Governor Polis leads charge for education at National Governors Association
Mackenzie Stafford
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) – On Friday, Governors from across America gathered at The Broadmoor for the National Governors Association (NGA) summer meeting.
Friday’s agenda holds a session spearheaded by Colorado Governor Jared Polis. Polis created an initiative called “Let’s Get Ready! Educating All Americans for Success.” He says it’s a roadmap for governors to lead their states toward education systems that work better for all learners and for our economic competitiveness.
NGA Chair, Gov. Polis, is expected to present alongside U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, Mark Cuban and NGA Vice Chair, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt.
The goals Governor Polis hopes to accomplish with the roadmap are to solidify academic foundations in students’ reading and writing. But beyond that, he focuses on workforce preparedness, civic engagement and students’ well-being.
Governor Polis’s Let’s Get Ready plan consists of five main points.
The first is to define a vision and assess how your state is measuring it. He writes that there are basic guidelines for what students should be achieving, but that governors can take it a step further. By this, he points to anytime a governor’s office funds something in education, they should also be creating tangible checkpoints to mark success.
The next step is to open the door for organizations across the state to work together. Governor Polis outlines how there are multiple organizations made to help support children’s well-being from birth, but he says many can be disconnected. Polis suggests other states can follow suit in working to consolidate early childhood programs.
The third step Polis recommends is investing in systems and infrastructure to measure outcomes. After governors have set their goals and checkpoints, this would be a way to track them. In Polis’s roadmap he suggests investing in a statewide longitudinal data system, which in essence is a streamlined way for states to track data of students’ performance.
The fourth step he suggests is turning that data into a public dashboard. The goal is to increase transparency and make it visible to the state to see progress.
Finally, the fifth step in Polis’s Let’s Get Ready plan is to consider a more effective federal partnership for education. With changes being made by the Trump administration, Polis says governors should consider what state-level accountability systems may be needed, either to complement existing federal requirements or to replace them if federal oversight is reduced.
You can read the governor’s full plan for other state leaders here.
In his presentation, he sat down with U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. The pair spoke about how states are expected to pick up the slack as the Department of Education pulls back. Governors also had the opportunity to speak up and tell McMahon what they may need for their constituents.
“When education is returned to the states in full, I mean, after all, you already provide about 90% budget for your education. But that last piece, I can think of no better place to be and no better place to start than talking and working with the governors in those states so that I can learn what is best for you,” shared U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. “I want to work with you. I want to be as helpful as I possibly can. I want to help provide you with best practices and toolkits for your states.”
Governor Polis also sat down with Entrepreneur, business mogul Mark Cuban. Cuban spoke to the crowd of governors about the use of artificial intelligence and how it can be used in schools.
“Anybody with a smartphone, a laptop, access to the internet, can access everything, the ability to question everything, the ability to learn outside of the classroom in ways none of us ever envisioned,” explained Cuban.
The National Governors Association meeting continues Saturday with a presentation from the U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.