Tennessee Governor Emphasizes Education
Published Apr 08, 2005
Gov. Phil Bredesen takes his enthusiasm for early education into the classroom.
When it comes to providing Tennessee employers with an educated workforce, Gov. Phil Bredesen believes the state can’t start too soon. That’s the premise behind his pre-kindergarten program, designed to give Tennessee youngsters the option of an even earlier start on their schooling.
“Altering the skill level of an entire state’s population is not something that happens overnight. It takes place over the course of a generation,” Bredesen says. “I’m convinced that one of the most important single things that we can do to get more kids through high school, into college and through college is pre-K.”
This year, Bredesen has proposed using excess funds from the Tennessee Lottery to begin the process of expanding this important program.
“There are not enough dollars in the lottery to completely fund pre-K, but this year we’re committing $25 million worth to get this thing started,” Bredesen says. “What I’d like to do then is build it up over the course of the years, so that by the time I leave this office, every parent who wants their child to be in pre-K has a shot at access to a pre-K classroom.”
Bredesen acknowledges that some school systems may not have the facilities to immediately jump into the program, and some parents may not want their 4-year-old heading off to school. Yet, for some students, the program may be just the ticket, he adds.
“Giving them the tools so that they can be successful those first years in school and building for them a culture of success in academic life … ultimately will be a lot more successful at keeping kids in school than remedial programs in high school or college.”
The program just might make the difference for some at-risk students, who for a variety of reasons may not get as much support as they need at home.
“It’s a tragedy if one child comes into kindergarten and is already behind his or her classmates,” Bredesen says. “At least pre-K can help even things out.”
That’s also the premise behind the Governor’s Books from Birth Foundation, a partnership with Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. The country music legend launched her Imagination Library in 1996 to provide a new hardcover book monthly to preschoolers in her native Sevier County. Today, communities in about 40 states are part of the Imagination Library network, and in 2003 Tennessee became the first state as a whole to affiliate with the program.
The governor’s foundation helps counties with the program’s finances and logistics. At a cost of $27 per child annually, a new book is mailed each month to Tennessee children under age 5 who live in a participating county. To date, more than 50 of the state’s 95 counties have signed on.
“Andrea and I have a son, and he had all the books that he could ask for,” Bredesen says. “But I know he would have loved to have gotten a book in the mail every month. He would have looked forward to it, and it would have been important to him.”
The governor calls books in the home “one of the signposts of kids who will eventually love to read and succeed in school.”
Bredesen’s emphasis on education is nothing new. Formerly a high-powered executive in Nashville’s vibrant health-care industry, Bredesen understands businesses’ labor needs at all levels. As mayor of Nashville from 1991 to 1999 and Tennessee governor since 2003, Bredesen’s front-and-center issue has been education.
His education platform includes raising teacher salaries, setting high standards and accountability, implementing character education and making better use of technology in the classroom.
“If we want to be a real player in the economy of the 21st century, we must have a workforce that has skills and the ability to continue acquiring skills,” he says. “I just think that is essential to our future.”
When business officials and site selectors look at Tennessee, Bredesen adds, they also look at education as their own recruiting tool.
“They want to attract and retain employees who will stay here and work in Tennessee because they can send their kids to good schools,” he says.
Tennessee’s lottery-funded HOPE Scholarship is another education initiative that helps lure relocating executives and skilled workers. Tennessee students with a strong academic showing in high school are eligible for $3,000 annually to attend a four-year state institution ($1,500 for two-year institutions).
The HOPE Scholarship and other scholarship and grant opportunities were launched during the 2004-2005 school year after implementation of the lottery. Bredesen says, as a result, the caliber of students in state schools appears to be rising.
“What that says to me is that we’re keeping some of the best and brightest kids at home, which was part of what this was all about, and we’re encouraging some additional children to go to college who might not have been thinking of it before,” he says. “That’s exactly what the lottery was intended to accomplish.”
Story by Sharon H. Fitzgerald
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