LANSDOWNE, Virginia — West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin III was elected the chair of the Southern Regional Education Board today at the organization’s Annual Meeting in Lansdowne, Virginia. He succeeds Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, who was recognized at the meeting for his service as the SREB chair since 2008.
Manchin became West Virginia’s governor and a member of the Southern Regional Education Board in 2004. He was re-elected to a second term as the Mountain State’s 34th governor in 2008. As governor, he has invested more than $11 billion in primary, secondary and higher education since taking office.
In 2008, Governor Manchin proposed and the Legislature passed the "Bucks for Jobs" program, which creates a $50 million research endowment to be split between Marshall University and West Virginia University to stimulate world-class research and development. Among other activities, he also launched the Student Educational and Economic Development Success (SEEDS) program, a public-private partnership between the state and The Education Alliance, a statewide business-education partnership.
As the Chair of SREB’s 80-member Board of state leaders from 16 states across the South, Governor Manchin plans to stress the need to raise college graduation rates. Only a little more than half of first-time, full-time freshmen in four-year public colleges and universities graduate with a bachelor’s degree within six years nationally and in the SREB region.
Governor Manchin and other state leaders agreed here that states and colleges need to take action to solve this problem and help more of the South's residents earn degrees and career certification.
Mark E. Emblidge, president of the Virginia Board of Education, was elected the vice chair of SREB. Emblidge, who joined the SREB Board in 2004, also serves as affiliate professor and the director of The Literacy Institute at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. He most recently was active on SREB’s Committee to Improve Reading and Writing in Middle and High Schools, chaired by Virginia Governor Kaine.
State Senator Jack Gordon of Mississippi was elected the treasurer of the Board. Gordon’s association with SREB since 1981 includes service on the Board and on the SREB Legislative Advisory Council, the largest standing advisory group to the Board.
The Southern Regional Education Board, or SREB, based in Atlanta, 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. More information is available online at www.sreb.org.
