When my mother Amy recently retired after teaching 31 years at Dresden Elementary School, she shared with me the key to her success. “I treated every student who came in my classroom as if they were you or [my sister] Lauren,” she said. My mother’s dedication showed not only in the way her students excelled in their assignments, but also in how they treated each other. The kids in my mother’s classroom always learned a lot more than just reading and math.
Today, students must learn more than ever to be prepared for changing job markets. A good education must do more than increase test scores; it must give our students the best possible chance to obtain a well-paying job and one day be able to provide for a family of their own. I am committed to continuing to increase education standards while supporting teachers along the way. I am proud to say that I have been a part of a movement to do just that, by helping guide education legislation that earned Tennessee $500 million in federal education money through the Race to the Top program.
We won this grant by showing we are serious about raising the bar, but I wanted our teachers to know that we will not leave them behind. That is why I co-sponsored the creation of a teacher professional development fund, which will contain upwards of $65 million from Race to the Top funds to provide teachers with the training they need to lead our children. The fund is the first of its kind in Tennessee to give teachers dedicated money for training and development, and it will be a resource to our teachers as we move forward with educational reforms designed to give our children a better opportunity to succeed.
Higher Education
Tennessee must increase the number of residents who succeed in higher education. Sadly, only 19 percent of Tennessee ninth-graders will earn a degree of any kind, and Tennessee ranks near the bottom of the country in nearly every higher education measurement. Something must change. In order to attract major employers to West Tennessee, we need a more educated workforce.
To do that, we must both increase access and ensure that our colleges and universities are teaching the skills necessary to obtain a job right out of college. I took steps to do both by supporting legislation that removes hurdles to transferring between 2-year and 4-year schools, while tying college funding more closely to graduation rates. Schools need to be held accountable for making sure that when a student comes in the door with a dream, he or she leaves with a degree in hand and a better chance to make that dream a reality.