ATLANTA — Virginia Governor Timothy M. Kaine was elected the chair of the Southern Regional Education Board at the organization’s Annual Meeting today in Boca Raton, Florida. He succeeds Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue, who was recognized at the meeting for his service as the SREB chair since 2006.
Kaine became governor and a member of the Southern Regional Education Board in 2006. As governor of Virginia, he has worked to expand pre-kindergarten classes, bring teacher salaries up to the national average and raise the quality of the state’s career and technical programs, among other actions.
Governor Kaine also serves as chair of the SREB Committee to Improve Reading and Writing in Middle and High Schools, a group of state leaders that is developing proposed policies for SREB states to help students improve their reading and writing skills in the middle grades and high school.
He follows in the footsteps of his father-in-law, former Virginia Governor Linwood Holton, as the SREB chair. Governor Holton served as the SREB chair in 1972 and 1973.
T. Kenneth James, commissioner of the Arkansas Department of Education, was elected the vice chair of SREB. He joined the SREB Board in 2005.
State Senator Francis C. Thompson of Louisiana was re-elected the treasurer of the Board. Thompson’s association with SREB since 1980 includes service on the Board and on the SREB Legislative Advisory Council, the largest standing advisory group to the Board.
Legislative Advisory Council elections
Tennessee state Representative Lois M. DeBerry, Speaker Pro Tempore of the House, was elected the chair of the Legislative Advisory Council as part of the 57th annual Legislative Work Conference, held in conjunction with the Annual Meeting. The Legislative Advisory Council meets regularly to give guidance to Board programs and address current education topics.
Representative DeBerry replaces state Senator Walter H. Dalton of North Carolina as the chair of the Council. State Senator David P. Sokola of Delaware was elected the Council’s vice chair.
SREB, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization based in Atlanta, Georgia, advises state education leaders on ways to improve education. SREB was created in 1948 by Southern governors and legislatures to help leaders in education and government work cooperatively to advance education and improve the social and economic life of the region. SREB has 16 member states: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia. Each is represented by its governor and four gubernatorial appointees.
