STATE OF THE STATE ADDRESSES

Skills and the Economy in Governors’ 2008 Keynotes
April 2008

By Shawn Fremstad, Rachel Unruh, Andy Van Kleunen
Read the analysis

The State of the State or budget address is a governor’s opportunity to signal his or her priorities to lawmakers and voters for the coming year. Skills2Compete wanted to see where its campaign priorities figured – or if they figured – into governors’ State of the State and budget addresses this year. To that end, Skills2Compete analyzed governors’ addresses in relationship to four core issues:

In this Analysis Speech Comparison A table comparing governors’ addresses and their attention to the four Skills2Compete priorities listed to the left. Speech Summaries Summaries and excerpts related to economic and workforce development from specific addresses. State of the State Superstars In an effort to highlight governors whose keynotes demonstrate a commitment to the Skills2Compete vision, we have identified Skills2Compete Superstars.

 Attention to the forgotten middle of the skilled labor market
Nearly half of all jobs in this country are middle-skill jobs, requiring more than high school, but less than a four-year degree. Did the governor address the need to educate and train workers for jobs that require this level of education? Is there a balance between calls for four-year and advanced degrees for highly credentialed innovation occupations AND the need to train workers to fill other skilled positions in the labor market?

 Attention to current and future workers
Two-thirds of the workforce of 2020 will be comprised of adults already in today's workforce and beyond the reach of our K-12 systems. To what extent does the governor address the education and training needs of people already in the workforce as well as young people preparing for tomorrow’s jobs?

 Attention to vocational training
Skills2Compete seeks guaranteed access to up to two years of postsecondary education, but those two years can take many forms. To what extent does the Governor acknowledge the importance of vocational or technical training, in a college or non-college setting? These multiple pathways include vocational education at community colleges as well as training within apprenticeships, labor-management partnerships, and community based training organizations, among others.

 A 21st-century skill guarantee
Skills2Compete believes that as a nation, we have forgotten a major part of the strategy that drove America’s economic prosperity in the 20th century. In the 1920s, the U.S. promised everyone a high school education, in part to meet the needs of an industrializing economy. The skill demands of our economy have changed tremendously since that time, but the level to which we guarantee training for our workforce has not. In this analysis, we looked for suggestions by governors that it is time to rethink the level of education to which workers in their states have guaranteed access.

A note to readers. A State of the State or budget address is just one way in which a governor can signal his or her priorities. Some governors did not address any of the Skills2Compete priorities in their address, yet are pursuing important related initiatives within their states. In some cases, we have noted if the governor has made a recent speech or proposal that addresses Skills2Compete priorities. This analysis is not definitive. But it does tell us the extent to which America’s governors see investing in people as a core component of their state’s economic strategy—and one about which they are talking publicly.  We encourage readers to use the links we provide to the governors’ addresses to explore their priorities further.