Governors association. We appreciate everyone joining us this morning, and governor has lumbar, is he here yet . He is still out probably making arrangements. Have we had a great time at this meeting . I tell you, it has just been absolutely fantastic. [applause] the governor and his wife havee done such a wonderful job in planning, not only have we had great meetings and productive meetings, but we certainly haved had wonderful entertainment. I dont think weve ever probably had the opportunity to go to one place and see so many superstars as we did last nighti and just talent and history and the ryeman theater, it was just so much fun. Governor, as you may have seen, were having quite a little rile live because hes rivalry because hes invited a lot of to our oklahoma talent to perform, and hes claiming them as his people here this nashville. Thats not setting very welll but well work it out before we leave. Were happy to share a love of music and entertainment, so we a appreciate the governor. And tonight we have another very special evening in which well be going to the hermitage and the wonderful, historic place. One of our past president s, and certainly well have another oklahomatalented person, carrie underwood, which hell claim again as nashvilles, but thats okay. I raise em up, and then he gets to have em for a while. Or tonight will be an outdoor event, so be sure and wearmigh something comfortable and cool because it might be warm. Id like to thank our executiveo Committee Members that work very hard all during the year gettin prepared for both the summer meeting and also the midwinterr meeting we have in february. This particular i want to start with our vice chairman of the. Nga, Governor John Hickenlooper. Governor, thank you very much. Its been a great pleasure toto work with you. Tomorrow is your day to take over, and its been a lot of fun to work with john. John and i have been to each others states, weve helped on various initiatives whether its been on education or energy policy, and thats what the National Governors association about, working together to try and find solutions we can agree upon. Id also like to thank governor jack markell from delaware is also here this weekend. Governor branstad, is governor branstad in the room yet . Some of these people have been in committee this morning. Governor bullock is here, thank you very much. Hes on the executive committee. Governor herbert, we appreciate the governor. We a and Governor Scott walker, thank you very much for being on the executive committee also. Governor beebe and governor dayton who were not able to join us are also on the executive committee, too, so we appreciate them. I think i got everybody. Didnt miss anybody, did i . Good. Well, thank you very much. Ve i thought you might find it interesting, but were very ver grateful that the Vice President came yesterday to talk to us about Work Force Training and skills, and the importance to america. But weve been reading through the press clips this morning,e and the you didnt know how important governors are getting us back on track, fun to read the Vice President s headlines. Ill share a couple with you this morning. Biden bemoans bitterness in d. Cn we heard that yesterday. That was a lot of fun. Fun one says biden calls upon the nations governors to help endn the er of poisonous politics. Calls upon the governors to help with that which we are grateful to. Ful. Heres another one, Vice President biden ask governors help during nashville trip, oncen again calling upon thece a governors. Lets see, ive got one more here. Biden calls upon governors to lead the nation. Like dont you like that, guys . I think thats pretty good. Etty but anyway, it was wonderful having Vice President here oh, heres another one, this ise a really good one too. Biden to governors only you can save us. [laughter] [applause] we do have a lot of work to do as a nation. Thats why the National Governors association is about pulling both Political Parties together and having us build a stronger national economy. I want to start by beginning to talk about my chair possibly should have chairs initiative. Picking out a particular issue i t washt important. I chose education and training for tomorrows jobs. America works is not making significant improvements to our Education System and our Workforce Training Program and aligning those systems with the needs of business and our label or market. Its an issue thats critical to our states and economic success. It is certainly important to the United States and our nations economy. This is an Education Initiative and a workforce initiative, but also a jobs initiative. All of ouro help states achieve prosperity. It begins by recognizing some very Simple Truths. Todays world is more complex and is changing faster than ever. Since the time our parents were growing up, especially with technology and all the Ways Companies change so very rapidly and have to be able to adjust. Those changes are making new demands on students, employees, employers and our state leaders. Individuals need more education and work skills for todays jobs. Businesses need a deeper, more Diverse Talent workforce. States must make very targeted investments in the workforce make sure we are helping to spur economic growth. In order to be able to compete at the state and National Levels , we have to adapt to an everchanging economy. As governors, we are in the key position because we are response will for the Education Systems in our states and responsible for Economic Development. Responsible for creating jobs and a stronger economy in our state. We are uniquely positioned to be able to lead this effort and lead our nation back and build a stronger connection but when our employees and employers and industry. The leadership begins with starting to recognize the very Simple Truths and understand the challenges we face as governors. All, as a nation, we are losing ground internationally. Both terms of our students competitiveness and our workforce. It is not necessarily because we are getting worse, but because our competitors are moving ahead quicker than the United States. While we were once the world leader in student achievement for 15yearolds in our nation, reading,nk 20 thin 23rd in science and 30th in math among the 34 industrialized nations in the world. From 2012 are much lower than they were from the time of 2008. We have lost ground versus making up ground. We cannot expect to be able to lead the world in innovation and job creation if we cant keep up academically. Nor can we provide our citizens access to a middleclass life were beyond if they dont have access to good paying jobs. When i started this Initiative Last year, i shared with all of fewer jobs inthat our economy are available to individuals that only have a High School Degree. We talked about the importance of having more than a High School Degree to be able to compete. Listen to you just to this fact. Today, 35 of the jobs in our economy are filled by people with High School Diplomas or less. Did you catch that . Only 35 of the jobs in america require a High School Degree or less. Two thirds of those jobs will pay less than 25,000 a year. That is not going to lead one to a good living wage. Based upon these facts come im more convinced than ever that education beyond High School Degree is critical. People either need a twoyear degree, four year degree or some type of workforce training certification. That is now the new minimum of Educational Attainment level for a successful, good paying job in. Ur nation and in our states unfortunately, the u. S. Is falling behind. Failing ourare students and our citizens and we ourfailing our states and nation. Here are more unpleasant truths and challenges we face. Too many students still dont finish high school. Only 70 of our Public High School students make it to graduation. The percentage is much worse when you look at minorities or lower income students. Today, students who go to college or underprepared. Many of them have to take remediation courses when they begin their first year in college. Too Many Employers continue to tell us as governors that they cant find the employees they need to expand and grow their businesses and create those jobs. As governors, we have to create pathways to prosperity to the middle class on the notion that a post secondary education is no longer a luxury for some, but in in necessity to help our employers find the higher Skilled Workforce they need to be successful. For the American People to be able to achieve the American Dream and reach the middle class. Todays fastpaced world, those pathways have to be more flexible and have to be innovative and efficient. They have to be able to reflect of everchanging needs our nations economy. It will require us as governors working very closely with our leaderss and education and Industry Sectors and Workforce Training Programs and the private sector itself so that we can build education develop work skills that are relevant to todays jobs. Most importantly, we have to also be able to meet the needs of our students. And make sure were putting them on the right pathway. The challenge is very clear. The one that we face. Too few americans are succeeding in posting their education and to view of our students are graduate from high school careerd to enter into a or college self. We have some goals that are important if we are to continue to move forward. First, our states must continue to develop high academic standards. All governors are committed to higher academic standards to make sure that our High School Students are ready to enter into college or enter into a trade school or enter into a career without remediation by th. To help work on successful programs like complete College America in which we can have more degree completion in our workforce and be able to help our students and our returning adults who want to go back to school and better themselves and want to have a different type of career so they can successfully complete a degree or enter into some type of career Training Program that will lead them to better jobs. States are going to have to work very closely together. With education leaders, the private sector and Public Policy makers to close the skills cap. We hear a lot about the skills gaps we have in our nation. We want to better align our Education Systems to meet the needs of our employers. America works and its initiative is about identifying components that will help us reach these goals and attain these Different Things we need to reach. First of all, as governors, we have to be able to articulate a very clear message to our people back in our states. That connects education, connects the dots, basically. Kenexa results with our states economy. Connects results with our states county. If you dont know where you dont know where youre going, anywhere will get you there. We have to gather data and information and we have to know where we are. We have to track the progress itself and be able to measure the results so we can know that were are getting the results we need to have. We have to create highquality publicprivate partnerships. That is something great we have been doing all across the nation and you will see that in this report. We have to have more flexibility with our federal and state funding and our incentives we have and other resources we can better realign our education and Workforce Training Programs in the nation. Over the past year, my initiative, America Works, has brought together governors, education leaders, employers, Workforce Training Programs, Economic Development professional leaders, private sectors so we can spur innovation and have collaboration and have a National Conversation about how we can create the vibrant economy, more opportunities, raise up the middle class and give our children the opportunities they need so they can be successful. Here is the result. Over the past year, we have d 31onone meetings to talk about best practices that are already underway across our nation. E hosted to regional summits one in connecticut. Thank you very much for hosting the first summit for us. One in new mexico. I was also proud to be joined by governor herbert. Thank you so much for coming. We appreciate that. We released an interim report at the winter meeting that described to governors about the program itself and the benefits. Ae benefits of having i better educated workforce. Provided you with specific data and information so that you could look at your current Educational Attainment levels. Look at your Current Industries and businesses. We could identify those areas where we mismatched. Where we have a skills gap within our different economies. We also heard from one of our , the ceoin our nation duringame to speak to us our winter meeting. He articulated that we need a better educated Skilled Workforce in our nation. National summit in oklahoma city. We presented the various components for our comprehensive aproach so we could develop type line of workers for our states economies. I was very proud to be joined by governor branstad and governor nixon. Thank you very much for joining me in oklahoma city. And so weve had a very productive time this past year meeting with all of our various officials, bringing together all of our state leaders, and it has been a great year on America Works and training for tomorrows jobs. I frankly think its probably one of the most important issues that our nation faces right now, and were very proud of the tremendous work that the National Governors association has done on our behalf. Excuse me just a moment, im looking for hi next paper here my next paper here because i got a little bit out of line here. There it is. So what i wanted to show you was the book itself. And i think each of you have a copy of this on your, on your desk. But it also lists all the different components. It has some great examples of whats being done across our nation. This is a wonderful guideline, i think its something thatll really be helpful to all of us, so im proud to be able to present this to you and glad to have it in front of you. This book also describe cans four policy components, lays out the elements that each of you can actually take and use as a guideline, some very specific suggestions and ideas. You can imelement back in your individual implement back in your individual state. It provides, as i said, example, illustrates best practices and also offers guiding ideas ask answers a lot of questions that policymakers have to help us be able to set priorities in our state. So before i conclude all this and introduce our speaker, i want to thank all of our foundations that have made America WorksEducation Training for tomorrows jobs possible, because its a lot of work to put this information and data together, to host the various summits. So i want to thank this particular if youll just raise your hand and let us recognize you and thank you, lumina noun noun foundation, ge foundation, Carnegie Library of new york be, noise foundation, bayer corporation. Those are all the corporations that provided financial support, expertise and helped us be able to put the chairs initiative together and helped us learn important lessons and opportunities that we can improve upon our states. And finally, just in closing this session on America Works, we have to have gubernatorial leadership. I can produce a report, we can have meetings across the nation, we can outline the steps and the components that we can all take as governors, but its all up to you. Its all up to the governors across the nation to be able to take this great information to learn from each other. And thats probably one of my favorite things at this meeting is that when the governors come together and they talk about whats happening in each of their individual states, we really are doing great things as governors. And this report proves that governors are taking the lead and creating jobs and opportunities, theyre focusing on education, theyre focusing on Work Force Training programs. Were listening to our employers across our nation that are telling us that they have job openings and skills gaps, and were working as governors to address those needs. So thank you all for your input, thank you for your work on this report, and now were looking forward to implementing it. So thank you, governors. [applause] all right. Now were going