Jim Geringer on Education Former Republican WY Governor

$10M per year for college merit scholarships

$26M for professional and vocational skills training

The most influential factor in attracting new and expanding business to Wyoming will be the quality of our people and their skills. Our challenge is to continue to provide enough skilled labor that meets business needs. We are achieving the diversity of economic growth we always hoped for and now find ourselves competing in a regional and national market for the most valuable resource - people with the right skills. I am recommending increases in several key areas to attract and keep our citizens’ professional and vocational skill levels highly competitive.
• Workforce development funds for company specific training $6M
• Wyoming National Guard Education Assistance Plan $2M
• The Horizon Merit Scholarships for students attending UW and the Horizon Careers Scholarships for students attending community college $10M
• Funding for the Community College Workforce Training Compact $ 0.3M
• Upgrading our teachers skills in education technology $4.2M
• State employee training $3.7M

Reform Charter School law to allow real parental choice

Focus educational resources to help those with greatest need.

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) helps to fulfill the most basic mission of federal education programs—equal opportunity for all children. To help improve the federal role in education, the Republican Main Street Partnership has identified the following areas that should receive priority during the reauthorization of IDEA:

• Focus resources to help those with the greatest need, particularly the disadvantaged and disabled
• Target Title I funds, those specifically designed to aid disadvantaged students, to students with the greatest need
• Although Title I funds are already allocated according to population and poverty, more funds must be targeted to our neediest schools. We propose funding, for the first time, grants that send at least a portion of Title I funds solely on the basis of need.
• Increase the maximum award under Pell Grants to help first-generation & low-income students continue their education
• Increase the maximum award for students from low-income families to restore the balance between grants and loans, particularly among those with the greatest need.
• Continue efforts to increase federal funding for IDEA to help states and locals offset the cost of providing a ëfree appropriate public educationí for students with special needs
• Move federal funding toward its goal of providing up to 40 percent of the average cost of educating a disabled child.
• In addition, we need to better evaluate the effectiveness of this program and ensure that federal funds for IDEA—particularly in light of recent funding increases—are being targeted to our students with real learning disabilities.
• Finally and most important, any fiscal incentives must be examined to ensure that the overidentification of learning disabled students is prevented, and our efforts must focus on the regular evaluation of the program to ensure that our special needs children are truly being provided a "free appropriate public education."

Require state standards, regular assessments, and sanctions.

To help improve the federal role in education, the Republican Main Street Partnership has identified the following areas that should receive priority:
• Require states to implement high standards of achievement in core subject areas, such as reading, math, writing, and science, for all students.
  Nearly all states have established high standards for education content in reading, writing and math. To continue to be eligible for Title I funds, we must ensure that states meet these standards.

• Require states to demonstrate success in raising the performance of all students -- from those who score below basic to those who are already proficient -- and narrowing the gap between disadvantaged students and their more advantaged peers.
  Without regular assessments, we cannot determine how well students are achieving with respect to each state's performance goals. Although states are required to have assessments aligned with their content and performance standards by the 2000-2001 school year, it now seems that no state will be approved in time. To continue to be eligible for Title I funds, states must continue to work toward this goal and waivers must be provided only for those who are making substantial progress toward the implementation of their aligned assessments.

• Establish a meaningful system of rewards for schools that significantly increase student achievement and sanctions for those that fail.
  Schools that consistently fail to make progress toward their stateís own performance goals, after assistance and opportunity to improve, must be sanctioned with corrective actions ranging from the reconstitution of the school staff to the authorization of students to transfer to another public school. Schools that meet or exceed their performance goals should receive monetary awards through a new grant program designed to reward achievement.

Support Ed-Flex: more flexibility if more accountable.

To help improve the federal role in education, the Republican Main Street Partnership has identified the following areas that should receive priority:
• Provide flexibility in exchange for increased accountability.

• Encourage more states to take advantaged of the Education-Flexibility waiver to better align federal programs with state and local priorities.

• Currently, 15 states have Ed-Flex authority and, according to GAO reports, the waiver authority promotes a climate that encourages state and local educators to explore new approaches to education. Ultimately, the states must make the decision to apply for the waiver, but education leaders must encourage states and schools to be innovative in their approach to education improvement.

• Enact new legislation to give states the option to combine education programs and funding in exchange for demonstrated improvements in student achievement at all levels

• In exchange for new flexibility, a participating state would have to show how it would combine and use funds to advance education priorities, improve student achievement and narrow the learning gap. If, after three years, the state has failed to meet its own requirements, the flexibility authority would be terminated and administrative funds would be withheld.