Daily Archives: September 25, 2009

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State Superintendent Tony Evers gave his first “State of Education” speech on September 24, 2009 (full video from WisconsinEye, here).  The DPI press release highlighted an “agenda for all children,” leading with this quote from the speech:

“I pledged to the citizens of Wisconsin that I would work to ensure every child is a graduate. To do this we must: recruit and retain quality educators, invest in innovation, ensure safe and respectful schools, advance common sense and transparent accountability, and work toward fair and sustainable school funding. We must educate children now for jobs that will be the foundation of Wisconsin’s prosperity.”

He hailed accomplishments of the recent past,  spoke of implementing innovative teacher compensation systems, the ongoing work on “common core standards,” the importance of improving education in Milwaukee, new and better assessments  and —  as the news report at the top indicates —  expanded learning opportunities through technology.

Evers recommitted to  his priorities from his inaugural:

• recruit and retain quality educators,

• invest in innovation,

• ensure safe and respectful schools,

• advance common sense and transparent accountability, and

• work toward fair and sustainable school funding.

He also acknowledged that these are difficult times but emphasized:

We must commit now to increase resources to schools and libraries as the economy improves. I repeat. We must commit now to increase resources to schools and libraries as the economy improves.

Looking to the future with hope and working for a better future were major themes, especially in the closing paragraphs.

In the next couple of weeks and months, I will work with many of you to move these dreams to reality.

Expect more to come. This is no time to have an aversion to risk. Life is too short. My parents taught me to leave this world a better place than you found it. We all need to help and provide our ideas. And, we all need to join together for our kids’ education.

This past year has hit many hard. We know that the struggles of families too often hit hardest on those we aim to protect and help flourish: our children. In many cases, our schools and public libraries are the only place of certainty and security for our children.

But in the end, it’s all about the people who serve children. Every day our educators and public librarians are there for our kids. We must value their work; raise the level of public discourse; and provide all we can to support their missions: to educate Wisconsin’s children. These hard-working public servants modestly reach for those small successes that add up over years of schooling to an educated, productive member of our society.

Educators are building Wisconsin’s economic future every day. Educators are tomorrow’s job creators. They don’t expect shout outs, high fives, or tweets.

They do expect and deserve our support and commitment to educating all our students. Let’s work for our kids and their parents, our educators, and for Wisconsin’s future.

Thank you for being here today.

God bless all of our children, their parents, and educators.

There is much here to like and many ways that we as parents, educators and citizens can help.  It will take the efforts of many

Jackie Woodruff