Governor Patton Praised as a Forceful Leader in Education at National Conference

For Immediate Release

July 14,1999
Contact: Melissa Forsythe or Mark Pfeiffer (502)564-2611
Governor Patton Praised as a Forceful Leader in Education at National Conference

Denver, Colorado - "Forceful, energetic, innovative and inspiring," were just a few of the words used by educators, government and business leaders in describing Governor Paul Patton’s tenure as Chair of the Education Commission of the States.

Today marked the end of a four day annual conference of the ECS in Denver and the close of Governor Patton’s one year term at the helm of the national organization. In turning over the gavel to incoming Chair, Wyoming Governor Jim Geringer, Patton said, "It’s my hope that, as chair of this organization for the past year, I have, in some small way, helped prepare ECS and its members to meet the challenges in education that are coming with the new century. Our initiative this past year has been to accelerate the transformation of postsecondary education to meet the needs of the 21^st century. I believe we’ve made a contribution to that process."

As part of Governor Patton’s initiative, last year he brought together over twenty leaders in government, business and education from across the country to frankly discuss the need for change in higher education and provide the opportunity for all leaders to have a significant role in leveraging change.

The governor called on leading thinkers on the subject of higher education to share their thoughts and publish them in 7 papers that were distributed to ECS members. With the help of the Pew Charitable Trust, the governor also started a series of forums around the country to keep the subject of postsecondary education before the American people in the years ahead.

"Clearly, our decision to focus on the transformation of postsecondary education was timely and important, evidenced by the discussions that have taken place during this annual conference and the interest and concern shown by so many on this issue," Governor Patton said. "It’s my hope that our example and our contributions through ECS will help set other states on a similar course toward excellence in education that serves their citizens with the opportunity for a better quality of life and thereby help our entire society to move into the next century with hope and optimism. It’s been a pleasure to work with ECS and for the American people."

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