A Rising Tide in Alabama (with Eric Mackey)

So what do you think are the main keys to success in leading a state's education system? And I mean m- m- more specifically.

You, you've been a state chief, you've been the head of CCSSO, which is the Association of State School Officers.

I mean, if you could only get three things right, what would those three things be?

Uh, a great governor who believes in the mission and supports you.

I mean, I, I have had strong, uh, support and leadership from Governor Kay Ivey.

She's our state's longest-serving governor ever.

Um-She, uh, I've been with her almost all of that time.

You know, and, and she's just been very supportive.

Now, have-- behind closed doors, have she and I always agreed on everything? No.

No, sometimes she says, "Mackie, I wanna do this.

I wanna do it this way." And, and sometimes I've had to push back and say, "Well, I understand that, but, but here's some other facts I need to bring to the table." But I'm gonna tell you, she's 100% on board for do, do what we need to do to improve achievement in Alabama.

So that'd be my number one, you gotta have a strong governor who understands the mission and supports the mission.

And, and then alignment with the other, um, folks above and below you would be two and three.

So above me, obviously there's the governor, there's also my state school board.

I, I'm an appointed person to work for the board.

The governor is chair of the board.

So we have a nine-member board, and the governor's the, uh, one of those members.

Um, so I need the rest of the board too, or at least the majority of the board, to go along with the, the kind of, uh, strategy the governor and I lay out.

I need the legislature, and my legislature's been great in this state.

They've-- they have funded our initiatives in literacy and numeracy.

They've funded our initiatives to get better and more, uh, science, engineering, math teachers in the classroom.

They've funded our initiatives to take over principal development and say, "We're gonna pay principals a, a big bonus, but you're gonna have to do it our way." They've funded our initiative to expand, uh, national board-certified teachers.

So we've got a lot of initiatives, and the legislature's funded those.

So those folks above me, and then below me.

Like, you've gotta have superintendents and local school boards and pr-pr-- you know, principals and teachers.