BEGINNING WITH THE END IN MIND

Tyler announced his vision for education in Louisville, today. at his business, USA Image Technologies. Tyler chose to announce the plan there because, as he said "the work of education is to nurture and shape our next generation into engaged, productive citizens.”

Tyler’s view of education can be summed up as follows:
· Build from the ground up: Early childhood is the most critical time in the development of the skills children need in order to learn and get along through life. To me, that means the next Mayor of Louisville needs to ensure that we are doing all that we can to move Pre-K education into our childcare system. This is a base on which all later education will be formulated and it is incredibly difficult and expensive to repair later. As Mayor, Tyler will:

§ Work to make sure every child in our community is prepared to succeed, and to do this will form an Early Childhood Education Council made up of the people and organizations who are delivering childcare and pre-education in our community.
§ Work to fully implement the STARS Rating System for early childhood and demand that our providers in this community live up to the highest expectations.
§ Identify resources for funding early childhood education and then deploy them in way s to move real education into the childcare system.
· Make the transitions well: We must know how prepared our children are when they enter the K-12 education system. That way we can better understand the performance of our schools and realistically demand the best. At each transition, we must know the starting point of each child to know if they are being well served in our system.
· Support our schools to ensure outcomes: The Mayor of Louisville does not run our public school system. They are run by an elected School Board and their delegate the Superintendent. It will not be my roll to tell them how to do their job. However, as Mayor I will:
§ Support the children and parents who are in our schools.
§ Help the schools do their job.
§ Work with our delegation in Frankfort to ensure JCPS gets the resources needed to education our future generations.
§ Support and expand the Community Schools’ program though JCPS, where schools in our neighborhoods stay open after school hours to provide educational programs tailored to the needs of the specific community.
§ Work to bring our schools and our neighborhoods together.
§ Focus on redevelopment efforts around the areas schools stand.
§ Leverage the significant community investment in our schools to drive investment in the community around the schools.
· Make a promise to our students to ensure their success: The largest value we can provide is producing educated, productive members of the workforce. As Mayor, I will:
§ Propose the Promise Louisville Program based on efforts pioneered in places like Kalamazoo, MI, Pittsburgh, PA, and Denver, CO. This Program is predicated on a two-pronged strategy: The first is to give students the college/workforce/life counseling early in high school to assist them in making the right choices in high school so they will be prepared to succeed. The second is to fund last dollars in scholarships so to ensure that a Bachelors Degree, Associates Degree, Professional Certification or other workforce ready training is affordable to everyone in our City.
§ Work with JCTCS to ensure that our students headed to college can get a head start by maximizing Dual Enrollment.
§ Support the principles of “Move On When Ready” allowing for students to move along in their career preparedness path as soon as they are ready; which means perhaps skipping their Senior Year to start working toward their goals.
§ Continue supporting our universities In their efforts for translational research to drive breakthroughs that can turn into new companies in Louisville.
§ Engage the “Creative Class” of scientists, researchers, doctors and engineers that call this City home.
§ Support and work to expand “Work to Education” initiatives like Metropolitan College.

As Mayor, Tyler knows that outcomes matter. According to Tyler, “We will ask the right questions. We will step up with City resources. Being known as a city where education matters is critically important to all our aspirations for economic growth and competitiveness in the years to come. When I am Mayor we will be known for education.”

Kudo's to WFPL's Gabe Bullard for being the first to report on the plan.