[ applause ] thank you. Thank you. Members of the General Assembly, its my honor to present dill bill bill lee, governor of the state of tennessee. Thank you. [ applause ] thank you. Thank you. [ applause ] thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Lieutenant governor mcnacnally, speaker pro tiem dunn. Members of the 111th General Assembly, constitutional officers, justices, fellow tennesseeans. Its an honor to be before you once again tonight. Truly an honor. Before i begin, speaker sexton, let me offer a special congratulations to you on your election as our new speaker. [ applause ] i look forward to working with you not only in this session but if the years ahead as we strive to make tennessee a leader in this country. Last year i stood before you on this podiumnewly inaugurated add the 50 governor of tennessee, and i had no idea what i was getting myself into. Its been a rewarding year. Far more rewarding than i could have ever imagined. To serve tennesseeans, to help make their lives better, to help give them a better education, to recruit good jobs and to help make our state a leader in the country, its been humbling. Its been an honorable experience for sure. To serve with you, the men and women of the General Assembly has ban tremendo has been a tremendous honor as well. Thank you for your outpouring of support for me during this first year. It means an awful lot to me and to maria. With all the noise in the world these days whether its in washington or new york or hollywood, i can stand right here and i cant help but look across this room in tennessee and be inspired. Inspired by every man and woman in this chamber who sacrificed much and who are dedicated to their belief and the service of their neighbors. Thank you for what you do. I look forward to working with every one of you, along side each one of you. In the session and the years ahead as we also, together, take this state to a place where shes a leader in the country. Our state has another dedicated ser vanvant here in this room, first lady, maria lee. [ applause ] she has been advocating firelessly in the past year with her tennessee serves initiative, encouraging her fellow tennesseeans to join her in serving our neighbors. Shes hit the ground running. Tennesseeans have gotten to know what i know for a long time. I love you and were fortunate to have you as our first lady. [ applause ] many of my family members are here as well. Im especially proud my mom is here. You have served me all of my life and im proud youre here again tonight. Thank you. [ applause ] as i begin i want to thank my cabinet and my staff. Im proud of all of you and your high level of expertise and dedication that you lend to the people of tennessee each day. Thank you for your hard work. Keep it going. Tennessee is counting on you. Serving as your governor of the past year, ive seen will the of good that we can be proud of. In 2019, we were named the number one best fiscally managed state in america. We have been named as the best Business Climate in the country, number one in u. S. For advanced industry growth. In the past year, the state has garnered 108 commitments that created 16,500 jobs and 3. 6 billion of Capital Investment in tennessee. [ applause ] this year, amazon, smile direct and dozens of other Companies Made expansions in or relocat n relocations to tennessee. Were the envy of many states. Over the last year i visited every county in our state for the third time. Every place i went, i saw tennesseeans working to make our state better. Tonight we celebrate the state of our state. We gather to celebrate that and discuss ways to continue our momentum that you and i know that the successes that we enjoy belong to the 6. 8 million hard working tennesseeans who sent us here. We work for the people of tennessee and when you get back to your districts this weekend, you can tell your bosses, the people, ive seen it with my own eyes. The state of our state is healthy and strong. Lets work to keep it that way. Im proud of what we accomplished together in this last year. Im excited about whats to come. In education, we made our kids in our schools safer when we invested 30 million new dollars to support School Safety and resource officers. As you know we launched two major School Choice initiatives as well. Our First IndependentSchool Charter authorizer will ensure quality oversight and accountability for our charter schools. We created the Tennessee Education savings account which will serve low income students in districts with the highest number of low performance schools. Disruption is hard and sometimes its controversial but we cant expect extraordinarily different outcomes without extraordinarily different inputs. Im proud of these initiatives and im looking forward to their success. That said, the vast majority of our students are educated and traditional Public Schools. The majority of our efforts must remain focused there. Through my travels this year ive been in dozens of schools across tennessee, from one end to the other. I always learn something when i visit with students but when i visit with teachers, im inspired. In this building we work hard to develop Student Center education policies. Out there in the classrooms is where it happens. We make law but teachers make it happen. Teaching is a calling. We know its passion that brings teachers to the classroom but we know our teachers deserve to be paid more for the important work they do. Last year i proposed and you approved more than 70 million to support increases in teachers salarie salaries. This year im proposing the largest investment in k12 teacher salaries in tennessee history. My budget sets aside [ applause ] i thought you might be excited about that. My budget sets aside 117 million additional dollars for teachers. An amount equal to a 4 increase in the state contribution to teacher salariesalaries. We must work harder to make teaching a more attractive profession for young people. We know our new teacher numbers are dropping. As our economy becomes more competitive for jobs, investing in Work Force Development must include the next generation of teachers. Over the next two years well recommend Salary Schedules from 36,000 to 40,000 so no tennessee teacher is making less than 40,000 a year. [ applause ] this change to is Salary Schedule will reward teachers across the state while making the teaching profession even more appealing to young people who are considering the high call of becoming an educator. This year well apply to create an ap Education Teaching course and launch a new series of grants to district grow your own programs that support the development of a future teacher as early as high school. Were also taking the grow your own concept one step further. My budget includes 8. 5 million to support the launch of the governors teaching fellowship. An initiative that will in conjunction with tennessee promise provide a College Scholarship for over 1,000 of our best and brightiest as they train to become teachers. [ applause ] reasons that were making these developments is because when it comes to educateding our children there may be nothing more important than recruiting and retaining and training educators right here. The best educators in america right here in tennessee. To our Higher Education leaders, i want to thank you for the work that you have put in these last several years to improve how we train the next generation of teachers, but we cant afford to rest on our laurels. Thats why our department of education will be working much more closely with our schools of education to ensure that our approach to training teachers is the best in the nation. The in that spirit, im excited to announce a first of its kind competition to develop the best Teacher Preparation Program in the world right here in tennessee, the tennessee teach ter and Leader Institute which will solicit proposals from across the country to help launch a new initiative that will build the best Education Program in the country. Make no mistake, well do whatever it takes to make tennessee the best state in the country to be a student, and that means making tennessee the best place in america to be a teacher. [ applause ] that means petter pay, as weve said and also better training and support so that our teachers can perform at the top of their trade. Were investing 4 million to support professional Investment Opportunities for School Leaders and innovative Career Advancement for our best performing teachers. One thing that we hear as i travel across can the state, one thing that we hear from teachers is that many students arrive at school with a host of personal and family issues that Classroom Teachers just dont have the bandwidth to handle. It creates a nightmare for a teacher when a student is struggling. They can either stop the learning process for everyone else in the classroom to help that one student or ignore that students needs. Indeed, our Mental Health challenges in school are not just anecdotal. The data supports our concerns. One in five children has a Mental Health diagnosis in a given year. The 60 of children who receive Mental Health services do so in school. The Youth Suicide rate increased 56 in the last decade making it the second leading cause of death among young people aged 10 to 24. Scores of teachers and principals as well as our education commissioner had a pleaded for ren forcements from the states to help schools tackle the Mental Health and other challenges that students bring with them to the class root tonight, that help is on the way. First, we youre anding our outreach capacity of our department of Mental Health, growing our schoolbased Behavioral Health leeson program from 36 counties to all 95 counties. [ applause ] second, im proposing the creation of a new reserve, a k12 Mental Health trust fund. 250 million in onetime funds to support the growth and strength our Mental Health funds. Well seek private donations it and use the earnings to make investments in Mental Health and our Education System for years to come. Its [ applause ] it is our expectation that tennessee will lead the nation and bring Mental Health support to our teachers and it our student, and were very proud of that. In previous years weve led the nation in many respects, particularly in our student grope in our scores and that hard work is due to many in this room and including those who have gone before us and our hard working teachers. Right now the biggest challenge for our students is literacy. Currently onethird of it our third grade students are reading on grade level. Years later that results in nearly three out of four students who cannot read their High School Level textbooks on the first day of school. Literacy is the foundation for a students educational journey, and if we cant get Early Childhood literacy back on track all of our other investments in work and education will be limited. This year im recommending a new comprehensive approach to literacy. Im introducing legislation to establish new clear standards for the training of new teachers and the development of current teachers grounded in the evidence and science of reading with proven met odds like phonicsbased instruction. [ applause ] well ensure adequate supports for children before they reached the third grade milestone. Leading on literacy is more than just talk. Thats why im aprosing an additional investment of 70 million to make sure that teachers have what they need to accomplish the task at happened. Its a partnership with districts that will include improved materials, Ongoing Professional Development and high quality instructional tools for teachers in the classroom. Fully funding the bep growth. 4 teacher raises, tennessee teach ter and Leader Institute, records investment and teacher recruitment, professional development, literacy training, the k12 Mental Health trust fund, our total new dollars invested in the future of Public Education in the coming fiscal year will equal more than 600 million. [ applause ] so when youre back home in your districts this year, if someone tells you that were not supporting Public Education, they are not telling the truth. Were making these changes were making these changes and these investments because we want our Public Schools to be excellent. How will we know if were succeeding . On one hand tennessee moved up nine places in the nape and the best performing area of math and we avoided the National Trend of backsliding on past gains. On the other hand, the true measure of a successful Education System is a cohort of High School Graduates who are well prepared to be productive citizens, whether they choose a career or college. To me education isnt just about a test score. Assessments are valuable tools, but the adults in education are doing their job correctly if if they are doing their job correctly, are they wont just see academic statistics improve, but they will seat most important stat of all, that our students are prepared to become productive members of society whether thats entering the work force, attending college or earning a highschool industry certification this. Past year we place special emphasis on career readyness. Im proud of the give act that this legislature approved last year which allowed us to grant it a million to schools across our state who are helping young adults learn industry certification long before they ever have in the past. This year we launched 28 new workbased learning programs, 18 of which are in rural distressed counties. Some of my favorite days of governor have been traveling to this states Rural Counties and delivering a give grant to launch a new cte program. As i stand in in a welding shop looking into the eyes of students who maybe for the first time are excited about what they are doing at school. I look at them and say you have you a unique act to connect your brain with your hands that a lot of students dont have. I tell them we need you. We need your schools. Your communities need you, and then i look at them and say stay in your rural county and build. It put those gifts and skills to work in your own backyard. We need you. Im also proud of the future Workforce Initiative which is adding 100 new middle school s. T. E. M. Programs by 2022 and tripling the number of s. T. E. M. Designated schools in our state. Through this work, weve seen 100 increase in the number of schools applying to receive a s. T. E. M. Designation. Im also proud of our department of labor and Workforce Development who in partnership with the Trump Administration has launched new investments in youth apprenticeships. Our workforce cabinet members have done a great job this year. For first time state agencies who are involved in Workforce Development are beginning to pull in the same direction, and their work is already paying off. The first outcome of that work will be next weeks launch of apprenticeship tennessee, a new effort that will realign our approach to getting individuals back into the workplace. For those who do take advantage of our states Higher Education excellent programs and schools we want to make sure that high quality facilities an standards await them to give them their best possible chance of success. Last week the Higher Education commission released an update to our states fiveyear master plan shifting the focus from degrees to jobs. Were moving forward with bold new goals like increasing by 10 the number of dual enrollment and increase the number of degrees in Computer Science and analytics and in addition to large investments in our salary pool and our outcomesbased formulas ive set aside 160 million for Capital Improvements and 10 million for capital maintenance projects on our College Campuses across tennessee. [ applause ] for the time being, we must continue to produce highly skilled workers as fast as we can on whatever track we can so that we keep feeding the tremendous job growth that weve seen across tennessee. This year i met with ceos from south korea to Silicon Valley and everywhere in between. Ceos that are looking to vest in tennessee because of our low tax conservative approach to government that weve developed. As i mentioned more than 16,000 jobs have been created in tennessee over the last year, but too few of them have been in our distressed and atrisk counties. Thats why ive instructed