Thank you Bill, for that introduction. Thanks also to Mayor Wharton. And I also want to acknowledge Bobby Joe Dunavant’s sons who are here today.
It’s a pleasure to be here as you honor the work of true public servants in Shelby County by remembering a man who set the standard—Bobby Joe Dunavant.
First of all, congratulations to Bill and Joe. Just listening to Bill’s memories of Bobby tells me what an honor this award truly is. Congratulations.
I know the goal of the Rotary is to serve the less fortunate, particularly through programs that emphasize education. Back at the Capitol, we’re doing the same thing. The number-one priority for my administration remains the same as the day I took office two years ago: Providing the best education possible for our children.
A major step toward improving education in our state is making sure every 4-year-old in Tennessee has access to a quality preschool program. The Journal of the American Medical Association found that adults who participated in a high-quality pre-k program are more likely to be literate and to be enrolled in college. They’re also less likely to drop out of school, to be on welfare or to be arrested.
To put it simply: pre-k is the right thing to do for our children and it’s a good return on our investment. That’s why I’m proposing $25 million in new money, this year from excess lottery funds, as an initial investment toward establishing a statewide voluntary pre-k program.
The reason I bring up my plans for pre-k today at this event honoring public service is because right here in Memphis you have the perfect example of how the two go together.
It’s the story of two women whose lives could be summed up by the Old Testament Proverb: “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.”
Long before pre-k became the shiny object everyone was reaching for, Mary Palmer and Brenda Taylor already knew what the studies would come to show. They knew…because they’d seen it for themselves…they knew that a child’s early years are critical. They knew that a child’s brain develops more between birth and age 5 than any other time in life.
For 20 years, just down the road from here at Southwest Tennessee Community College, Mary and Brenda ran what they call a “Lab School,” which is a sort of training facility for students majoring in early childhood education. But over the years they saw their clientele change.
More and more children weren’t as prepared. They needed more reading help, more nurturing. Many were coming to school hungry. Others had family members addicted to drugs.
So in 1998, Brenda and Mary changed their focus. They heard about a pilot preschool program that the state was offering funding for, and they submitted a grant proposal. As Mary says, they wanted to make sure “their children”—the children who life was about to leave behind—they wanted to make sure “their children” benefited. They were successful, becoming one of the first facilities to offer classes through the pilot project.
Seven years later, Brenda has moved on to lead early education efforts for Memphis City Schools. And Mary still heads Southwest’s Campus Childcare Center. It’s a nationally accredited program, and has earned the State’s “Three Star” rating for quality preschools. But more than that, it’s providing a crucial leg up not just for the children who attend Mary’s classes, but their parents as well.
What Mary and Brenda do each day is vital, their work an example of what I envision for Tennessee’s preschool program statewide. Like Mary and Brenda, I know that access to a quality preschool classroom is one of the key “signposts” of a child who will do well in school—reading at grade level by the third grade.
I know there are a lot of questions about how this will work—how it will be implemented, how much will it cost, who will pay. A cornerstone of my proposal is the flexibility it provides local governments and school boards. Under my plan, local government gets to decide if it wants to add pre-k classrooms. Local government has the ability to seek outside financial partners to fund the local match. And local government has the flexibility to build its program as finances and need dictates.
Back in Nashville, we’re working hard to make this happen. But as I’ve said many times, while government does many things well, it can’t do everything alone. The best results come when people find a common goal and work together to achieve it.
Right here in Memphis, there’s an organization already working to increase access to quality preschool programs. The Community Institute for Early Childhood has brought together some 45 stakeholders from a variety of specializations – including health care, education business, service networks and government. They are working together to develop a long-range strategic plan for improving early childhood development in Shelby County. It’s a great group, and I look forward to working with them as we progress in this effort.
As I said in the beginning, assuring a quality education for every Tennessee child is my No. 1 priority as Governor. Everyone I talk to—on both sides of the political aisle—everyone agrees that pre-k works. When people like Laura Bush and Zell Miller and John Kerry can all agree on an issue, you know it’s got to be a good one.
But educating our children is not just a government responsibility. It’s also public service. All of you here today are the leaders in your community. Like Mary and Brenda, the work you do is essential to the continued well-being of Memphis and Shelby County. As Governor, I need your drive and dedication as we work to give our children a better tomorrow.
Congratulations again to Bill and to Joe, and thank you for your service to Memphis and Shelby County and the State of Tennessee.
I appreciate you having me here today. Thank you.
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Federal Initiatives
