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New York Gov. Kathy Hochul wants to revamp the way the state’s schools teach math.

Hochul announced the plan in her annual State of the State address on Tuesday, along with several child care and education initiatives she has previewed over the past week. The governor’s broader agenda includes funding a ; expanding pre-K and child care vouchers statewide; growing a ; bolstering the state’s teacher training pipeline; and building on free community college for adults who want to train for high-demand careers.

The governor’s office released few details about the plan to overhaul math, but in its outlining Hochul’s priorities for the year, state officials compared it to existing efforts to revamp literacy instruction. The governor has worked with teachers and school districts to adopt evidence-based “science of reading” practices that focus on phonics and explicit reading instruction, state officials wrote.

Similarly, Hochul said in her Tuesday speech that it is time to get “back to basics” in math. “My hope is for New York students to be the most academically prepared in the country,” Hochul said.

To that end, she will introduce legislation to require the State Education Department to provide school districts with best practices for teaching math and guidance on selecting math curriculums that align with state standards.

The state will also require the State University of New York and the City University of New York to offer extra training in evidence-based math instruction to teachers, especially in New York’s districts with the lowest math performance.

“With these proposals, New York parents can rest assured that there is no better place for their children to learn and thrive than here in our state,” Hochul said.

New York City is already several years into an experiment in mandating and standardizing school curriculums in the name of evidence-based teaching practices. Well before the state rolled out its curriculum recommendations, former Mayor Eric Adams introduced a teaching overhaul called NYC Reads, which required elementary schools to use one of three city-approved reading programs.

At the same time, under a math reform called NYC Solves, the city required high schools, and later some middle schools, to adopt a standardized curriculum for algebra.

Some educators and experts contended that it didn’t make sense to introduce a math overhaul in high school, and lacked the vocabulary or tools to follow what was being taught.

New York City’s new schools chancellor, Kamar Samuels, seems to agree.

Math reform should start with elementary schools, he “If we don’t do math well,” Samuels added, students won’t “be ready for the jobs that exist, much less the jobs that don’t.”

Samuels also argued for a balancing a “back-to-basics” approach to math that emphasizes memorization and math facts with a focus on creative problem-solving. Conceptual understanding is important, Samuels said, but parents “look back at me and say, ‘My kid is in fourth grade and doesn’t know the times tables.’”

“We think of [times tables] as an old thing, but we absolutely need to incorporate it so that our parents can believe in what we do again,” Samuels said.

The jury remains out on whether New York City’s curriculum mandates have improved performance. The Adams administration they said were evidence of positive results, but education experts say it’s too soon to draw conclusions.

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders used Wednesday’s “State of the State” address to tout her ongoing policy priorities, primarily education and law enforcement, and urge state lawmakers to pass her proposed state budget.

“Send me a budget that funds critical services for Arkansans while slowing the growth of government and I will sign it,” Sanders told members of the House and Senate during a joint session on the first day of the state’s eighth fiscal session.

The $6.3 billion includes a significantly smaller spending increase — $109 million, or 1.76% — compared to previous fiscal years’ annual 3% hikes.

Sanders reiterated that the proposal fulfills her promise to “slow the out-of-control growth of government.”

“Arkansas had deep, entrenched problems when I took office,” she said. “We weren’t going to solve them with the same failed policies that got us here in the first place, so we charted a new course last year.”

She listed as accomplishments several policies enacted so far in her term, including two laws , plans to open , an executive order in government documents and a social media age verification law, which has been temporarily .

Sanders also emphasized her dedication to funding and empowering law enforcement and said her budget proposal includes $3.8 million that would “replenish” the ranks of the Arkansas State Police. She also said she wants to add 100 new officers to the force.

“There are people outside this chamber — and even a few inside — who want to distract us from these common-sense reforms,” Sanders said. “I beg of you: do not let them.”

Education policy

After prioritizing education during her first year in office, Sanders praised the success of the state’s new school voucher program.

New participant applications , and Sanders said more than 1,800 applications were submitted on the first day. About a quarter of new Educational Freedom Account program applicants are children of active military duty personnel and veterans, she said. The latter group is newly eligible for the program, which is being phased in over three years.

“Educational freedom is the least that we can do for those who put everything on the line for our freedom,” Sanders said. “This time next year, we will have universal education freedom for the first time in Arkansas history.”

The EFA program is a provision of the , an expansive education law backed by Sanders that has made several changes to the state’s education system since its passage last year.

The governor’s proposed budget includes $100 million to support LEARNS initiatives. A proposed $65.8 million spending increase for the EFA program accounts for of the budget proposal’s overall increase.

The voucher program provides state funding for allowable education expenses, such as private school tuition. More than 5,400 students and 100 schools participated in the program’s first year. Eligibility criteria is being expanded each year until the program is open to all Arkansas students in the 2025-2026 academic year.

“Before this year, Arkansas families had no choice where to send their kids to school,” Sanders said. “LEARNS expanded education freedom to more than 5,000 students in just one year. Fifty percent of those students have learning disabilities.”

The Arkansas Legislature passed limited school choice legislation prior to the LEARNS Act. The Public School Choice Act of 2015 allows students to transfer to a nonresident district, while the Opportunity School Choice Act permits students in a school with an “F”-rating or in need of Level 5 Intensive support from the state to transfer to another public school.

The Legislature in 2015 also created the Succeed Scholarship Program, which provided private school tuition for students with disabilities, foster children and military families. The program has been absorbed into the EFA program.

In addition to the voucher program, the LEARNS Act also raises the state’s minimum teacher salary to $50,000 and prohibits “indoctrination” in Arkansas schools. Sanders signed with similar phrasing regarding indoctrination on her first day in office.

The governor said Wednesday that she was proud to have enacted the policy for the sake of “our children’s future.”

Three Little Rock Central High students, their parents and the school’s AP African American Studies teacher in federal court last month, saying it’s “unworkably vague and oppressive, and it discriminates on the basis of race.”

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