•
Farmers now use satellite technology to apply pesticides or determine how best to plant their crops – a far cry from when high technology for farmers was a horse and plow. For our sesquicentennial this past summer, the Hughes family used guidance from a satellite to carve in their cornfields a giant maze in the shape of our great state. I want to thank Randy and Andrea Hughes and their family for helping us celebrate our birthday in a unique way.
•
And technology is itself a rapid-fire business with endless potential in creating new, high-paying jobs for our people – from the manufacturing of computer systems in the Chippewa Valley to the development of biotechnologies here in Dane County.
When I unveil the University of Wisconsin budget next month, it will include a substantial investment in furthering biotechnology research and setting up an incubator for transferring that technology to the private sector – creating more high-tech jobs for our people and providing greater enhancements for our lives.
Think about it – technology even allows us to go back in time and correct our own human errors. (Video of Jerry Rice fumbling against Green Bay Packers) Yep, fumble.
Throughout my speech tonight, you will see more examples of how these advances are changing our lives. Technology will indeed light our way into the third millennium.
So here we go. On Wisconsin – to the 21st century.
Education
Our first stop is the classroom.
No group is more eager and bright-eyed about the future than our children – and they should be. This generation of children will be better educated and prepared for what lies ahead more so than any other before it.
Wisconsin is pioneering new ways of educating our children for a global era.
•
Our charter school and school choice programs are bringing parents and educators together, using innovation to prepare our children for the future.
S29
•
World-class academic standards and a high-stakes graduation test are setting a high bar of achievement for our students and making sure they cross it.
•
Lower class sizes are making sure our at-risk, low-income students get the close attention they need to succeed.
•
And our historic investments in public education are making it possible for communities to build new schools and equip them with the technology of tomorrow.
In my budget next month, I will recommend that we require all students to pass a graduation test, increase accountability by requiring DPI to post on its website a report card on each and every school, and invest nearly $50 million to lower class sizes.
And my budget will once again fully deliver on our commitment to fund two-thirds of local schools -- this also includes two-thirds of construction projects passed by referendum.
Helping our communities build necessary schools is just about the smartest investment the state can make. I will not back away from this partnership.
Now, one might ask: How are these reforms and investments paying off? Let me show you two examples – one in rural Wisconsin and one in urban Wisconsin.
This summer, when we brought state government on the road, we visited Mosinee -- a rural community of about 4,000 people that educates all its students in grades 4 through 12 in one large school building.
Yet, with the help of technology, Mosinee is giving its students the same quality education as school districts with far greater resources.
In fact, Mosinee's state-of-the-art distance learning facility is transforming its school into a community center. Students learn everything from robotics to foreign language there during the day. Local businesses use the facility to train employees at night. And doctors from the nearby Marshfield Clinic take advanced courses when convenient. The community even shares the school's new swimming pool, and seniors walk the hallways during the day to stay fit and trim. Everyone uses this building.
This is what the Schoolhouse of Tomorrow will look like in Wisconsin – and a rural community with limited resources is pioneering the way.
Let's visit some of my friends from Mosinee, who are learning French from a teacher in West Salem.
•
Bon Soir Mosinee. (Three-way video exchange between governor, Mosinee students and French teacher Janice Nash in La Crosse.)
What's happening in Mosinee showcases just one of the spectacular benefits we are reaping from the groundbreaking TEACH Wisconsin initiative. In less than two years, we've gone from 25% of our school districts being wired to 75%. And we won't be satisfied until we reach 100 percent, so this budget will include another $175 million for TEACH.
Imagine just for a moment, the immense possibilities if all Wisconsin students could use this technology to learn French or German or Japanese. Not too far in the future, I can see a class of students in Mosinee helping a class of students in Paris learn English, while they in turn help Mosinee's children learn French. Now that's a meaningful cultural exchange.
To that end, I am proposing a $350,000 grant program to help every school district make foreign languages available to their elementary school students via the TEACH network. We must expose our children to foreign languages at the earliest years if we really want to prepare them for this global age.
Let's make the world an open book to our children.
Our education reforms and investments are making a profound change in urban education as well.
When we started the nation's first charter school program that included a university, technical college and city government, who would have thought it would spawn America's very first K-12 specialty school in science? Or that this Academy of Science would be in the heart of Milwaukee?
And surely many never thought our landmark school choice program would see the light of day. But finally, low-income parents in Milwaukee can freely send their children to the best school possible – no matter what its affiliation.
The aggressive competition generated by these innovations is starting to produce the change in Milwaukee Public Schools we hoped it would.
Last year, I stood here and challenged Milwaukee Public Schools to stand and deliver, or step aside.
Well, MPS certainly stood up. And they're finally taking steps to deliver for the children of Milwaukee. I thank MPS and congratulate them.
As the result of our challenge, MPS is now talking about how to improve dropout rates, attendance rates, graduation rates and reading scores. They are working more with parents and the community on ways to change for the better – rather than simply digging in their heals and defending the status quo.
In fact, MPS is even offering a guarantee that students will be able to read at the appropriate level for their grade, or they'll pay for a tutor. Now that's real progress.
There is still much, much work to do in Milwaukee. I will remain an ever-vigilant and willing partner – ready to step up with new initiatives to help these schools or use the bully pulpit to encourage change.
In fact, my budget will propose giving local school boards – in Milwaukee and across the state – the power to close failing schools. This just makes common sense.
Working together, Milwaukee won't lose another generation of children to poor schools.
Milwaukee and Mosinee – two communities that symbolize the hope and future of education in Wisconsin. And two communities that underscore our need to continue pursuing cutting-edge ways to make our schools even better.
Our schools are indeed great, but their potential is so much greater.
Therefore, we bring to you tonight another ambitious agenda to strengthen education in Wisconsin.
We start with our very youngest, making sure our children are ready to learn when they get to school.
Recent brain research confirms that the early childhood years – from birth to age 4 -- are crucial to child development.
Proper stimulation and nutrition in the earliest years of life make a profound and lasting impact on the growth of our children.
Therefore, we must help our most at-risk children get the help they need from birth, so they enter school with the capacity to succeed.
Our new Early Childhood Excellence Initiative calls for building at least five new high-tech, early learning centers for at-risk children 0-4 – at least two will be located in Milwaukee.
These centers would expose our youngest children to foreign languages, music, reading, computers and other technology – stimulating development and learning.
Consider the centers Incubators of the Imagination, nurturing better badger babies.
Let's also use $20 million to expand our half-day Head Start program to full-day and extend it to children age 0-4.
S30
The earlier we reach our most at-risk children, the better all of society will be in the long-run. We'll have better students and workers and fewer dropouts and prisoners.
Not only do we have to make sure our children are ready for the classroom, we must make sure our teachers are as well.
Therefore, working with Superintendent of Public Instruction John Benson, I am proposing a new graduated licensing system for teachers.
The initial teaching license would require all aspiring public school teachers in Wisconsin to take a national competency exam in the subject they will teach. If a prospective teacher doesn't pass the test, the University of Wisconsin school they attend must provide remedial assistance. They must also demonstrate competency in Wisconsin's Model Academic Standards and educational technology.
Teachers with an initial license can earn a professional license after three successful years in the classroom, fulfilling a professional development plan, and undergoing a peer review. My budget will include $2 million to double the peer review and mentoring program for teachers and $1.5 million for the Wisconsin Academy Staff Development initiative.
At the top of the licensing ladder is the Master License for teachers who earn National Board of Teaching Standards certification. To help teachers in this endeavor, the state should continue to pay $2,000 towards the cost of the test and a $2,500 bonus for every year a teacher is nationally certified.
This new licensing system will set a high bar for new teachers and reward those who further strengthen their skills. By doing so, we make sure the best and brightest are teaching our children.
Next, we must make sure those students sitting in our classrooms are engaged, making school relevant to their goals in life.
One way we do that is through a more seamless system of schools that prepare students for the career of their choice – such as the 2+2+2 program in Waukesha County.
Here's how it works: A junior at Sussex Hamilton High School enrolls in a two-year youth apprenticeship program in printing – attending school in the morning and working at Quad Graphics in the afternoon.
After graduation, the student spends two years at Waukesha County Technical College earning an associate degree in printing, also working at Quad Graphics to gain hands-on experience and earn money.
Then, the student moves smoothly on to the UW-Stout for two years, earning a bachelor's degree in communications arts while still plying their trade at the company. And all credits are transferable from one degree to the next – it's literally seamless.
In fact, Stout plans to open a facility in Waukesha County expressly for this program.
In the end, two years in high school plus two years in technical college plus two years in a university equals a lifetime of success in a high-demand printing career – all without leaving their hometown or their job at Quad Graphics.
To help this program along, my budget will include $500,000 for Waukesha Tech to purchase and install new equipment for this printing program. And it will provide more than $750,000 for UW-Stout, including $50,000 for collaboration efforts on 2+2+2.
This is what our education system should look like in the 21st century. Let's tear down those walls that separate our schools and universities. Give students the education they need for the jobs of tomorrow.
We started talking about education tonight with our newborns, so let's end with our adults. Join me in helping low-income adults learn to read through a new $4 million literacy initiative targeted at low-income families.
In America's Education State, everyone should be able to read. Let's make it happen.
From babies to boomers, we are once again making education the No. 1 priority in Wisconsin. There's no smarter way to prepare our people for the frontiers of possibility.
So On Wisconsin -- with world-class schools for the pioneers of a new century.
W-2/Child Care
We must lift our people not only with education, but with meaningful work.
Wisconsin – the Great Reformer – changed the face of America with its W-2 program.
Today, just 9,200 individuals remain on cash W-2 – tomorrow, 9,200 more success stories.
We take great encouragement from our recent study showing that nearly 85 percent of former W-2 recipients are working or have worked since leaving the program. To those who aren't working – come back and we'll help you find a job.
Ladies and gentlemen, W-2 Works. Take it from Michelle Crawford, one of Wisconsin's bold pioneers on the path from welfare to work. Thanks to W-2, Michelle is off welfare after 10 years and working as a machine operator at Engineered Plastics in Menomonee Falls.
She's proudly providing for her family like never before. Michelle would like to tell you about W-2 in her own words.
Michelle Crawford:
Thank you. My name is Michelle Crawford and I'm living proof that W-2 makes a positive difference in people's lives.
Today, I am working as a machine operator, providing for my family, buying them things I could never afford before.
But it wasn't always that way. I thought I would always be on welfare. I was always down on myself, thinking I would never accomplish anything.
When my welfare caseworker asked if I knew about W2, I didn't want to join because I had children at home to take care of. I was scared and nervous, but I knew I had to try this.
At first, they had me doing housekeeping and cleaning and I thought to myself – "I do this at home – what am I doing here!"
But I started volunteering to do more when others didn't show up for work. And I wondered what was back in the factory.
I always wanted to be a machinist – my dad was one. So when my boss, Dave, asked if I'd like to try it – I took a chance.
And it was hard. I learned about the machines using a CD rom and I had to do homework.
I took the first test and passed – then I took the second test and passed. Dave then called me for an interview – and he even offered to drive me there. I thought to myself – "Please don't let me mess this up…this is a real job."
I was so proud when I got the job. Now I tell my kids that this is what happens when you do your homework.
My kids see a difference in me. They see their mother making it. W2 gave me a chance and I feel good about myself – so thank you to everyone involved.
