Capitol Comments

Investing in Higher Education

The rising cost of tuition combined with decreased financial aid opportunities have put the squeeze on many Americans hoping to send their children to colleges.

Dan Hurley, director of state relations and policy analysis for the Association of State Colleges and Universities, said states must recognize “there is clearly an inverse relationship between state support that is provided to public higher education and tuition rates.”

Hurley will make the case for state investment in higher education during the policy session, “Investing in Higher Education,” Thursday afternoon.

Education Compact Enacted in Four States

The National Center for Interstate Compacts is excited to announce that the Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children has now been enacted by Arizona, Connecticut, Kansas, and Kentucky.

In addition, the compact has been approved by legislatures and is now before the governors of Colorado, Florida, Michigan and Missouri. Upon enactment by 10 states, this interstate compact, which significantly ramps up measures to remove obstacles for military families as they move from state to state and transfer children from school to school, will become effective.

For more information, see the new Streaming Video.

Schools and Mental Health

Mental health plays a key role in a child’s ability to learn.

That’s the way Lisa Warhuus sees it. In fact, it’s part of Warhuus’ job as manager of Integrated Resources for the Berkeley, Calif., Unified School District to make sure students have a good environment – and any support services they need – to take full advantage of the classroom learning.

School districts across the country have incorporated mental health in one way or another into their efforts. And screening for mental health issues is a major part of the recommendations from President’s Bush’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health.

States Face Higher Education Challenges

Higher education is becoming more expensive across the country. With rising tuition in many states and tightening of the credit market, families are finding it more difficult to fund their children’s higher education. What is your state doing to ease these problems? Share your thoughts for an upcoming State News article.

States Enact Education Compact

Kansas and Kentucky have enacted laws intended to ease the educational transition for military children as their parents move with different assignments to new locations. The laws establish the Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children, which was developed by The Council of State Governments and the U.S. Department of Defense and will become operational when it’s adopted in eight other states.

Twenty-one other states are actively considering the measure, known as the Compact on Education Transition for Military Children, and 14 of those state legislatures have submitted bills in one or both chambers. Kansas adopted the compact April 9, and Kentucky followed suit April 10. Adoption in 10 states makes the compact operational.

"We are thrilled that Kansas and Kentucky are leading the nation in seeking uniform standards for school transition for military children," said Leslye A. Arsht, deputy undersecretary of defense for military community and family policy.

Compact Addresses Education of Military Children

As their parents move from base to base and state to state, children in military families often face major transition issues of their own.

Their school records may not arrive in a timely manner and the students miss out on advanced classes or classes that may serve their special needs. They may have to retake courses because the state they moved to has different requirements for graduation. On top of that, the children must deal with the emotional challenges of making new friends and becoming accustomed to a new school, all the while dealing with seeing a parent head off to another—possibly dangerous—assignment.

Attorneys General Address School Violence

The National Association of Attorneys General last month released a report calling for federal and state leaders to address serious deficiencies in federal and state laws and educational policies that leave students vulnerable to violence in their schools and on college campuses.

Members of the NAAG Task Force on School and Campus Safety released the report that includes specific recommendations to address threat assessment, protocols for dealing with the mentally ill, information sharing among law enforcement agencies and other stakeholders, and crisis response planning and communications.

The 27-member Task Force, chaired by Colorado Attorney General John Suthers and Rhode Island Attorney General Patrick Lynch, was convened to update a 1999 report issued by NAAG to address issues surrounding school violence. Although much of the information in the 1999 report remains relevant, the ad hoc group was created to update recommendations and determine what issues have been brought into sharper focus as a result of the tragedy at Virginia Tech.

“The expectation that our students would learn in safe, secure environments that was for so long a part of our shared, national psyche has been shattered by Columbine, Jonesboro, Virginia Tech, and other eruptions of violence that occur with a disturbing frequency in schools and on campuses across America,” Lynch said in a press release.

“Whereas several of the reports issued in the aftermath of the Virginia Tech tragedy have been voluminous and exhaustive, the goal of our report was to be brief and concise and to stimulate dialogue among school administrators and policymakers on a few key issues,” Suthers said.

3 "A's" driving the economy, and the 1 word killing jobs

Renowned author Daniel Pink is optimistic about the future of the United States and its economy.

But in a speech Monday to Midwestern legislators, he also had a word of warning about their states’ future economies and prosperity.

"One word will obliterate jobs – routine," Pink told attendees at this year’s Midwestern Legislative Conference Annual Meeting.

Workers and policymakers in Michigan and other manufacturing-reliant regions of the Midwest already know what he means. "Routine" jobs in this key economic sector have been lost due to factors such as productivity advances and global-economic pressures.

"The factory floor doesn’t look like it did 40 years ago," Pink said.

And thanks to some other enduring trends – particularly the rise of automation and Asian economies – jobs in other sectors are being threatened and lost as well.

"The same thing is happening with routine work in the white-collar workforce," Pink said.

As result, he believes it is imperative for public policy – from revamping education systems to changing workforce strategies – to reflect this change.

"A different set of abilities matters more, and we haven’t taken that set of abilities seriously enough," said Pink, author of the best-selling "A Whole Mind."

Fed Bank Presidents, Southern Governors Discuss Regional and Global Economy

Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour hosted the presidents of the
Federal Reserve Banks of Atlanta, Dallas and St. Louis, respectively Saturday, Aug. 25 to discuss regional economic
growth and workforce pressures in a globalized economy.The session was part of the 73rd annual convening of the Southern Governors' Association meeting in Biloxi, Mississippi

Dennis P. Lockhart, president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta,
was the lead presenter at the meeting’s opening plenary session entitled “Regional Economic
Trends.” In his remarks, Lockhart discussed the importance of education and retraining to make
workers resilient to competitive pressures in a global economy, and described the Sixth Federal
Reserve District as an economic microcosm of the nation, overall, noting that the emergence of
automotive manufacturing and the service industry helped to compensate for weaknesses in
manufacturing job losses in recent decades.

High Schools Undergoing Change

This isn’t your father’s Oldsmobile.

If that’s the case, then it can’t be your father’s mechanic. So the training has to be different, according to Donna Nola-Ganey, assistant superintendent of the Louisiana Department of Education. And it’s not just auto mechanics that requires new learning methods. She spoke during the education committee meeting Sunday at the Southern Legislative Conference.

That means high schools must change, she said.

Louisiana is redesigning its high schools, a process that began in 2005 before hurricanes Katrina and Rita stalled efforts.