Governor Jay Nixon says he’ll push for another six days to the school year this legislative session, bringing Missouri in line with the national average.
The Governor was in Nixa Friday morning speaking at John Thomas School of Discovery, whose school district has been accredited ‘with distinction’ for 11 consecutive years.
Nixon says by having students go to school 180 days out of the year, compared to the current 174, we can better prepare our students for careers and college.
“When you have the fourth-shortest school year, required at least by law, then you need to move it,” Nixon said. “And that’s one of the reasons why we’re here today to talk about getting that at least up in the short term here to that national average, and then move beyond that if we possibly can. So things like that, where clearly we can do a better job in supporting local school districts, are areas where we wanna move in and move this year.”
Nixon also called for opening the doors of higher education for every Missouri student.
“And then making that A+ Program, which this school district has embraced for years to make college more affordable, made to cover all folks all across the State of Missouri. This is the year that it needs to get done,” Nixon said.
The Governor says his Fiscal Year 2014 budget will include funding to expand and expedite the A+ designation to every school district in the state.
He’ll detail additional legislative and economic priorities during the State of the State Address at 7 p.m. Monday, Jan. 28.