rior sally jewell has agreed to visit colorado and observe mitigation efforts firsthand. colorado's oil and gas industry contributes $29 billion to our economy. critical to the success of the oil and gas industry is that operators recognize their moral and legal obligation to protect our air and water. fortunately, we have been able to bring many in the industry together with the environmental community to work toward solutions. as a result, colorado is now a national leader in developing a strong regulatory environment. we brokered the nation's strongest frack fluid disclosure rule in 2011. we are proposing the nation's first-ever methane capture rule, making colorado the leader in the nation for controlling emissions. we've said before that we're committed to holding the oil companies to the highest standards to protect coloradans and our air and water.

to that end, we are working with legislators, industry and the conservation community to ensure we pass a bill this year that will strengthen penalties for violations of permits and rules. if words were water the state would never run dry. our budget is requesting a second year of funding to help create cleaner water for colorado. this year we will complete the colorado water plan, which will emphasize conservation, address incremental storage, and address drought mitigation. we must create alternative choices to buy-and-dry. no matter where we live, we cannot afford to let our farm and ranch land dry up. [ applause ]

>> part of what has gotten overlooked in the debate about guns is our work on mental health. when you look at the massacres at columbine high school and the aurora movie theater; and the tragedies of platte canyon high school, and most recently at arapahoe high school, guns are only a piece of the puzzle. another clear piece is mental health: trying to identify and assist those who are feeling isolated, bullied, the mentally ill; and trite as this may sound, those who are feeling abandoned and unloved. we allocated more than $34 million to create and bolster programs such as school-based mental health services, behavioral health community centers, and to train and staff round-the-clock mental health crisis centers.

right now there are some 80 people with addictions who are getting clean, learning a skill, and turning their life around. people who otherwise would have been on the street. just as we must implement the voters' wishes on marijuana, we are obligated to make sure that children and parents understand brain development and the risks of underage use. we are committed to a securing a safe, regulated and responsible environment. this will be one of the great social experiments of this century, and while not all of us chose it, being first means we all share a responsibility to do it properly. [ applause ] part of being the healthiest state, means we continue to prioritize services for the most vulnerable. we ask for your support for coloradans with developmental disabilities and their caregivers, including addressing

the current wait list, family support services, and transitional services. in that vein, the general assembly, with bipartisan support, created connect for health colorado. while other states have struggled with enrollment and implementation, colorado has outperformed the national exchange and most states. more than 139,000 residents now have health insurance who didn't have it before. [ applause ] >> in addition to being the healthiest state, we have consistently worked to be the most military friendly state. we must continue to honor military veterans. not so long ago i received a

letter from silvia [bonna-con-tee] buoniconti. it was about her son, frank. frank was a chief warrant officer 3rd class united states army. a helicopter pilot. among the many honors frank received was the distinguished flying cross_one of the highest awards an aviator can receive for heroism in combat. frank saved the lives of two special operations teams. he died in a helicopter crash in 2011, while training in washington state. but because he did not die while in a combat zone_according to current state law, silvia and her husband, frank, are not eligible to receive a colorado fallen service member license plate. silvia is not the only gold star mother waiting for this recognition. for families of veterans like frank, this law must change. silvia is here with her husband,

frank, we are deeply grateful for your son's service, and commend you for your commitment to having it recognized. [ applause ] as i wrap up here and we begin this session, i have one more ask of you_of us, really. you don't need a poll to know that regardless of political leanings_the typical american, the average coloradan_doesn't think much of politics or politicians. and who can blame them?

shutdowns. debt ceiling duels. parties locked down, unwilling to compromise. so much negativity. the public sees politicians as operators who put their own self-interest or their party's agenda above the people; and who are obsessed with petty pursuits and ignore the public service part of being a public servant. the widely held perception today is that politicians divide and selfishly scheme in the moment, whereas public servants unite and plan for the greater good. over the course of the last year, everyone in this room has been tested. time and again, you chose to put your communities and your fellow coloradans first. you chose to be public servants, before politicians. we must continue to rebuild better than we were before. but our work is about much more than recovery. whether we live in a mountain community or in a city; whether

we are surrounded by cows or concrete, we all want the same things: the chance to earn a good wage, give our children a decent education; clean air and clean water. vigorous debate is our ally. partisanship is not. skepticism is productive. corrosive cynicism is not. so, as we begin this session, my ask is we ignore the divisive politics. [ applause ] no one needs to remind us we're

going into a political season. and i realize that if such a goal for a session ever seemed ambitious, it's a time like this. but that's precisely why we should set such a goal. tom clements was someone who set such ambitious goals. it's been not quite a year since tom's death. a few months ago, i spoke at a convention of the international association of corrections that was held in colorado springs. i described that when tom was murdered he was in the midst of major overhauls to the department of corrections. he was reforming administrative segregation, which most of us recognize as solitary confinement, and he was about to re-engineer the parole system. tom saw the entrenched problems. but he never gave up. he saw what could and what should be. his philosophies and strategies were never about locking people up, but rather, everything tom

did_really his whole life_was about striving to unlock humanity. it is a tragic, awful irony that an inmate put on parole directly from administrative segregation showed up at his door and killed him. but that is not what defines tom. part of tom's legacy is everything that was discussed at that convention. these were directors of correctional facilities, people who worked in worlds of barbed wire filled with violent criminals. yet the topics of discussion were things like “alternatives for mentally disordered offenders,” “giving up crime,” and “faith based programming.” in other words, it was about unlocking humanity. and it wasn't a coincidence. the theme

of the convention was inspired by tom and was very much in his honor. the other part of tom's legacy is his family, his wife, lisa, and daughters, sarah and rachel, who are with us today. tom's story and life is not defined by what happened to him but by the immense good he achieved and his legacy of love and compassion and reform. his legacy of public service. tom was a public servant. he walked the walk of public service every day.

inexplicable, senseless violence. fires. floods. no, that is not our story. our story is about how we came together and have been getting it done. our story is that we have learned that we are at our best, that colorado is at her best, when we are connected to one another, working together. our story is us. that is what it means to be a coloradan. that is what we have and will continue to show the world.

i'm all in. to keep colorado strong and to keep colorado united, all of us in here, and all of our fellow coloradans out there_every one of us needs to be all in, together. thank you, and god bless colorado. >> the governor's address drew mixed reactions with words like less partisan and phenomenal being described for the speech. the governor only briefly touched on gun laws which

he became an addict hard and fast. his addiction quickly went from $100 a week to $3,500 a week that is $500 a day. he found like most opiate

addicts, that drugs transformed his way of life and altered his moral compass. he needed drugs to survive and he stole to pay for his addiction. he stole more than $20,000 worth of farm tools and equipment from his own parents. justin said be careful, because your addiction is waiting out in the driveway just getting stronger, just waiting for you to slip up and take you away. his family knows too well the crushing her aunt and harm that comes promote the addiction even as they have stuck with him throughout his disease. and his mom said my son is an addict and i love him with all my heart. justin has now been clean for more than five years. he and his mom are here with us.

please stand so we can thank you for your courage. [applause] [applause] >> addiction comes to people insidiously, sometimes it comes through a dealer looking to get someone, looking to get someone hooked to make more money. it starts as a way to feel good, a rush that may seem harmless at first since you are often doing it with your friends. it quickly devolves into an

uncontrollable, and relenting addiction and those who become addicted are sentenced to a lifetime battle. as one person recovery said, the first thing you think about it is not feeding your kids, it is how am i going to get high. apps is a drug that does not only grip those who were born into poverty. consider the life of bill gates who went to upn but died of a heroin overdose before he could graduate. he was a normal behavioral science major and a ski ranger. he was born to opportunity. his assets were spread on his favorite ski trip. well's father speaks for all grieving families when he says i never knew anything in human experience could be this hard.

i never knew any human being could feel this much pain. it has redefined the rest of my life. skip felt powerless to stop the overwhelming impact of drugs on his son. since will's-skip has worked with our u.s. attorney dedicating his life to warning others of the circumstances that stoll will. skip is here, we are sorry for your pain but we are so thankful for everything you are doing for vermont. if you could stand we would like to recognize you. [applause] we often hear in the

news about the criminal side of drug addiction, about the robberies or the busts in our communities, our police, prosecutors, defense attorneys and judges do an extraordinary job under tough circumstances but as chief justice and so many of his in the thick of this struggle have concluded we must bolster our current approach to addiction with more common sense. we must address it as a public health care crisis, providing treatment and support rather than simply going out punishment, claiming victory and moving on to the next conviction. i am not naive and dino you aren't either.

terrible crimes and murders, armed robbery, sex trafficking and others are committed by those in the drug trade and by those who are supporting their drug habits. these crimes have victims and devastating consequences. but dr. holmes got it right when he noted that addiction is at its core a chronic disease. we must do for this disease what we do for cancer, diabetes, heart and other chronic illnesses. name for prevention and eradicate any disease that develops with aggressive treatment. getting this right is not just a matter of compassion. it is also the right thing to do for our pocketbooks. let's put aside our hearts for a moment and with our heads look at the math.

every week, every week a drug task force estimates more than $2 million of apps and other opiates are being trafficked into vermont $2 billion a week. due to our proximity to new york, philadelphia and other cities where heroin is cheap dealers can make a lot of money from an addict in vermont. 1/$6 bag of heroin in new york city can go to up to $30 a year. so think about that for a second, a $6 purchase can sell for 5 times that much just a few hours up the interstate. that means that a heroin habit in vermont can cost tens of thousands of dollars per year, that is before they put a roof over their heads, food on the table or sneakers on the kids.

nearly 80%, 80% of our incarcerated population are either addicted or in prison because of their addiction. and listen to this math. a week in prison in vermont costs $1,120, but $123 will buy a week of treatment for a heroin addict at a state-funded center. [applause] >> today our state government spends more in prison vermonters' than to support colleges and universities and our prison spending has doubled, doubled in the last nine years. you don't have to be a math major to realize we cannot afford our current path. we have to figure out how to

spend taxpayer money more wisely while we treat the disease more effectively. we have made some head way. we have opened treatment centers in every region of our state considered to be national models. thanks to your good work last year we have expanded our efforts to combat what the conference and prescription drug abuse and to offer safe harbor to those reporting overdoses. we have lessened the penalties for small amounts of marijuana acknowledging and we can better use our limited resources through a partner should between vermont state police, state drug task force state attorneys, local police federal government and attorney-general, we are getting tougher using drug busts to disrupt dealer networks that kill our neighbors and kids. this important work must

continue, yet despite all these efforts we are losing too many vermonters to drug addiction and the crimes that come with it. today at propose four areas to help us gain ground in this battle. first, let's start treating drug addiction as the immediate health care crisis that it is. [applause] >> by dramatically increasing treatment across vermont. right now we have hundreds of vermonters who are addicted and ready to accept help but who we -- who are condemned to waiting because we don't have the capacity to treat the demand. that is the truth. the largest waiting list of 500

addicts is in central vermont, northeast kingdom -- today i ask you to approve an additional 2 and did thousand dollars in the budget adjustment to help cut those waiting lists. the money will allow treatment centers to immediately stack up and bring on additional resources to begin emanating the existing backlog while preparing to serve growing numbers of patients going forward. i am also proposing increased resources for statewide recovery centers, funding for substance abuse and mental-health treatments, in total this funding will represent more than $1 million of additional support for treatment and recovery on top of the $8 million ongoing funding in my budget. i am also pleased to announce another regional treatment center providing services in

newport has just opened. these expanded services will help the kingdom meet its increased demand. i know that we have more work to do to provide the right treatment and support to those who are addictive not just using maintenance drugs as a band-aid for this complicated disease. i also know that treatment facilities have not always been embraced by our local communities. but the time has come for us to stop quietly averting our eyes from the growing heroin addiction in our front yards while we fear and flight treatment facilities in our backyards. [applause]

>> this is tough stuff. it is tough stuff. but this is about getting help to those who are desperately sick and giving hope to those who wish to get better. help and hope is what we vermonters do best. second let's do a better job of convincing drug users who wind up in the criminal justice system that getting help is of better half than addiction. this too will not be easy work. drug addicts are the best deniers and the best wires that you will ever meet. some will do just about anything, anything to continue using, but all the research tells us that vote moment an

addict, the moment and addict is most accepting for treatment is right after the bust, when the blue lights are flashing and the cold reality sets in that we have got our best shots. here is the problem. our current judicial system is not well equipped to seize that moment. it can take weeks or months to wind your way through a court system from arrest to conviction, beating the addict time to settle back in to old habits. so i want to give our prosecutors and judges the resources needed to strike immediately. my 2015 budget will include additional $760,000 to provide objective, evidence based assessments to help our state attorneys and our court determine who may qualify for

immediate treatment and services and higher than necessary personnel to monitor their recovery. [applause] >> in this new system, a third party chosen in conjunction with local prosecutors, defense counsel and court personnel, con directed to the state would promptly after a rest conduct evidence based risks and need assessment for prosecutors, defense counsel and our judges. our state attorneys in every county will be enabled to establish a rapid intervention program paid for by the state where those addicts accused of crimes caused by their addiction could agreed to seek immediate treatment for their disease and avoid criminal prosecution if they successfully adhered to the

strict requirements imposed her. [applause] >> for any individual not suitable for early intervention, our judges can use the same assessments to set conditions of release and monitoring before trial that including media treatment and other services. one success or failure in recovery would be considered during sentencing. i am confident we can do this. i know we can. state attorney t. j. donovan and state attorney david detzner in addison county and others have been implementing prosecutor led intervention programs with good results. some of our ports have been using grants to put the experiment with ways to better address addiction in our criminal justice system.

senator seer's asks -- have sponsored by partisan legislation at 2 '95 which seeks to build upon some of these efforts. my proposals today expand on all this good work, taking us farther and faster, to bring evidence based assessment and intervention programs statewide as quickly as we possibly can and i ask for your support. [applause] >> thank you. thank you. third, we have to couple

enhanced treatments and intervention with even stronger more coordinated law enforcement. that is why we have just launched a new probe by the department of public safety, to share and analyze data between data statewide to determine where our hot spots are and where resources can most effectively go in stopping the flow of drugs to further aid in our coordinated efforts i am also reorganizing the governor's criminal justice cabinet to include substance abuse prevention so that membership better reflects this broader challenge. i also ask you to make two statutory changes that will help ensure that high-volume dealers who bring drugs into our state to prey upon vermonters in pursuit of profits will suffer the consequences and that those who break into our homes with

weapons in hand to rob us to feed their habits, will face and hands to criminal penalties. [applause] >> creating tucker sentences win anyone transport illegal drugs into vermont will send a clear message to drug dealers that our state will not tolerate their trade. enhancing penalties for people who carry weapons into our homes to feed their habits by violating our security and stealing our property is good vermont common sense. [applause] finally, perhaps most importantly, we know that the

best way to fix this problem is to prevent addiction in the first place. this is the toughest challenge that we face, one without a clear national model or consensus on what works best. we need vermont ingenuity we need all of us thinking big together. later this year i will be facilitating a statewide community forum at the state house to help us share creative ideas about how we can do better on the prevention. i am also providing a grant from my office to enable best o'brien and those whose stories are featured in hungry hard to visit every single high school in vermont, to talk to our kids directly about their difficult journeys. [applause]

>> it is critical that we continue to engage our health care providers in this challenge. in august vermont received a $10 billion federal grant over five years to help medical providers intervenor earlier with patients who are beginning to see the consequences of substance abuse. just like we taught people to heed the warnings of heart disease and diabetes windy our medical community to educate their patients on how to better avoided diction. we also need more providers like dr. holmes who are trained to offer emotional and other support to help those who become addicted not just blowout maintenance drugs that sometimes find their way back into the drug market. the affordable care act will help us do this because for the first time, it requires coverage for substance abuse disorders

and treatment and support to pay for it. power schools also have a greater role to play. we know that risky behavior develops early in life and too often accompanies family difficulties and dysfunction. when parents struggle, children suffer and we all pay the price for years and years to come. this is why we must continue our focus on the earliest years. our recent success in securing the $37 million early child education race to the top grant will be h huge help in making vermont a leader in these efforts. [applause] >> if you send me the bill that passed the house last spring, we can make sure that all vermont

children have access to quality universal prekindergarten to help send the on the right path. [applause] stand-up, johnny. >> i was in the center for a long time but they got it. listen. if you listen to the voices of addiction, you will hear the underlying cause of this disease, and lack of hope, lack of opportunity. so while we should celebrate

that our unemployment rate is low and our economic outlook is bright, none of us should be content until all vermonters including those who are born into poverty, have the same opportunities to succeed and flourish as the most fortunate. [applause] our best prevention against drug addiction is to create jobs and opportunities for all vermonters by providing the best early childhood education in america, by continuing our good work on early college, dual enrollment and questionable pathways and by passing my stem scholarship proposal so more kids can afford higher education and are able to move beyond high school by building and training resources for continued job

growth, by creating a sensible affordable, publicly financed universal health care system for all vermonters. [applause] >> by insuring that every vermonter regardless of income has the chance at success, living, working and raising their family right here in vermont. all proposals i just discussed today are designed to rephrase away we solve the drug addiction and drug crime in vermont, attacking it first as the health care crisis that it is while simultaneously retooling our criminal justice system and strengthening law enforcement. this will not happen overnight.

but these actions represent basic good government responses to any emergency. just as you expected us to work across agencies and across state and local governments to help us all recover from the devastation of a tropical storm so too should you expect us to approach this crisis of drug addiction with coordination and effective action. [applause] >> this is about all of us together, drive towards our goal of recovering by working with one another creatively, relentlessly, and without division. we can do this. i know we can. i have tremendous hope for vermont and our efforts to overcome this challenge and keep vermont the vermontlllenge and keep

>> there have been a series of high-profile sweeps facing drug problems and prosecutors and police have said they can't solve the problem by themselves. the article points out that heroin addiction was a 250% and the number of people who died of heroin overdoses nearly doubled since last year.

>> now to indiana for the state of the state address from governor mike pence. he talked about early prekindergarten education, expansion of medicaid under the health care law and the state response to recent record cold temperatures. governor pence, a republican, previously served in the house of representatives from 2001-2013. [applause] [applause]

[applause] [applause] [applause]

[applause] [applause] >> president pro tem long, lieutenant governor, senator gwen and representative peabody, distinguished members of the indiana general assembly, members of the judiciary, honored guests, my fellow hoosiers, thank you for that warm welcome.

after last week, warmer is my favorite words. all kidding aside, i do want to take a moment to thank all of you in this chamber. i want to thank you and your families for the sacrifices that you make to be a part of the best state legislature in america. thank you all. [applause] >> one year ago today we started on a journey together. i learned a great deal travelling all over our state over this past year and being with hoosiers in good times and in bad from hiking with kids in the lincoln state park to walking neighborhoods in kokomo after the devastating tornadoes passed through that city. i have seen in those moments the character and spirit of our people first hand, hard-working,

resilience people of faith and generous to those in need. from all that i have seen i can say on this night with conviction that the state of our state is strong and growing stronger because hoosiers are the best people on earth. [applause] >> we have good government because we have a serve a great people and nowhere was that more obvious than during last week's arctic storm. there was heartbreak of course but it would have been a lot worse were it not for the efforts of our first responders who without regard to their health and safety rescued countless hoosiers highway crews, utility workers, churches and charities to open their doors to shelters and those in

need, to local police, fire ems, and highway workers at the local individual and every hoosier reached out to a neighbor in time of need, people of this state are in your debt and so am i.. [applause] >> and allow me to offer special appreciation to one group alongside hoosiers during that arctic storm. our citizens soldiers who on short notice deployed in what were known as highway assistance teams they worked with local first responders as well as indiana state police rescued stranded motorists, transported people to hospitals, assisted local first responders in the midst of the storm. we are joined here tonight by several of those heroes who were part of the highway assistance

teams, sergeant first class doubt, nick lyons of the 113th operations squadron and from the second 115th -- [applause] -- thank you for your service abroad and at home. our indiana national guard. i think moments like this should be about the future but it is also important that we see how far we have come in the last year to get there. the last year i told you at this podium that we would make job creation job 1, that we would live within our means, improve our schools and cut taxes and thanks to the hard working people of this state and all of you in this room we did just

what we said we would do balance our budget, created jobs, cut red tape, improve our schools and roads and paid down the state debt. i even put the state plane up for sales. if you know anybody looking for a good deal on a beechcraft king air, give me a call. we did all of that and we came together to give hoosiers' largest state tax cut in indiana history. that is a record. [applause] [applause] >> the results, indiana has become a national leader in job growth. last year hoosiers' created more

than 47,500 new private-sector jobs and we maintained our aaa credit rating, one of the few states in the union to do that. [applause] >> in november, one out of every eight jobs created in the united states of america was created by businesses right here in indiana. that is an extraordinary accomplishment for our people. [applause] >> unemployment was 8.6% when i stood here last year and while it is still too high today at 7.3% unemployment in indiana is at a 5-year low and since 2009 indiana has the fifth fastest private-sector job growth in the united states of america. indiana is on the move because of the people of indiana.

and let me say most encouraging to this, indiana's fourth and eighth graders recently showed the second best improvement in america in math and reading scores and fourth grade reading proficiency is at an all-time high. that is an accomplishment weekend all beall be proud of. [applause] with our state lagging behind in per-capita income and too many kids in underperforming schools are believe we must remain relentless, bold and ambitious to keep our state moving forward. that is why last month i traveled throughout the state from fort wayne to our old state capital and outlined my agenda

for 2014. i want to share a few highlights with all of you tonight. first, we all recognize that low taxes are essential to attracting the kind of investment that will create low paying jobs and with our recent progress i believe one significant impediment to business investment remains. it is called the business personal property tax. this tax is especially damaging because it is harder for hoosier businesses to grow because ultimately taxes investments they make any equipment. let me say emphatically taxing equipment and technology in a state that leads the nation in making and creating 0 things just doesn't make sense. it looks like our neighboring states have figured it out. ohio and illinois don't have a business personal property tax and michigan lawmakers just go to deface their town. to make it more competitive i

want to urge all members of both chambers let's work together to find a responsible way to phase out the business personal property tax but one word of caution. as we work through this process let's make sure we do it in a way that protect our local governments and doesn't shift the burden of this business tax on to the backs of hard-working hoosiers. [applause] >> i appreciate both house and senate leadership are looking at the business personal property tax and other ways to ensure that indiana has the best tax climate possible but phasing out the business personal property tax i believe will spur new investments by businesses large and small, like advance manufacturing startup in anderson, indiana launched by a

marine veteran whose products help support our troops or larger businesses like jeffersonville, and the trial started in 1964 by john and robert perkins to manufacture technical training systems for software for colleges and industry. today it employs 143 hoosiers and in 2010 it was named indiana outstanding business of the year. these are just two of the kind of success stories we can see more of in indiana with the right kind of tax reform. since i mentioned both of them why don't you join me in welcoming those two great indiana business stories nate richardson of coax technology and paul perkins of anyron who are with us tonight. thanks for making indiana state that works. [applause]

>> we have to do more than approve our tax code to get the economy moving again because roads mean jobs we need to release $400 million for the next year of highway expansion and put hoosiers' back to work keeping us at the crossroads of america. [applause] >> because indiana is agriculture we need a permanent fix to the oil productivity factor. because indiana's regional cities are vital to our state's economic development we need to encourage public and private investment to improve the quality of life in our cities. that is the indiana way to a growing future. in the city and on the farm. that way also means standing up to washington d.c. from time to time. most hoosiers didn't like washington in trading on our health care long before it became a reality. now more people than ever know

why we were right to stand up to the federal government on the affordable care act. there has been a lot of talk about medicaid. the sad truth is traditional medicaid is not just broke, it is broken. research shows that the program actually doesn't lead to better health outcomes and in some cases believe it or not it actually hurts the very people it is supposed to help. one analysis found two thirds of children on medicaid who needed to see a specialist actually couldn't in that program. traditional medicaid is not a system we need to expand. it is the system we need to change. [applause] >> i believe the healthy indiana plan is a great place to start. the healthy indiana plan as a consumer driven health care plan

that moves people from emergency rooms to primary care and discourages low income hoosiers to take more ownership of their own health care decisions but let me be clear on this point. we will continue to work in good faith with federal officials to expand access to the health the indiana plant in our state, but i will oppose any expansion of our health insurance system that condemns vulnerable hoosiers to substandard health care or threatens the fiscal health of our state. [applause] >> the most important aspect for achieving in the an's long-term success is all about our kids. it is our schools. wikipedia can't succeed in the classroom we won't succeed in the marketplace. the great news is to all those gathered here and my fellow hoosier is looking on, and

indiana schools are succeeding look. this year more than 500 public schools improved a full letter grade or more 20,000 choice scholarships currently in use indiana has the fastest growing school choice program in the country and with strong bipartisan support from both chambers last year we are busy all over the state working to make career and vocational education a priority in every high school in indiana again. we have made great progress. and working together we can help a lot. on currier education we are expanding curriculum in our high school and developing new partnerships with local businesses to support regional career education. anyone who wants to go to college regardless where they start in life ought to be encouraged to go. we all know there are a lot of jobs in indiana that don't require a college degree.

these new partnerships for regional works councils operating all over the state of indiana will make sure that our schools work for all of our kids regardless where they start in life and regardless where they want to start in life. to ensure we succeed i am proposing legislation that will conduct an in-depth assessment how career technical education dollars are spent and let's also make sure that adults who have a high school degree get the skills they need to get back on their feet by real purpose in current job training dollars to help adult workers get the high wage high demand jobs that are available in indiana today. [applause] >> hoosiers have high expectations about schools. and education standards. when it comes to setting standards from our schools let me be clear.

indiana's standards will be an, lehigh and they will be written by hoosiers for hoosiers and be the best in the nation. [applause] >> that progress is testament to our kids, to our parents, to our teachers to our administrators and it is a testament to the indiana state board of education. and the indiana state board of education and glenda rich who are here with us tonight, we appreciate your service for the people of indiana. [applause]

>> i have always said nothing pales education indiana that can't be fixed by giving parents more choices and teachers more freedom to teach 5. to continue to give parents more choices i believe we can start in the area of early childhood development. every child deserves to start school ready to learn, the time has come for a voluntary pre k program, disadvantaged kids. [applause] >> i always believe the best preprogram is a prosperous family that can provide the enrichment in home every child

needs and deserves but the reality is that is just not the case for too many indiana children. it is important this program be voluntary, important that this program be available in the form of a voucher as well. i want parents to be able to jews to send their child to a church based program, private program, pre k program that need their needs. and the general assembly. and worker across party lines on behalf of our children and their future let's open the doors of opportunity to low-income pre k education. [applause] >> another way to give more choices is to expand the availability of public charter schools even though they are

charter schools charters with several disadvantages, we need to level the playing field and allow charter schools to manage their budgets with the same flexibility as a traditional public schools, at the same time in the interest of greater choices for families we should make sure unused or underutilize public school buildings can be put to use by charters and other schools that need them. lisa matters but at the end ofchoice matters but at the end of the day every hoosier knows a good teacher makes all the difference. [applause] >> we can all think of a teacher who changed our lives. someone who is on our mind right now. someone who saw more in us than we saw in ourselves. i think of sister rachel mrs. fisher and others who touched my life but too often we don't

invest enough in our teachers and allow them to lead as reformers. after all they dedicated their lives to education. i believe we should do more to unleash their creativity and expertise. that is why we believe we need it teacher innovation fund for teachers to find new ways to teach our kids innovative features like steve perkins from north central high school in indianapolis whose enthusiasm has ignited a passion for classical education in that school and it got him named the 2014 teacher of law year. mr. perkins and his family are here with us tonight. [applause] >> all the talk about parental shall decide the lead teachers deserve more choice is too.

i think any public school teacher who feels called to serve in a low performing schools should have some of their compensation protected from if they are willing to make that move. let's let our teachers follow their hearts and go where they think they can make the most difference. on the subject of marriage, i know we are in the midst of a debate over whether indiana should join some 30 other states that have been trying the definition of marriage in our state constitution. each of us has our own perspective on this matter. for my part i believe in traditional marriage and i have long held the view that the people rather than an elected judges should decide matters of such great consequence in our society. reasonable people can differ and there are good people on both sides of this debate. let me say from my heart no one, no one on either side of this debate deserves to be disparaged or maligned because

of who they are or what they believe. [applause] >> let's have a debate worthy of our people with civility and respect, protect the rights of hoosier employers to hire new they want and provide the benefits they deserve and let's resolve this issue is this year once and for all. [applause] >> let's come together to support every hoosier family. 1-way we can do that is by helping working families with their family budget. did you know that our tax deductions for dependents have not increased since 1978 even though the cost of living has increased 3.6 times. it is time to index personal and dependent exemptions to inflation, to end this hidden

tax on working families in indiana and also -- [applause] >> remember families come together in many ways like the family -- a single mom who felt called to become a parent by adoption who adopted two kids when they were 11 and swell of years old after they spent many years in foster care. always telling her she is changing those kids's lives always quick to say they are changing line. would you join me in welcoming a great indiana family to the house tonight? you are an inspiration to us all. [applause]

>> adoption is a beautiful way for families to come together and we can better support families by expanding and improving adoption indiana, improve the way we place children from state caring to adoptive homes and support every parent who is willing to lovingly adopted child into their home. we should make it our aim to do nothing less than to make indiana the most pro adoption stage in the united states of america. [applause] >> indiana is strong and growing stronger every day but we still have more work to do and we can only achieve our full potential by working together. like hoosiers' always do when it matters most. like on a warm summer day last july two boys were walking along

lake michigan and suddenly one of the boys just disappeared. 6-year-old nathan simply vanished into the sand. his dad ran to the scene, frantically digging for his son michigan city police and fire raced to the dunes and rejoined by beachgoers using their bare hands and shovels to dig at the sand. local businesses showed up rushing machinery to help clear away the sand. even reporters covering the story were seen using their own notepads to dig for the boy. for nearly three hours, not one of those hoosiers' gave up. 140 people, until firefighter firefighter felt a hand beneath the sand and pull little nathan to safety. they call it a miracle.

when i called nation's dad at the hospital to see how he was i told him they were calling it a fact and gregg told me governor, this wasn't our miracle. this was everyone's miracle and he was right. and that is the indiana way. we are a strong and good people but we are never stronger than when we work together. so let me say as i close, as i said a year ago at this very podium, together we will build a more prosperous future. together we will open doors of educational opportunity for all of our kids and to gather and only together we will approach

our third century with confidence, with faith in him who has ever guided is 19 stock and with boundless faith in all who go by the name hoosier, i know the best is yet to come. thank you. god bless you. and god bless the great state of indiana. [applause] [applause]

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[applause] [applause] >> the joint convention is hereby agenda. for purposes of adjourning the house i represent representative friend. >> on this weekend at a newsmakers consumer financial protection bureau director richard coeur dray talks about the siepi be operations and regulatory practices including new mortgage will the agency put into effect last week to ensure borrowers are more carefully evaluated when applying for loans. you can watch the interview at 10:00 and 6:00 eastern on c-span.

>> when you go behind the scenes as a photographer you are there to see not here, not listen and repeat anything that you hear and it is a mutual agreement because we are led into meetings when you are behind the scenes that are sensitive. i was there when president obama was at a rally and at the same time, the hurricane had come up the east coast and was up north and he was on a secure phone talking to fema director and trying to organize at the same time he was trying to run the campaign. really unique time to be in there and hear him in a really heated serious conversation about what was going on underground and how he wanted things to take place and

organizing that and on the other side of the wall people banging four more years so it is a unique time to be any time you are behind the scenes with a president. >> new york times staff photographer douglas mills sunday night at 8:00 on c-span's un day. ..