Plenary Session Transcripts

• Agriculture and Rural Development, and Energy and Environment (AG/EE) - burdens of environmental requirements on local government
• Economic Development and Technological Innovation (ED) - expanding opportunities in America's cities; and a state action agenda for promoting quality businesses
• Economic Development and Technological Innovation, and Transportation, Commerce, and Communications (ED/TCC) - state telecommunications initiatives to enhance economic development; state telecommunications initiatives to enhance education; and state telecommunications initiatives
• Executive Committee (Exec) - strategies to foster citizenship
• Human Resources (HR) - youth apprenticeship efforts; and state welfare reform and restructuring efforts
• International Trade and Foreign Relations (ITFR) - North American trade talks; emerging trends in state overseas operations; and the Governor's role in promoting international trade
• Justice and Public Safety (JPS) - state and local relations in community corrections; the role of intermediate sanctions; and proposed reductions in the National Guard
• Transportation, Commerce, and Communications (TCC) - roundtable discussion on the surface transportation program
• Other Governors' Sessions - Action Team on School Readiness; Action Team on the School Years; and Action Team on Lifelong Learning
• 1991-92 Chair Missouri Gov. John Ashcroft's Initiative - Redefining the Possible: Achieving the National Education Goals
• Plenary Session Discussion Subject - Education

The School Years Action Team sought to focus public attention on education and to promote state efforts geared toward achieving better results. The team's report concluded that Governors needed first to clearly communicate goals and new directions for school reform. Second, reluctance to change needed to be overcome. Third, long-term solutions needed to be developed in the face of short-term pressures. And fourth, human resource development at all educational levels needed to be supported and sustained.

The Life-Long Learning Action Team focused on the reality that the vast majority of new jobs would require some kind of technical training. Given that adult workers were expected to change jobs five to seven times during their working years, life-long learning took on new importance. The action team shared information on what was being done in various states with respect to life-long learning and career development.

Two educational experts presented different viewpoints on the nation's education system. Chris Whittle outlined for Governors the design and purpose of his "Edison Project," which had begun with the development of a TV news show, the laying of a cable and satellite infrastructure for the show's broadcast, and the purchase of more than 300,000 televisions for the schools that aired it. The total cost for the show and infrastructure was $200 million, funded via the sale of two minutes of commercials a day. The show was airing in public schools in every state but New York, and a University of Michigan study found that the six million students who were watching it demonstrated greater awareness of current events.

Whittle explained that his project had been named "Edison" in recognition of the fact that Thomas Edison had invented the light bulb not by hot-wiring a candle but by starting from scratch to invent a new infrastructure to service the bulb. Likewise, the philosophy of the Edison Project was to redesign pre-kindergarten through 12^th grade education from the ground up. Besides the TV show, Edison planned to build campuses containing four different schools—day care, elementary, middle, and secondary—that would serve 200,000 students beginning in the fall of 1996. Though privately operated and for-profit, the schools would be open to everyone, as public schools were, with 90 to 100 percent of students in each school on scholarship.

In a "preemptive strike" against criticism of the project, Whittle said that the development of private schools on the Edison model would not increase the gap between haves and have-nots, in part because the savings to the public system from students shifting to Edison schools could be plowed back into improving public schools. As for involvement of the for-profit private sector, Whittle reminded Governors that public schools already depended on the private sector for such things as textbooks. He also noted that the project would create jobs through new school construction and the addition of teaching and administrative positions.

Al Shanker, President of the American Federation of Teachers, argued that it was important not to abandon an existing system for something untried. Two keys to improving the existing public school system were to identify what students were expected to have learned at specific points in their education, and to determine how to get students to meet those expectations, neither of which the Edison system would necessarily resolve. Moreover, if the point of Edison was to reinvent education, Shanker said that its "deregulated" philosophy would be difficult to transfer to the highly-regulated public system both legally and substantively. He concluded with the observation that education should be thought of as a public good, not a consumer good that each parent could buy individually for his/her child without regard for whether others had access to the same product.

Governor Roy Romer of Colorado said: "...all of us in this room know that [education is] our top priority and ultimately it is the most important determinant of the future of this nation economically and in every other way. And...we've got to reduce health care costs...But...in looking ahead, the middle of the road was always blocked, blocked by a rock slide. And I call that rock slide the federal deficit. And I think it's time to deal with that deficit, and I believe that Governors need to be at the table. Because...the strategic investments of this nation in education and health care and infrastructure are primarily state investments."

Selected Policy Positions Adopted:
(1) Asking that states retain essential control over banking operations within their borders; (2) commending the workers compensation system and pledging the support of Governors for the effective and efficient system of protecting workers and keeping businesses competitive; (3) asking that all federal facilities be in compliance with both state and federal environmental law and regulation; (4) calling for a national study to assess the prevalence of asset transfers for those becoming eligible for long-term care under the Medicaid program and the impact of such a program on Medicaid expenditures; (5) reiterating the Governors' belief that to reduce National Guard and Reserve forces would be detrimental to the nation; and (6) seeking full funding for ISTEA (Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act).