Karl Dean and Bill Lee on the issues facing Tennessee

Tennessee Press Association | The Tennessean

Editor's note: Democrat Karl Dean and Republican Bill Lee are their parties' nominees for governor in the November election. Below find their positions on education, healthcare, rural issues and infrastructure. These were compiled by the Tennessee Press Association for publications around the state.

Karl Dean on education

"I think Tennessee has benefited from Governor Haslam’s and Governor Bredesen’s commitment to making public education a priority but we need to continue to increase education funding.

"Lack of resources should not be a barrier to student success or to teacher retention and recruitment.

"I started my career in the Nashville Public Defender’s office and learned a lot about how important a quality education is.

"My clients were overwhelmingly high school dropouts, so I saw a direct connection between public safety, economic success and education.

"All children in Tennessee deserve access to a high quality education.

"As mayor of Nashville, I worked with the Metro Council to:

Increase funding for Nashville schools by 37 percent.

Increase new teacher pay from 30th to 3rd in the state.

Invest $629 million in school buildings and other capital infrastructure for the school district.

Graduation rates increased by nearly 20% from 2005 to 2015.

"From 2009-2016, 18% of MNPS students have advanced at least one achievement level on annual state assessments.

"As governor, I will do the same for the state by:

Making education a priority in every budget while I am in office with an emphasis on paying our teachers more. We should also make sure that teachers have the support through professional development and teacher prep programs to continually receive updates and training to help them in the classroom.

Being open to changes to the BEP (Basic Education Program) to increase funding for districts that do not benefit from the sales tax base larger cities do.

Making an investment in expanding pre-Kindergarten and early literacy programs.

Investing in expanding vocational and technical programs.

Fixing TNReady issues by calling for an extensive analysis of what went wrong and putting a plan in place to prevent mistakes in an open and transparent way with the help of teachers and parents."

Bill Lee on education

"I have three major priorities in education:

Supporting jobs by bringing back real vocational education into our schools;

Supporting our teachers by reducing the testing burden and improving the working environment;

Supporting parents with meaningful school choice.

"For a lot of candidates, vocational education is a talking point, but for the last 35 years it’s been my life. I run a 1,200-person company that employs skilled craftsmen.

"Ten years ago, even though we were labeled one of the best places to work by the Tennessean, we struggled to fill the jobs we had. To address it, we built our own trade school, helping over a 1,000 men and women advance their careers.

"I believe the way forward on vocational education isn’t a massive government project, it’s through a more effective partnership with the hundreds of industry leaders across the state who are ready to work with the state on new goals for apprenticeships, instructor training and curriculum design. Industry should be more than a beneficiary of our education efforts, it should be a key part of the solution.

"As an employer, I know that a CEO’s job isn’t to micromanage, but to create an environment where employees can thrive. That’s the approach I’d take as chief executive of this state when it comes to our teachers.

"I’ll lift up the teaching profession, with competitive compensation, meaningful opportunities for professional development, and reducing the testing burden to provide more freedom to exercise their craft.

"Our teachers are on the front lines and we need to set them up for success.

"As a parent, I believe it’s not the type of school or who owns the building that matters, but whether the school is providing a quality education for our kids. We have choices in every other aspect of our lives, and I think Tennessee families deserve choice in education too."

Karl Dean on healthcare

"I firmly believe that our overall quality of life is directly linked to health. It plays a role in our state’s economic viability, productivity and educational outcomes for students.

"We simply cannot afford the health we have.

"As mayor of Nashville, we made the goal of improved health a focus of my administration. We championed healthy living by expanding access to parks, greenways and community centers. We also built a state-of-the-art public health facility.

"We created the 'Walk 100 Mile' challenge, the Mayor’s 5k, the Mayor’s Field Day, invested sidewalks, bike paths, established a new bicycle program, and added more parks, greenways, and community centers.

"As an adult we know the results of unhealthy behaviors, but children do not. We need to equip our schools and teachers with the resource they need to teach our kids how to live healthy lifestyles.

"Encouraging preventative care is one of the smartest, most cost-effective things we can as a government to improve the health of our community.

"Additionally, one of my top priorities as governor will be to make sure every Tennessean has access to affordable healthcare. Those who do not have insurance generally will not get check-ups, so it is that much harder for physicians to advise on healthy choices and catch illnesses early.

Bill Lee on healthcare

"There’s no doubt that we face a tsunami of lifestyle diseases in Tennessee. This includes issues such as heart disease, obesity and side effects related to smoking. It is a growing epidemic in Tennessee, and across the country as well.

"Thirty years ago, no state had more than 20 percent of its population that was overweight or obese. Today, no state is below 20 percent, and some are over 30 percent and inching up to 40 percent.

"We are seeing this growth in part because our entire health care system is broken. We see skyrocketing costs every year for patients, providers and payers because there are no financial incentives to control them.

"The system does not provide options for patients to take stock of their healthcare and know how much it costs, and providers are not rewarded for addressing prevention and wellness. We have to fundamentally break through that mindset to focus less on just delivering healthcare and more on our overall health.

"We’re doing this in my company. Health care premiums have gone up 19 percent and 29 percent in the last two years, and we decided we would institute some incentives for wellness, and costs are going down for those who participate because health care is not just for when we are sick. Health care includes daily choices in prevention as well.

"As governor, I will lead an effort to promote smarter engagement in the health system that doesn’t focus on a top-down, government-first approach. Throughout this campaign, I have talked about the need to engage more in public-private partnerships with faith-based and non-profit communities. These organizations have their finger firmly on the pulse of what’s going on locally, and they often provide better solutions than creating another government program.

"I chaired the YMCA of Middle Tennessee, and they have been aggressively trailblazing wellness innovations, providing opportunities for smoking cessation, obesity and diet management, and they have developed a major program in diabetes prevention. In Tennessee, we have an amazing natural resource in the form of our non-profit and faith community partners. Working with them more effectively is a great place to start in improving health in our state."

Karl Dean on rural issues

"I spent the first few months of my campaign spending time in each of our state’s economically distressed counties to hear directly from residents about their needs and concerns.

"As governor, I will continue to listen to residents, especially those who feel left behind and forgotten, as many in our rural communities do.

"Tennesseans in all communities deserve access to the same opportunities. We need to remain focused on improving the basics.

"We need to:

Grow the number of good-paying jobs throughout the state

Put more funding into public education, including career technical education and vocational training

Increase access to affordable, quality healthcare -- too many rural hospitals are closing in Tennessee because our legislature refused to pass Gov. Haslam’s Medicaid expansion plan

"Additionally, we need to invest in rural infrastructure needs including county roads, highways and broadband in rural areas. Communities that feel like they’ve been left behind need to know their issues are going to be addressed as quickly as those in urban and suburban areas.

"Just as I did as mayor of Nashville, I want to invest in the innate strengths of all 95 counties, both rural and urban areas. For many communities agriculture tops that list.

"Our agricultural producers need better access to the capital required to establish themselves and grow their operations. In many rural communities, when agriculture is doing well, the entire community thrives as a result.

"Our farms support a tremendous amount of local jobs and annual farm income supports local businesses, which means investing in agriculture will help our rural communities overall."

Bill Lee on rural issues

"Growing up and still living on our family farm, I know many of the issues that face farmers and rural communities.

Many of Tennessee’s rural communities are hurting and we need a concerted, consistent effort that builds for the future and reflects the fundamental values of Tennessee.

"That is why I was the first candidate in this race to announce a detailed Roadmap for Rural Tennessee. It includes four key areas I’ll focus on as governor to increase opportunities in rural Tennessee and address some of the most pressing issues facing the region.

First, we need to promote the dignity of work and economic independence and invest early in vocational, technical, and agriculture education, knocking down barriers to work.

Second, we will support innovation and technology to improve economic growth, health care access, and educational opportunities and reduce the tax burden for small businesses and bring more health care options to our rural communities.

Third, we need to attack the epidemic of opioid abuse and addiction and increase penalties for drug traffickers and put non-violent addicts on a path to wellness.

Finally, we need to renew our state's commitment to faith, community, and family by strengthening civic and character education in our schools and support strong families in our communities.

"We are just a generation away from losing a way of life in small town Tennessee. If we don’t act decisively, we will lose it, and that’s something we can’t allow to happen."

Karl Dean on infrastructure

"Karl knows that the right investments in infrastructure are key to economic growth. Access to roads, water lines, broadband service and other infrastructure are essential for businesses looking to grow and create jobs.

"During his time as mayor of Nashville, Karl made improving the city’s infrastructure a priority, working with the Metro Council to invest $2.3 billion in capital projects in all parts of Davidson County.

"He also worked with the Metro Council to create a funding stream for new water, sewer and stormwater infrastructure projects.

"When Karl first took office, the city’s water department had essentially no bonding capacity. Now, Nashville has the water infrastructure it needs to support years of economic growth.

"As governor, Karl will bring the same commitment to finding pragmatic solutions to our communities’ problems. He will work with the Tennessee General Assembly and our state’s leaders in Washington, D.C., to ensure all available state and federal resources are put toward our state’s most pressing infrastructure needs.

Bill Lee on infrastructure

"In my company, I have always told our managers, be careful about what you add in the good times, because you might have to take it away in the lean times, and that philosophy has kept us from having to make some very difficult decisions when times do inevitably get tough.

"When approaching a budget, whether in my company or as governor, I look at every line item and weigh the merits. You have to make hard decisions and differentiate from 'needs' and 'wants.'

"Investing in infrastructure is clearly a need, and it needs to be addressed more quickly. I run a company with hundreds of vehicles, and our company is in the business of maintaining the infrastructure of buildings. Deferring maintenance is a costly, critical mistake. The same obviously applies to government. Neglecting infrastructure ensures more expensive and more painful solutions when we finally do get around to addressing them.

"In Tennessee, we find ourselves with a growing infrastructure problem, not only because of deferred maintenance, but because of factors like TennCare, where we grew that program to unsustainable levels. As a result, fixed overhead became an anchor on the budget, which meant the state highway fund was raided to pay our bills.

"We can’t do that again.

"Infrastructure needs to be part of a bigger conversation around our entire state budget. In the last eight years, inflation has risen 8 percent and our population has grown by 5 percent. However, our state budget appropriations alone have risen by an astounding 32 percent.

"If we don’t do something to slow the growth of government spending today — while revenues are currently strong — we’re destined to find ourselves in a hard situation when revenues drop. That will not only harm infrastructure, it’ll hurt education, law enforcement and many of the services the state currently provides."