Bredesen Heralds Progress in Education
Thursday, January 29, 2009 | 10:57am
NASHVILLE - Governor Phil Bredesen today thanked the Tennessee Higher Education Commission and the State Board of Education, meeting jointly in Nashville, for their partnership in the state’s progress to better equip students to succeed in higher education and the workplace. Last year, Tennessee officially adopted more rigorous high school graduation requirements and revised academic standards to be more competitive on a national level.
“In some ways, the real work is ahead of us now,” said Governor Bredesen. “We have to have an honest and transparent accountability system in place by 2010 and your leadership in this is key. It is vitally important that we set high standards and be brutally honest about where we are and how we’re doing against those standards.”
The Department of Education has been working with the State Board of Education since 2005 to redesign Tennessee’s high schools. The new graduation requirements, which increased the number of credits needed to graduate to 22 for all students, will go into effect for the graduating class of 2013.
Bredesen also emphasized the importance of continued progress in education, the state’s number one priority, even in tough economic times.
“We are going to manage through this fine and I’m doing everything in my power to minimize the impact on education and most specifically, the impact on the BEP itself,” said Governor Bredesen. “That, to me, is the most important thing we do here in our state. I’d like to keep that at the very top of the list if that’s remotely possible, and I believe that it is.”
The BEP is the state’s funding formula for K-12 public education.