The bills signed are House Bill 2479, House Bill 2480, House Bill 2483, Senate Bill 456 and Senate Bill 457.

“The hard work, as we all know as business people, is actually digging into the weeds, rolling up our sleeves and managing people and making sure that we are doing the mission of the organizations,” he said. “We’ve got to get this thing organized and get the accountability, the structure right so we can move the needle.”

Stitt also addressed schooling. He said his goal is to break down silos among common education, career tech and higher education, as well as to continue promoting the profession of teaching by requesting another teacher pay raise and implementing a recruiting incentive program.

“I believe that we have to continue to focus on education in our state. I want to be top 10 in education. We don’t have any different issues than any other state does, so there’s no reason that we can’t be,” he said. “I believe the magic happens when we get the best teachers in the classroom teaching our children.”

Stitt ended his speech by discussing another goal to prioritize reforming the criminal justice system, including restructuring legal fees and court costs, licensing, parole, workforce training and more.