At least 5,000 public schools have failed to meet their academic achievement targets for at least five consecutive years. The underlying causes of such failure are usually a combination of weak leadership, inadequate skill levels among teachers, and insufficient high-quality teaching materials.
Recognizing that higher education, including community colleges, four-year colleges, and research universities, cannot help drive economic growth in their states unless students' academic success is linked to the needs of the marketplace, governors and state policymakers are beginning to move beyond their focus on getting more students to get "degrees" to asking: "Degrees for what jobs?"
As the deadline for spending funds from the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act for cleanup of the nuclear weapons complex approaches, states face two key challenges: achieving future compliance with state-Department of Energy cleanup agreements; and transitioning to a post-ARRA workforce.
To help states consider innovative clean energy program financing options that maximize state resources, the NGA Center released the State Clean Energy Financing Guidebook. The Guidebook helps states consider three important elements of a clean energy financing program: sources of capital including bonds, state revenues, and private capital.
In 2005, the governors of all 50 states made an unprecedented commitment to voluntarily implement a common, more reliable formula for calculating their state’s high school graduation rate by signing the NGA Graduation Counts Compact. Five years later, progress is steady, and 48 states are expected to report high school graduation rates using the common formula by 2011.
The number of youth aging out of foster care has increased every year since 2001. This population, although small in number, has a high economic cost to state governments and society as a whole. Yet, because there are relatively few of these young people, states that invest in them can make a large positive impact without incurring great cost.
A Governor's Guide to Homeland Security is a comprehensive resource intended to guide governors in the critical task of providing homeland security and ensuring public safety the states.
Enhancing State Clean Energy Workforce Training to Meet Demand focuses on state efforts that have emerged with the help of workforce development funding in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and includes examples of how states have leveraged that funding with additional state and private sector support.
With more than 60 percent of all children from birth to age 5 spending time in the care of someone other than their parents, publicly supported early childhood programs must provide safe, nurturing, and developmentally appropriate experiences that foster healthy growth and learning.
A number of states have anti-predatory lending laws, but many states found that during the housing boom, predatory lenders found ways to sidestep existing laws with new mortgage instruments. Hence, several states already have amended existing lending laws or enacted new statutes that address directly problems that contributed to the housing bust.
Governors are responding to the foreclosure crisis by taking action in three main areas: foreclosure mitigation, to reduce the number of families losing their homes; neighborhood stabilization, to prevent areas with multiple foreclosed homes from falling into disarray; and foreclosure prevention, to protect against future housing crises.
Summary of state efforts to assists homeowners in danger of foreclosure
Counseling, financial and other types of assistance are ways states can help homeowners struggling to pay their mortgages remain in their homes.
Many states have worked to develop innovative ways to reach out to borrowers at risk of foreclosure to encourage them to contact their loan servicer or a foreclosure counselor. Outreach is key to the success of any effort to prevent delinquent loans from going into foreclosure.
Between 2008 and 2010, states continued to lead the nation on a path to a cleaner and more secure energy future – especially in the areas of energy efficiency and clean electricity.
Foreclosure resources to help buyers avoid rescue scams.
Several states are examining their foreclosure laws to determine whether the tenants of foreclosed property are adequately protected under existing laws. Most new legislation in this area seeks to improve notification of foreclosure to tenants and give tenants sufficient time to move after receiving the notice.
States have experienced record budget shortfalls over the past several years due to sharp declines in state revenues. In response, governors have taken record measures to downsize and redesign state governments during the 2009 and 2010 state fiscal years. Such efforts likely will continue over the near future. Economists predict that state revenues (in real terms) may not reach 2008 levels until late fiscal 2012 or early fiscal 2013. At the same time, the costs of government services will continue to rise, as will ongoing liabilities related to health care, pensions, and other benefits. States also will have to deal with many long-term investments that have been deferred. Thus, state budgets may not recover until the end of the decade.
To prevent foreclosures, some states are revamping their foreclosure processes to give borrowers additional time to work with their loan servicers to reach a workout agreement. Some judicial foreclosure states are encouraging or requiring mediation between borrowers and servicers during the foreclosure process. Other states are negotiating agreements with servicers to streamline loan modifications.
Comparable, reliable metrics are essential for states under current fiscal constraints. Information on the progress toward, and degree completion of, all students in higher education allows state leaders to gauge whether policies are successful and helps inform future funding decisions.
