Gov.
Patton turns over NGA Chairmanship
FRANKFORT, KY. – Highlighted by his efforts to improve low-performing schools, a Medicare prescription drug benefit for seniors and full access to Medicaid for six million elderly and disabled Americans, Gov. Paul Patton today ended his chairmanship of the National Governors Association in Indianapolis at the organization’s summer meeting.
“I’m very thankful and fortunate to have had the opportunity to serve in this role for an organization that helped when I first took office in 1995,” Patton said. “I appreciate all the hard work and continual friendship from all the governors over the last year as we worked together to push the agendas of our states for the betterment of our citizens.”
Patton began his chairmanship in Boise, Idaho at last year’s summer meeting with then vice chairman Dirk Kempthorne, R-Idaho, who now will head NGA. In Boise, Patton announced his initiative as chairman: “Reaching New Heights: Turning Around Low-Performing Schools.”
The
initiative has focused on how governors can meet the challenges of trying to
improve performance in schools that consistently fail to meet standards. The NGA
Center for Best Practices has led this project. The initiative provides a
series of “framing papers” that summarize and widen the knowledge base on
current intervention strategies for low-performing schools, and a
“guidebook” for governors that provides both a policy framework and
highlight best practices from states, districts and other nations.
"Governors
are constantly searching for solutions that will help all schools succeed, but
some schools require more help than others. Current research suggests that state
policies can effectively stimulate and support school improvement. Governors
must lead the charge to provide all students with an equal opportunity to learn
and succeed," Patton said.
The
initiative developed the Institute for Governors’ Education Advisors that
provides an opportunity to convene governors’ advisors and education leaders
to study best practices and identify how those practices can be implemented in
their own states. Institute participants also will be briefed on current
research and discuss the implications of these findings for state policy.
During this week’s summer meeting, Patton held a National Education Summit for Governors in order to raise national awareness on strategies developed to turn around low-performing schools. For more information on the initiative: www.nga.org
Other
initiatives Patton championed throughout his chairmanship include: seeking
enhanced flexibility in optional benefits and optional programs within Medicaid;
supporting the Administration's Medicaid drug rebate program; calling on
Congress to approve the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax agreement; asking Congress
to provide adequate access to radio spectrum to facilitate wireless
communications for first responders in emergencies; calling for the development
of a national rural development policy; support for legislative proposals that
provide funding for Amtrak; and calling on Congress to keep expired SCHIP funds
in the program.
During
the 2003 NGA Winter Meeting in Washington D.C., Patton led the governors to ask
for additional funding regarding homeland security, special education and “No
Child Left Behind.”
"These
federal mandates have placed responsibilities on states, and governors strongly
believe the federal government should provide additional dollars to fund
them," Patton said.
Throughout
his term as chair, Patton has publicly praised NGA as a unique organization that
works as a consensus.
“Even
though NGA is made up of Republicans and Democrats, it functions as a group of
concerned governors who come together, close the door and reach an agreement
based on what is best for the states,” Patton said. “We’re all governors
so we share the same problems and concerns back home. When we meet we put any
philosophical differences behind us and work together to secure funding and
programs for our states.”
Dirk Kempthorne, R-Idaho, said it is always difficult to bid farewell to any governor because “our time together as colleagues seems to come and go all too fast.”
“It
is especially difficult for me to give that farewell when it comes after a year
of working with Gov. Patton as his vice chair,” Kempthorne said. “It has
been a year of great challenges for us all as governors of our states but it has
been a great pleasure for us to have Gov. Patton as our chairman during this
time.”
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