Afternoon, and thank you, everybody, for the opportunity to participate. For this session, just a quick framing, when we look back at the spring when covid19 disrupted 7 billion students worldwide, leaders, educators, teachers, students and families showed remarkable adaptable and dedication as they worked to keep learning happening for all students. When we start a new school year, they have inspired reimagining of Education Systems to build a system of learning thats personalized around the opportunity and that is supported by teachers and technology. From our own work at microsoft we know from mch that we called the class of 2030 in life where theyre learning that moving forward we see an increase in importance of social, emotional skills, higher level cognitive skills, personalized learning becoming critical as well as teaching is a growth profession as we move forward. So from our work, were looking to work on technologies that help all students develop the skills essential for work and life. So its wonderful to be a part of this event today and im honored to discuss key approaches in education with governor bill lee of tennessee. Thank you for joining us, governor. Thank you, barbara, im honored to be here as well. Its a great audience, great organization, proud to be here. Thank you so much. So 2020 with covid19, tornados, wiechldfires, its be a superchallenging year. What can we learn from your state and how do you do that moving forward . Its been a remarkable year for certain. One of the most difficult years, certainly, that the country has faced, but our state is no exception to that. So we had horrific tornados, the first week of march and the third week of march we had massive line of violent storms that crossed all the way cross our state, a significant loss of life and then two days later. Our first covid case came. We had multiple districts closed because of covid and we certainly started closing down schools in march and april. So we were faced with the same challenges that others have. We quickly saw the extent of those challenges and ive long believed that inperson learning is clearly the best approach. I think that everyone knows that, but we have to do we have to do so in a way recognizing the circumstances in the spring it was impossible to do. But we were seeing the ill effects of that throughout the summer. Not only academically, and we didnt really assess academic loss until we started back in school in the fall, but you know, our child abuse reported cases dropped by 25 over the summer. And we knew that child abuse wasnt going down. It was the reporting mechanism of the teachers that have eyes on the kids that they care about. Students with disabilities that dont get service, and food services, Mental Health services for kids, any variety of Mental Health needs. So we knew all of that was happening which is why we spent most of the summer saying weve got to get our kids back in school if thats at all possible. We believe just like economic recovery that protecting lives in a Public Health pandemic is of utmost importance, but protecting livelihoods has a significant importance as wellment same with going to school. Protecting kids, protecting teachers, but doing everything we can to give parents a choice of putting their kids into school. About six weeks ago, we started our first inperson district schools. Most of the districts in our state are open for inperson learning with a choice for every parent to choose distanced learning. And we know it can happen. We believe that it can happen safely. Weve worked really hard and we can talk about that later, but weve hard to make sure that we can provide that opportunity and now were in the stage of assessment to just see where our kids are now that they are for the most part the vast majority of them back in the classroom. Thats wonderful to hear. And as we know from, you know, theres lots of studies out there in terms of the dependency of quality teaching and quality teachers, of how important that is to the Student Experience as well as the learning outcome for the students and how important that relationship is for the students to have, and so, as we know, the profession of teachers is going to grow very significantly as we move forward just with new generations coming in and at the same time, there already is a shortage of teachers. Can you share with us how youre looking at that in your state in terms of the need for teachers as well as at the same time a real shortage of teachers . Well, let me just say the role of a teacher today is its harder than its ever been. Teachers have an incredible task. Im married to a former teacher who knows from firsthand experience the challenges of teaching, so, its an incredible profession that is born out of a real desire beyond just having that job, its a calling for most. And so, i appreciate the role that they play now, especially in this unique environment and they found themselves in. I said in my state of the state this past year in january, that when it comes to educating our children, there is nothing more important than atacti attracting and training the best and brightest teachers in america right here into tennessee. And i wholeheartedly believe that, teaching is a remarkable profession, but if we dont invest in the next generation of teachers, and frankly invest in the Current Professional Development of our teachers, then we wont have the best Education System in the country which is what i hope to have. So, weve we have a couple of we have a couple of initiatives that weve brought forth. Ill mention, before i say to these initiatives, covid19 disrupted everything in this country and including initiatives and budget proposals and efforts that were making going forward, but covid19 is not does not squash my vision. It is a as serious bump in the road. I dont want to call it a bump in the road, something thats caused hundreds of thousands of lives lost, but in the sense that we have a great obstacle to overcome with covid, but we cannot stop thinking about what we do going forward. So weve developed an initiative to grow your own teachers particularly in Rural Counties and we have rural districts in the state. To engage High School Students in really, in apprenticeship sort of fashion in their local high school and encourage them into education in their post secondary so that they can come back to their counties and teach and we have a program advised to incentivize that. We also created the governors teaching fellowship which provides for scholarships for the best and brightest kids mo choose to enter the Education Field in our state so that we can kind of get back to that smartest kid in the class going through education. And certainly that happens in some cases, but well rule that to be broader across the state. These are examples of how we can attract the best and brightest and then, you know, there are when we think about our educational system and how we teach, even in the midst of this incredible change, where folks are having to look at alternative ways of teaching their kids, we want to make sure that there are a lot of options for parents, whether its charter schools, whether its home schooling choice, and increasing our Public School teaching curriculum and our teacher training programs, we just rolled out and we passed a piece of legislation thats an Education Savings Account program that allows parents to ultimately have an option for where their kids where we spend the education dollars that are theirs that the government spends either on their behalf or gives nthem to educational outcomes. Its tied on the initiatives, but there are a lot of families right now wishing they had that option and we believe that will happen in our state. So im a strong believer of that issue of choice, but as a relates in particular to how we trained up the next generation of teachers, its important. Thank you, thank you for sharing that and you mentioned earlier, as people are coming back for the new school year, obviously, health and safety for students, with teachers in the Broader Community is really critical. And thats where, you know, lines between education and Public Health become more fluid. Can you share how youve addressed that in tennessee as you are looking to bring students back into school . Yeah, it is there are fluid lines there. Very much connected. Public health is now in the midst of the pandemic that were facing now. Public health is injected into every aspect of our state government, but certainly, but also, really into our society. So, and thats true, also, with education. There is a great need to understand how it is that we can create an environment that is safe for teachers, for opportunities, and at the same time pursue this commitment for the highest level of learning possible in the midst of the challenges that we face. We have set up in our state what we call the unified command group. Its an interesting approach to tackling the challenges of covid, but we brought together the departments in our state that are most powerfulfully affected. So its the department of health and the department of education and the our team, our Emergency Management agency and the department of military because of their key role in testing in our state, and what we call economic recovery group. So, our Education Department of health are meeting together every day. Commissioners from our department of education and department of health because we are so interconnected. Its how we developed really, we think a leading strategy for preparing, say, classrooms. We put together 80,000 safety kits, one for every classroom and ship them to every classroom in our state through our Emergency Management agent that that gives every teacher, masks, gloves, face shields, a kit. And that was two months, but our intention is for the entire school year. Thats one way we Incorporated Health and education and we also believe that its very important that we understand whats happening from a Health Perspective in our schools. A lot of departments work independently in reporting whats happening in schools, but we have developed a dashboard in our state through the department of education that is populated with information from the districts regarding number of covid cases, the number of schools that are actually closed due to quarantine and im really pleased that of our 1800 schools we only have half a percent of schools that are closed due to quarantine six weeks in. And in part, i think because of health and educations concerted work together, to make sure that we have safe classrooms and good protocols for when theres a case and that sort of thing, but this dashboard has been brought forth, its been quite a challenge to bring it forth, but we do have to recognize in this new environment just like lives and livelihoods, lives and education of our kids, both can coexist, but only if we work hard together recognizing that health and education go hand in hand more than ever right now. Its great to hear how youre bringing them together. Even before covid we are, you know, there was a lot of transformation and a lot of change happening in education and covid has accelerated a lot of these things. K12 all the way through higher education. So, between reimagining education as well as skilling and work life readiness, obviously, thats a longer journey. How are you thinking about that sort of journey to really get students ready for work in different parts and also in the education journey . I love talking about this subject. Its probably the thing that i was most excited about, actually when i came into office. So i never had run for office before i became governor. I came from the private sector into this role. And i actually ran a company for 25 years and was engaged in the industry that mostly employed Skilled Trades people and my Company Actually employed about 1500 people, most of them plumbers and pipe fitters and welders and electricians and we were in the construction and Service Business and i actually have a Mechanical Engineering background so i have a personal understanding through our Education System and the holes that from my perspective as an employer, that i saw in education. So the first thing i did when i became governor, we brought forth an initiative that turned into legislation called the governors investment and Vocational Education act, the give act. And initially it put in place 25 Million Dollars to start a series of programs that are really partnerships with our high schools and we have a series of post secondary schools called colleges of applied technology. Tennessee colleges applied technology, tcats and those are we also have a program called tennessee promise that provides Free Community college or tcat college to any high school, graduating high school senior. So, that combination of partnerships between High School Programs of technical, vocational, agricultural education and our tcat system really starts changing the Way High School looks. I have a great belief that high school should look different. It should be much more matched to the skills and needs and pathways for success for every one of our children, whether theyre going to become a doctor, a lawyer, a plumber, a teacher. Whatever skill set they have, we need to create those path ways of opportunity and so Vocational Education is a big deal to me. Yeah, and within that, how are you looking at technical skilling, as well, sewing that, you know knowing that students need a lot more Technical Skills . Ive curious to learn how youre looking at specifically the part of technical skilling. So i was just on a zoom call with the president of your company, talking with leaders with a number of folks talking specifically about this, like the idea of technology and our Education System. So, we called this the give act. But we recognize, its not just we want today use the term Vocational Education because we wanted there to be a broader understanding that this is an about plumbing and pipe fitting and welding, but its also about coding and Computer Science, and we have made a significant investment in the area, for example, of ap Computer Science classes being placed in every school. We have a strategy to have a third of our high schools designated as a stem designated schools by 2022. We recognize that this idea of cte, or Vocational Education includes educating our kids in technology. It also means that we utilize technology to educate our children. Weve invested 100 Million Dollars in our state in broadband expansion in tennessee. I grew up in rural tennessee. I recognize the challenges of educating children. When you dont have broadband. Particularly in this environment. And all the additional things like working from home and telemedicine and the things that are really necessary if we want to have path ways to success for everyone. So, we investor in that technology and we spent through this pandemic, 70 million in Technology Grant to get technology in the hands of kids across our state. Whatever education looks like on the back side of this, it certainly will look better. This covid, as tragic and difficult it is, its a challenge like any in our lives, god uses the worst circumstances in our lives to bring about the greatest transformation and i think its possible in our Education System. Well be better on the other side because of it. If we address it correctly. So, technology plays a big role in the way we teach kids and also, in what we how we engage them. Yeah, thank you for sharing that. I know were already coming to the end of the session, and so, as you know, the core theme of the event is lifting state leadership and lets fast forward to your final address to the people of tennessee and reflecting on your service as a governor. What do you hope you will be able to say regarding your progress in education . Yeah, i hope that when that day comes i can look at the people of tennessee and say, we have built an Education System that works for every kid. Whether regardless of their zip code. Regardless of their skill set, regardless of the way their brain works, regardless of the way their hands are connected to their brains or not, or whether they can compute a certain way or not. You know, kids have kids have great number of giftings and skills. They also have a variety of barriers that keep them from using those giftings and skills to become a successful adult. I want to create an Education System that works for every kid to diminish their barriers and to provide a pathway to success for every single one of them. Thank you so much, governor. Its inspiring to hear that in terms of creating an environment that is very inclusive and helps and empowers all students to achieve and reach their goals and their dreams. So, thank you so much for sharing your thoughts in the session and well continue the programming. Thank you very much. The first president ial debate between President Donald Trump and joe biden is 9 eastern from cleveland. Hes campaigning through, and all it is for political reasons, its political reasons. Biden, his whole deal is catastrophic shutdown. And again in his own words, recorded by bob woodward, the president knew back in february that this was an extremely dangerous communicable dis