Given Donald Trump’s insistence that the U.S. Department of Education should be targeted for closing, it might be a good idea to look to our 50 states for a heads-up regarding what public education issues are being addressed in 2025. ABPTL covered the same story last year, and the topics haven’t changed much this year.
The 74 released a story today that focuses on governors’ priorities from 41 State of the State addresses recently delivered:
“As governors delivered their 2025 State of the State addresses, they outlined a range of strategies to improve their schools, from increasing K-12 funding and expanding educational choice to investing in early childhood programs and higher education. Yet few focused directly on arguably the most pressing issue: declining student achievement.”
“FutureEd analyzed speeches from 41 governors to identify states’ education agendas for the coming year, highlighting common themes, bipartisan commitments and partisan divides. Across party lines, governors remained committed to investing in public education, with many proposing increased K-12 funding and efforts to modernize school finance formulas to better support high-need students. Alongside these general financial commitments, governors prioritized strengthening the teaching profession, addressing youth mental health, restricting cellphone use and expanding career pathways for high schoolers.”
“Still, few governors proposed new steps to directly improve student learning. Some emphasized efforts to raise academic standards and strengthen accountability, topics absent in recent years. But this year’s speeches largely sidelined new curriculum initiatives, perhaps because many states have enacted reforms in that area – particularly literacy – in recent years. Mentions of academic acceleration programs that were widely supported during the pandemic but now face an uncertain future as federal ESSER funds expire were also rare. These include high-dosage tutoring, afterschool and summer enrichment. Some governors argued that their school choice initiatives would improve student outcomes.”
“School choice remained a key point of division, with several Republican governors advocating for more private options that Democrats opposed. Ideological divides also resurfaced on race and gender – topics largely absent from speeches in recent years – as a few Republicans called for banning diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, restricting transgender participation in sports and opposing what they described as ‘indoctrination’ and ‘woke agenda’ in education.”
“Here is a summary of the major education proposals in the governors’ addresses…”
“Student Well-Being – One of the most popular topics this year was student well-being, with a focus on mental health, technology use, school meals and safety. While youth mental health remains a top concern – highlighted by 15 governors – many are shifting from traditional investments in counseling and school-based services to restrictions on cellphones and social media.”
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“School Choice – School choice remains a key topic this year, with 15 governors addressing the issue. While initiatives to let families use public money for private schooling dominated the discussion, several governors proposed expanding public-school choice, sometimes alongside private-school initiatives.”
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“Higher Education – Fifteen governors outlined higher education priorities focused on affordability, workforce alignment and alternative pathways….”
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“Early Education and Child Care – Thirteen governors highlighted early childhood education and care, focusing on expanding access, improving affordability and addressing workforce challenges.”
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“Workforce Development and Career Education – Twelve governors highlighted workforce development and career education, focusing on expanding high school career training, strengthening industry partnerships and aligning postsecondary programs with workforce needs. More than half of these efforts target K-12 students.”
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“The Teaching Profession – A dozen governors discussed initiatives to improve the teaching profession, with most emphasizing higher teacher pay. Eight – primarily Republicans – proposed salary increases….”
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“Student Learning – Only 10 governors discussed curriculum and instruction initiatives for the upcoming year. Among them, [Iowa’s governor Kim] Reynolds proposed one of the few major policy pushes: a comprehensive math bill aimed at identifying struggling students, providing personalized support and strengthening instruction through evidence-based professional development and high-quality teacher preparation.”
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The 2025 list isn’t much different from 2024 or previous years. This is why some of us call our current K-12 system – well – traditional.
Just once it would be nice to see a governor approach the dais and proclaim:
We are going to embrace “learner choice” in this state. All kids who like traditional school and are demonstrating success inside traditional school can choose to stay. Others, who don’t like traditional education and/or aren’t demonstrating success within our current K-12 system have the freedom to choose otherwise. That alternate choice will include the same state financial support as if the young learner had stayed inside the traditional system, but the learning experience will be very different from normal school. Learners who choose a different experience than places called schools will match up with a trained adult learning leader – a learning coach. That learning coach will help young learners build individualized learning plans, with each plan focused on making the young learner smarter and stronger in reading, writing, problem-solving, and character development skills. Instead of going to school on a daily basis, the world will become these young learner’s classrooms, with the learning plan becoming the document that drives learning for each young learner. Gone are the days when a struggling or disengaged learner has to attend places called schools. Our state is going to be different, because we are going to offer different. Instead of “school choice,” our state will be known as the first place in the country where young people embrace “learner choice” – a plan designed to teach youngsters how to own their own learning. Because when you own your own learning, no one can ever take that away from you – ever.
Til tomorrow. SVB
A Better Path to Learning 
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