County Officials Orientation Program

This week was something of a whirlwind for me and I'm sure for many of the newly elected county officials as well. The County Officials Orientation Program was a tremendous success with hundreds of officials in attendance. For the opening session on Tuesday, the room was set for 560 and completely filled up. The hotel staff brought in 100 additional chairs and there were still people filing in and standing around in the back and at the sides of the room. There were hundreds of newly elected county commissioners in attendance. Even more impressive than the crowd was the energy and attention they brought to the meetings. The rooms stayed full throughout hours of training and speakers. Tennessee saw a lot of change in this recent election, but if the conference this week was any indication, the new officials joining public service in Tennessee bring a great deal of energy, interest and ideas to county government.

Thanks to all who made the effort to come to the conference and best wishes on your new term that starts next week.

Tennessee Eligible for Teacher Jobs Funds

According to an article in the Commercial Appeal (find it on-line here#), Tennessee is eligible to receive federal funds recently approved to help protect teacher jobs. Since the state did not cut funding for teacher salaries, there was a concern Tennessee would miss out on this assistance.

This excerpt from the article indicates that the money may be used for certain other specific needs:

"Under the federal Department of Education guidance circulated to U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen's office on Thursday, even states that have not reduced their support to elementary and secondary education are eligible for the funding.

"If a state's (local education agencies) do not need funds to recall or rehire former employees, they may use the funds for activities such as paying the salaries and benefits for teachers who provide instructional services in after-school and extended learning programs," the DOE guidance suggests."

See the article linked above for more details.

Comptroller Releases Report on Missing Funds in County Government

As part of a continuing effort to provide greater transparency in government, Comptroller Justin P. Wilson is making information about cash shortages reflected in the annual financial reports and special reports of Tennessee’s 95 counties available online.

The report provides information about cash shortages and other thefts reported in the annual financial reports for the year ended June 30, 2009 and certain special reports for Tennessee’s 89 county governments audited by the Comptroller’s Division of County Audit and for six counties audited by private accounting firms.

In addition to providing information about the amounts of the cash shortages in each county, the report also provides explanations about how the shortages were discovered, why they occurred, what steps have been taken to correct the problems and any judicial actions resulting from the cash shortages.

“This report serves a dual purpose,” Comptroller Wilson said. “First of all, it gives Tennesseans easy access to important financial information about their county governments, which serves the purpose of increasing transparency in government. Also, bringing this information to light may help reduce fraud, waste and abuse of taxpayer dollars in the future, which is one of the primary missions of the Comptroller’s office.”

The report can be found on-line here.

Tennessee Ranked Best in the Nation in Debt to GDP Ratio

An analysis of the ratio of debt to gross domestic product for each state (and the District of Columbia) shows that Tennessee is lowest with a debt/GDP ratio of 1.95%. The next lowest state was Nevada with 3.58%.

You can find a slide show of all 51 figures at

the daily beast.

Thanks to Post Politics for the reference.

Lottery Scholarship Shortfall Not as Bad as Earlier Predictions

At one point during the last session, there was a concern that lottery revenues were not keeping pace with spending for the scholarship program. In reaction to rather dire predictions, the legislature created a task force to examine the issue. It met all day yesterday. The good news is, the projections have become much more optimistic, showing manageable shortfalls in the next few years. The lottery scholarship program has a large reserve fund which appears to be able to sustain it through a slight turndown. For more information, see this article by Richard Locker of the Commercial Appeal:

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2010/aug/16/study-paints-rosier-picture-tennessee-scholarship-/

Education Standards - Understanding How we Got to Where We Are

In recent years, Tennessee has taken a number to steps to toughen up standards for K-12 education in the state. In the next couple of months, those changes will be felt as new assessments of the performance of our students and our schools are released. There is a general expectation and concern that the new higher standards will initially result in dramatically lower scores. But this hopefully is a necessary growing pain our state and our communities have to go through to get to the desired end result: a well performing and quality public educational system in Tennessee.

I recently read a good article on-line that succintly describes where we've been and how we got to this point. You can find it here on the Chattarati website.

Keynote Speaker at Governor's Economic Development Conference is President of Achieve

Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen and Economic and Community Development Commissioner Matt Kisber today announced Michael Cohen, president of the nationally recognized education reform organization Achieve, will keynote the Commissioner’s Luncheon on September 16, 2010 during the 57th annual Governor’s Conference on Economic and Community Development in Nashville, Tenn.

Founded in 1996 by a coalition of business leaders and the nation’s governors, Achieve is an independent, bipartisan organization dedicated to helping states raise standards and graduation requirements, as well as improve assessment and accountability. In 2005, Achieve created the American Diploma Project, of which Tennessee is one of 35 participating states. Governor Bredesen also serves as co-chair of the Achieve Board of Directors.

“Over the past seven and a half years, we’ve made substantial investments in Tennessee to push our state to the forefront of reforming our public education system,” said Governor Bredesen. “Tennessee recognizes that higher standards and greater achievement are key to a more competitive workforce and long term growth for our economy.”

For more, see the full press release here.