Don Sundquist in 2001 Governor's State of the State speeches

On Education: Invest more in teachers and in early education

A RAND report found that Tennessee isn’t doing as well as other states in student achievement and performance goals because we’ve only invested in one of three essential ingredients. Those three essential ingredients are:
1. Reducing class size, which we are doing.
2. Early childhood education, which we do very little of.
3. Investing in teachers, which we need to do more of.

On Education: We test students & rate schools; now invest in reading

Last fall, for the first time, we posted school report cards on the web. You can log on and see test scores and gains for every public school in the state.

With all this knowledge in hand, and with the results of a literacy report commissioned by this body, now we know that it’s time to focus on reading in Tennessee. We know from test scores that our children can’t read as well as they should. We don’t want our legacy to be that we failed to solve our problems. We don’t want our legacy to be that we passed them on to the next generation because we didn’t have the courage to make the difficult choices. We must invest more in education and expect more in return.

On Education: Invest in teachers: scholarships, mentors, merit pay

We should start by investing in teachers.
• First, I propose we increase the number of scholarships and target them to people who will commit to certain subjects or school systems, depending on where we have a shortage.
• Next, let’s offer our teachers encouragement to stay in the classroom. I propose we establish a mentoring program in every school so that first year teachers have someone to turn to for guidance. And let’s pay extra to teachers who agree to put in extra time doing the mentoring.
• Let’s also offer extra pay for teachers who become Nationally Board Certified.
• I also think it’s absolutely inexcusable for teachers to have to pay for supplies out of their own pockets. To make sure that does not happen, my plan calls for doubling the amount of discretionary dollars for each teacher, [to] at least $200 a year to spend in the classroom, [with] a goal of $500 per teacher per classroom within five years.

On Environment: Supports new State Forest and 23 new natural areas

In rugged areas of East Tennessee, elk run free for the first time in 135 years. For the first time in over 50 years, Tennessee has a new State Forest, the Gulf Tract in Cocke County. It’s 6,800 acres nestled between two national forests alongside the Appalachian Trail. It’s filled with diverse hardwoods, native trout streams and black bear.

Tennessee’s rivers and lakes are cleaner than they’ve been in over 25 years. Our soil is cleaner. Our air is cleaner. We’re cleaning up our environment, and the eagle has returned to soar over Tennessee. These are just some of the ways that, together, we are protecting, conserving and managing Tennessee’s treasures for generations to come.

On Health Care: We must save TennCare, for children & the needy

We were the first state to make health care available to every child. That’s a commitment we need to keep. It’s not just children who depend on TennCare. It’s our neighbors, our friends and our families who wouldn’t have health insurance any other way. And for every dollar that goes to care for these people, the state pays only 18 cents. TennCare must be saved.

Let me speak very plainly. If TennCare fails, our only real alternative is to drop 350,000 Tennesseans who can’t get basic, affordable health insurance. We would do our best to continue to cover our children. But we would shift to a stripped-down, managed-care program for our federally mandated Medicaid population. We will not go to a fee-for-service arrangement. That’s a bad alternative, and it’s not my choice.

On Technology: Wire government plus libraries and schools