Brief Background: SAGE

• SAGE is an acronym for the Student Achievement Guarantee in Education program. It is designed to raise the achievement levels of children from low-income families.
• Two years ago, the Legislature passed and the governor signed a law setting up a 5-year SAGE demonstration program. The law provided funding to implement SAGE in kindergarten and 1st grades this year in targeted schools with high concentrations of low-income children.
• The law committed the state to expand the program to 2nd and 3rd grades over the next two years.
• This year, Governor Thompson’s state budget proposal freezes SAGE funding at current levels, thereby reneging on the commitment to expand the program.
• The Legislature is currently reviewing and rewriting the governor’s budget. Members are actively lobbying legislators to live up to the commitment to expand SAGE.
• Educators involved in SAGE say it has been a tremendous success in its first year.

Posted May 29, 1997