"I know," said Governor Haslam, "you may be a little upset with us for stealing Dr. Airhart, but we've put her to work on some big things and appreciate you loaning her to us."  Referencing Putnam County's former Director of Schools, Kathleen Airhart, (now the Deputy Commissioner for the Department of Education), Governor Haslam tailored his comments for the local audience in Cookeville Monday as he reviewed priorities for the 2012 legislative session.

Speaking in more depth about the "Tennessee Forward" agenda he released last week, it seems clear that the new Deputy Commissioner will be pretty heaviliy involved.

Improving career readiness is key, said the Governor, to our economic viability.   "Every time we have a conversation with a company thinking about locating here, it typically falls into three parts.  First, we listen, then we tell them all of the things about our great state, and then we ask them for feedback.   And what we hear is very consistent.  They usually tell us that they can't believe how friendly this state is and how impressed they are with the work ethic here.   Folks like VW say that they keep waiting for the "nice" to wear off and ... it doesn't.   But they also say that they are disappointed with our readiness for jobs, particularly in the area of technical skills."  

The Governor stated that universities like TTU are key to producing engineers where "we're doing a good job, we just need more" and said that he intends to help stop the erosion of funding that has been occuring for the last decade or so.   Governor Haslam also stated his commitment to educational improvement, citing the grim reality that Tennessee ranks among the bottom five states in terms of math and reading performance.  

Changing that reality means changing perceptions about the importance of education through parental involvement and changing some things about the ways that we educate. The governor says that he hopes to give local school boards more autonomy to try new things and stated that Putnam County's creativity and strategic approach to a revised compensation strategy are the kind of innovations that will help re-shape education in Tennessee.

Haslam said that one of our challenges in attracting new business to the state is the availability of land, and applauded Putnam's foresight in creating shovel-ready business parcels. 

The Governor said that he intends for Tennessee to be the top Southeast location for high quality jobs through economic development, meaningful change in education, improved public safety and efficient state government, where performance and capability determine careers more than seniority.

Speaking of safety, the Governor said that he is troubled by two dynamics in particular:  the fact that Tennessee is among the highest states for violent crime and gang related activity and that prescription drug abuse is significant.   The average number of prescriptions, he said, for a Tennesseean, is 17, well above the national average of 12.  

Fielding questions from the assembly, the Governor elaborated on plans to support the Tennessee Forward agenda, which emphasize making room for innovation. 

According to Governor Haslam, the Tennessee Forward agenda (from TennesseeForward.com):

• Strengthens the Department of Economic and Community Development’s FastTrack program by budgeting more for the grants and giving the department more flexibility in utilizing them to attract and grow Tennessee jobs.
• Gives local school districts more options in how they approach classroom instruction and teacher compensation by:
  • Maintaining maximum class size requirements but eliminating average class size mandates for each school, and
  • Eliminating the outdated requirement of state and local salary schedules based strictly on seniority and training, which will give districts flexibility to make decisions such as how to address hard to staff schools or subjects along with rewarding teacher performance.
• Outlines Tennessee specific goals for measuring progress to replace the federal measurements as part of the state’s No Child Left Behind waiver request and better defines the scope and focus of the Achievement School District in supporting Tennessee’s lowest performing schools.
• Restructures 22 state boards and commissions to eliminate duplicative functions and provide more accountability and oversight of the agencies, which is a first step of an ongoing comprehensive review process.
• Updates and reforms the state’s antiquated employment system through the TEAM Act (Tennessee Excellence Accountability and Management) by simplifying the hiring process, providing flexibility to retain and reward outstanding employees and streamlining the appeals process for employees.
• Takes a first step in reaching the governor’s goal to raise the state inheritance tax exemption from $1 million to $5 million by increasing it to $1.25 million to lower the tax burden on family farmers and family business owners as these businesses span generations.
• Lowers the state portion of the sales tax on food from 5.5 percent to 5.3 percent with the goal of lowering it to 5.0 percent in three years.

The Haslam administration filed 55 non-budget related bills last week.  For more information about the governor’s legislative agenda, see http://forward.tn.gov.