Last July, at the NGA Summer Meeting in Salt Lake City, Colorado Governor Jared Polis was elected Chair of the National Governors Association. Each year, NGA’s Chair selects an issue to champion throughout their one-year term. These Initiatives highlight bipartisan policy solutions and spur action and awareness on pressing state and national issues. For his Initiative, Governor Polis developed Let’s Get Ready: Educating All Americans for Success. The Initiative aims to support Governors and states to drive innovation, bolster capacity to measure what works and what doesn’t, and prepare students for successful futures and the economy for greater success. Through Let’s Get Ready, Governors are working with educators, parents and families, students, researchers, and community and business leaders to address challenges like workforce shortages, skills mismatch and widening opportunity gaps that limit true economic mobility for Americans.
“All Americans should have access to education that prepares them for success in life. As the world changes and technology evolves, ensuring all students graduate with the skills and knowledge necessary for success is so important for U.S. economic competitiveness. Our initiative will explore how to better evaluate outcomes from state investments in education, and help drive improved outcomes for learners at all stages of their education journey.”
NGA Chair Colorado Governor Jared Polis
At the closing plenary of the 2024 NGA Summer Meeting, Indiana Secretary of Education Dr. Katie Jenner and SUNY Chancellor John B. King, Jr. joined Governor Polis, and attending Governors, for a discussion on the importance of adapting U.S. educational systems to better prepare students for the modern workforce. See a readout and watch the session here.
Following back-to-school season, Governor Polis hosted an Initiative convening in Denver. The event featured a conversation with Dr. Steven Levitt on Educating for Life; a panel discussion with Governors and education experts on how to better Educate for Opportunity; and a conversation on how to Better Measure Success, featuring Marlon Marshall, CEO of City Fund, and Dr. Marty West, Professor of Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a member of the National Assessment Governing Board, which oversees the National Assessment of Education Progress.
The second regional convening of the Initiative took place in Las Vegas in December. The meeting opened with a discussion of AI In Education with Sal Kahn, CEO and founder of Khan Academy, and a leader in education innovation. Next, Girls who Code Founder Reshma Saujani, Google Director of Computer Science Impact and Outreach Dr. Shanika Hope, and Stadler US CEO Martin Ritter explored strategies to ensure underserved students can access work-based learning opportunities. To conclude the first day of the convening College Board CEO David Coleman spoke with Governors about improving high school coursework to engage all students and better prepare high school students for careers and college. The next day, Governor Polis joined education officials from Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo’s office to visit Southeast Career Technical Academy, a four-year high school and career technical academy.
Initiative progress will continue in 2025, with coverage of Governors’ education priorities in their State of the State addresses, as well as a plenary session at the NGA 2025 Winter Meeting, followed by Initiative convenings in New York and Vancouver, Canada. Let’s Get Ready! will culminate at the NGA 2025 Summer Meeting, with the release of a roadmap based on the learnings from the Initiative. Bookmark the Initiative homepage for updates and let us know if you have any questions about the Initiative or would like to get involved.
