuilding used computers so they can be used in our schools. Three hundred computers have been sent to schools so far, but we have another 2,000 waiting to be repaired.
So we want to expand this computer recycling program to three other prisons, giving more inmates the opportunity to learn a highly valuable skill and providing more valuable computers to our schools as we expand our investments in technology.
And we must restore confidence in our criminal justice system by finally passing truth in sentencing. I introduced this reform last year with bipartisan support and can't believe it hasn't reached my desk yet.
The public is cynical of a system where a criminal is sentenced to 20 years in prison but is out in five. Truth in sentencing is plain old common sense. It abolishes parole, eliminates mandatory release and replaces time off for good behavior with more time in for bad behavior. It gives our elected judges sole authority to determine when a criminal will get out of prison.
It is beyond me why anyone would oppose such a common sense reform to a complicated justice system that is breeding cynicism in the people.
So enough with the silly excuses and political gamesmanship. Get truth in sentencing passed!
If truth in sentencing is not on my desk by the end of this legislative session, I will call you back into session in April until you get the job done.
As we provide for the health of our families, we must look forever forward at the health needs of our people.
This is why we created a landmark women's health initiative, expanded the Community Options Program for our seniors by another 2,000 slots, and developed BadgerCare for uninsured working families.
Badger Care will help 50,000 working families -- especially mothers raising their children alone - access the state's top-notch health care system.
Yet, as our population ages, a growing concern for many families is how they will be able to afford the care of their parents while they provide for the education and growth of their own children.
Perhaps our greatest health care challenge right now is long-term care, as scientific advances help people live longer and our baby boomers move into retirement.
Between 1960 and 1990, the number of people age 85 and older grew 10 times faster each year than the population as a whole. And by the year 2010, we expect this segment of seniors to grow another 60 percent.
As you can see, our state's elderly and disabled population is growing faster than our available resources.
I know the people of Wisconsin are concerned about how they will care for their parents in old age. We want to give our parents the same loving care they gave us as children, but how do we afford it? And where do we get it?
The current long-term system is intimidating, complex and sterile. There are 40 ways to access the system, people don't know how to get the appropriate care because it's so complicated, and the concerns of families are often ignored.
The greatest hope of our families is for a compassionate system of high quality choices so they can give their parents the very best care possible.
Tonight, we unveil a revolutionary new program to meet the needs of our aging and ease the worries of their children. We call it Family Care - an idea whose ambition and scope is even greater than W-2.
Family Care will touch the lives of more than 1 million Wisconsin citizens - 10 times as many families who were on welfare when we began reforming that system.
It will combine our long-term care programs into one system to provide the maximum range of care options for seniors and disabled. It is built upon consumer choice and one-stop shopping for services.
Family Care will develop for every person a plan of supportive care tailored to meet his or her specific needs and desires. Families will turn to one place for professional help in determining the best services for their loved ones and choosing the best service providers. This comprehensive service will be provided with full input from the family.
Financial support will follow people to the best place for them, whether it's in their own home, an assisted living apartment or a nursing home. By making the system more efficient, we make it more affordable as well. Family Care will not strain the family budget.
To help keep living at home a viable and affordable option, we seek tonight to expand the Community Options Program by another $10 million. We have already quadrupled the number of COP slots under my administration and we're doing even more.
Family Care gives families security, peace of mind and hope for the future. It will set the standard for the nation, providing people like Dorothy Spaulding with the high quality care we expect in Wisconsin.
Dorothy has been in a wheelchair for 20 years and joined the COP program after her husband passed away nine years ago.
COP helped Dorothy remain active in her community, participating in church activities and pursuing her art interests. And holidays are still celebrated at grandma's house, something that wouldn't have been possible without the COP program.
Dorothy Spaulding is joined tonight by two daughters, her granddaughter and two great-granddaughters. Four generations of women who symbolize why we must build today the long-term care system of tomorrow. Thank you Dorothy and best wishes.
Our health care plans must meet the needs of the disabled as well. You have heard me say often that every person in this state is capable of contributing something to society.
Yet only 1 percent of our disabled leave public assistance for the workforce even though most are very much able to contribute.
The reason: Fear of losing their health and long-term care benefits.
Tonight, we remove this barrier to work by proposing a demonstration project in five communities that guarantees Medicaid and Medicare coverage to the disabled regardless of their earnings in the private sector.
And we expand our innovative Wheelchair Recycling program, which repairs used or broken wheelchairs and distributes them to those in need.
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We are wasting too much talent by allowing legitimate fears over health care to keep the disabled out of the workforce. Give the disabled their freedom by protecting their health.
Summary:
Tonight, we pursue the Wisconsin dream for our children and ourselves. Our future depends on helping our children grow to be the most successful, well-educated and healthy adults in the history of our state.
But meeting the dreams of the youth of Wisconsin can't happen if we don't work together.
Cooperation is most critical if we are to pass a meaningful campaign finance reform package and help restore public confidence in the electoral process. The biggest reason campaign finance reform continues to fail across the country is that both parties use it to get a leg up on the opposition.
Therefore, common sense says the only way we're going to achieve real reform is if a proposal is developed by both parties with independent leadership. And we have just such a plan ready and waiting to go.
