Day 3 - 1/17/2008

Governor delivers State of the State address

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The Governor delivered his annual State of the State address, along with his proposed budget, today.  In his speech, the Governor announced State plans to partner with the Shriner’s hospital in Greenville to provide specialty orthopedic care to participants in Georgia’s PeachCare program.  Governor Perdue also stated that his budget contains $53 million for trauma care to be funded by taxes on “super speeders.”
 
The Governor used his speech to relate the stories of several people who were watching the speech from the gallery.  Among the Governor’s guests were 2 high school seniors who were part of the very first lottery-funding pre-K program in Georgia.  These girls plan to enter college in the fall and are currently applying for the HOPE scholarship.  The Governor’s budget contains an increase of $6.4 million in lottery funds to expand pre-K to a total of 79,000 slots.  The Governor also highlighted his VIP ( Very Important Parent) recruiting program which will place parent recruiters in schools with very low attendance rates to boost parent involvement in an attempt to increase student achievement.  The Governor is requesting that $14.5 million be spent on this new program.  Finally, the Governor stated that teachers will, once again, receive $100 gift cards this summer.

Full text and video of Gov. Perdue's speech can be found here.