And we're not going back.
Already, some are talking about walking away from the state's commitment to fund two-thirds the cost of local schools.
No way. Not on my watch.
Women's Health
And in these chambers, we have worked to make our families healthier.
We take great pride that 93 percent of our residents have health coverage -- the best in the nation.
As we look to the future, however, we must rededicate ourselves to addressing the unique health needs of the elderly, the long-term care population and, particularly, women.
A few years ago, my family received a scare when Sue Ann was diagnosed with breast cancer. We thank God that she caught her problem early and is now doing fine.
We must commit ourselves as a society to doing more for women's health -- from breast cancer and osteoporosis to domestic violence and abuse.
Tonight, I am unveiling a striking new multi-million dollar Women's Health Initiative. The initiative creates an Office of Women's Health to coordinate our statewide effort. It also includes:
*2 million over two years to make sure the health needs of low-income women without insurance are being met.
*A million dollars for a statewide campaign to educate women about health risks, prevention and treatment -- with emphasis on the groundbreaking research on women's health at the University of Wisconsin.
*Money for a statewide Breast Cancer Campaign.
*And money for a new mammogram van that will travel throughout regions of our state screening women for breast cancer.
Every woman in this state will have access to a mammogram and other early detection efforts. The key to beating breast cancer is to catch it early.
Sue Ann knows from experience.
And I couldn't be more proud that my wife will help lead this initiative in Wisconsin.
Education
Over these past ten years we have joined together in these chambers to help lead the nation in economic renewal, abolishment of the welfare state and sound fiscal management.
But I stand before you this evening with a keen awareness that in spite of all our achievements, we have unfinished business to attend to before welcoming in the new century.
While Wisconsin should be proud of having one of the highest quality public education systems of the 20th Century, it is my profound conviction that we have not laid the foundation for making the same boast in the new century.
You saw the headline in the recent Education Week evaluation of the nation's schools. They described Wisconsin as, quote: "Satisfied with the status quo." There are no more disturbing words for the future of our way of life than "status quo."
This is our unfinished business: to prepare Wisconsin's schools to meet the challenges of a new millennium. America's State should accept nothing less.
Our goal must be no less ambitious than creating the highest skilled, most productive workforce in the world, with businesses flocking to Wisconsin for our greatest asset - our people.
It is my goal as we march toward the year 2000 to make education so compelling and relevant to the lives of our youth that someday we put the Department of Corrections out of business.
There are four principles that must be at the heart of this education reformation:
¨ ¨Parents must be empowered with more choices;
¨ Education must be relevant to workplace;
¨ Schools must be held accountable for their performance; and
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Technology must pervade every facet of education.
There is no greater need for parental empowerment than in the Milwaukee Public Schools. Every year, 7,000 students enter MPS and 3,300 graduate. We are wasting too many lives and so much potential.
Now, I want to be clear - I do not mean this as an attack on the educators in Milwaukee. There are hundreds of educators who have devoted their lives - sometimes even risked their lives - to help the children of Milwaukee learn.
And Superintendent Bob Jasna has been a pioneer in implementing a graduation math test that has dramatically elevated math performance in the Milwaukee schools. He is a bold reformer and I'm sad that he is retiring.
But we must do more to reach Milwaukee's students and make school relevant to the 3,700 students who walk away from the opportunity for an education.
Dr. Howard Fuller has helped me develop a proposal for a new form of charter schools. He and I are proposing that we empower the Milwaukee Area Technical College, the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee, and the City of Milwaukee to establish charter schools to find new ways for children to learn.
These are all public bodies, equally accountable to the taxpayers as you and I are. We should give them the freedom to help teach children and to give parents more options for who is educating their children.
And let me say this about options for parents in Milwaukee: I will not give up the fight for the Milwaukee School Choice program.
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.
