THE PRESIDENT: Right.
GOVERNOR REYNOLDS: We did comprehensive, adult mental health care reform last year. And this year, I was able to pass - working with the legislature - a children's mental health system. We've been talking about it for decades, and nobody got it done. And it really - there's a lot of money that goes into the system, but parents don't know where to start.
And so we've created a system - a structure, some oversight, some eligibility requirements, and core-mandated services. We're also appropriating some funds to educators to help them identify early warning signs of mental illness so we can get these kiddos the services that they need sooner rather than later, and to help buy down the waitlist.
And before I wrap up, we're really big on second chances too.
THE PRESIDENT: Good.
GOVERNOR REYNOLDS: We're coming back next year with criminal justice reform. We did some employer liability shield. We've got registered apprenticeship programs in every single institution. We're helping them get driver's license. We're dealing with transportation. Living - a place to live when they go back into society and a job that's waiting for them to participate in as well.
So thanks for helping be a partner in what we're trying to do at the state level. It's incredible.
Thanks, Ivanka.
THE PRESIDENT: It's been a great experience. You've been fantastic. And on top of all that - and Mexico and Canada are now buying a lot of stuff.
GOVERNOR REYNOLDS: Yes. Yeah. And so we -
THE PRESIDENT: They're buying a lot of your agricultural products again. You know, that started as of a few days ago. But they are buying a lot.
GOVERNOR REYNOLDS: Yeah. We need Congress to ratify USMCA.
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, well, they have to get that ratified. Even before they ratify it.
GOVERNOR REYNOLDS: Oh, even - yeah.
THE PRESIDENT: But even before. They've been in for a period of time now, buying a lot of agricultural products.
Hey, David, go ahead. Please.
GOVERNOR IGE: Well, certainly. We are doing many of the same things. We're expanding our apprenticeship programs. Really trying to connect the dots between our education system and the job opportunities. Working with businesses to embrace new apprenticeship programs in healthcare and technology. Trying to increase and improve ability of our high school students to get access to careers, whether that's higher education. You know, we do have our early college program that's producing high school students that are graduating with associate of arts degrees because of our commitment to ensuring that all of our high school students have access to higher education.
But we are also looking at taking apprenticeship programs that have been so successful, especially in the construction trades, into the new areas of job opportunities in healthcare, as well as technology. So we're excited about that.
And we are pursuing second chance and criminal justice reform as well, investing in prison industries programs, trying to ensure that those, at the time that they end their incarceration, have quality job skills so they can hit the job running as well.
So we're excited by all of those opportunities to make sure that everyone in our community has access to quality jobs and living wages.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much, David. Appreciate it. Good job.
Bill?
GOVERNOR LEE: Mr. President, I'm interested in the fact that all of us around this table are talking about the things that we're able to do because we have an economy that is so strong in this country because of the policies that you have put in place.
And we, in Tennessee, share in that strong economy and that low unemployment, but we want to continue to improve. We want to continue to bring more people into the workforce.
And the work that you're doing in workforce development is particularly interesting to me. Six months ago, I ran a company of 1,400 skilled workers: plumbers, pipefitters, welders, electricians. That's what I've done all my life. I know firsthand how critically important it is to have skilled workers and the lack of them that we have in our country.
So when I became governor, we rolled out something called the Governor's Investment in Vocational Education Act - the GIVE Act. We're providing dual credit enrollment at no cost to high school students that are enrolled in vocational, technical, agricultural career paths. It's a $25 million investment that's going to set up through community grants, CTE programs in high schools that don't have them.
And we're working with the employers. As a former employer, knowing that I knew what skills I needed better than the education system did, then we're working with employers to help design those curriculum for those programs.
We also are doing something called the Future Workforce Initiative that set up, initially, a hundred middle school STEM programs. We want to be an attractive state for the jobs of the future. And I have an engineering background myself, so we've rolled out this hundred - a hundred middle school plan, but we have a goal of tripling the number of STEM-designated public high schools in Tennessee by 2022.
We think if we approach this vocational side, as well as the STEM education side, then we're going to have a workforce ready for the future. And so we're grateful for your advancing workforce development in such a great way.
And I'll add, too, you know, I spent about 20 years working in a prison reentry program myself, in the private sector, in non-profit work. And I mentored men coming out of prison. And I saw how criminal justice reform changes lives. It changes lives. It saves taxpayers money because we incarcerate less people. It reduces recidivism. And at the end of the day, it lowers crime and it produces safer neighborhoods.
So we've invested, this year, in an education program for those who are incarcerated, knowing that a person coming out of incarceration reentry with a certificate or some level of attainment has about a 40 percent chance of more successful reentry than one who doesn't.
So I could continue to talk, but I'm excited to be here because these are subjects that are near and dear to my heart but that are transformative for our nation. And your leadership in them, on a national level, allows us at the state level to get more done, and so we're grateful for that. I'm excited to be here.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, you know, Bill - thanks; that's really great. But very few people thought that criminal justice reform could get done.
GOVERNOR LEE: That's right.
THE PRESIDENT: And they've been trying to get it done for years. As you people know, they've been trying to get it done for many years, and we got it done.
GOVERNOR LEE: That's right.
THE PRESIDENT: And, I guess, they're going to even make some modifications and some additions to it as time goes by. And we got it done from some very liberal people and from some of the most conservative people in the country. It's an incredible thing. Some of the most conservative and some liberal folks, and they all pulled together. We did something that everybody said could not happen.
GOVERNOR LEE: That's right.
THE PRESIDENT: And it was a tremendous package, and part of what we're talking about is the prison reform and all of the other things that we're doing - many, many things. And so it's an honor to be involved with that. But it was really something.
And Jared and Ivanka, and so many of the people - a lot of the governors helped. A lot of the governors. States like Texas and states like Kentucky. And some states where they're pretty tough states, Doug, right? Like you? But some pretty tough states. They were - they had done it long before the federal government. You couldn't get it done in the federal government, and we got it done.
So we owe a big thanks to a lot of people. But that was something that was never going to happen, and everybody pulled together and did something very special. So, it's great.
I'd like to ask, maybe, a man who's been with me for a long time, and he's still with me, but he's going to be going from - he's going to be working from the outside a little bit, as opposed to the inside. Now, he can actually speak even more vociferously. (Laughter.)
Kevin, could you say a few words? Tell them just briefly where we've come from and where we're going.
