Yesterday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott gave his State of the State address. He listed five key priorities, with education being at the top of the list.

KXAN News and Paul J. Weber report:

Gov. Greg Abbott’s State of the State highlights 5 emergency items

AUSTIN (KXAN/AP) — Addressing a joint session of the House and Senate for the first time since taking the oath of office last month, the first topic for Republican Gov. Greg Abbott in his first State of the State address was education, saying it was time to put school finance litigation behind us. As expected, the governor told lawmakers that roads, education and border security are the biggest issues facing Texans.

Abbott’s first emergency item dealt with Pre-K education, something he said many Democrats were carrying. He said it’s important to make sure Texas students are performing at grade level at both reading and math by the third grade, and to do that, he says the budget gives additional funding to schools with high-quality Pre-K programs.

“To begin the process of improving our schools and advancing our students, we must improve early education,” said Abbott. “That’s why I am declaring early education as my first emergency item as governor.”

Spending some time speaking about school choice, Abbott also said schools should be able to opt out of school code for local control, saying no to the common core.

“Our parents deserve these choices; our students deserve these results,” said Abbott, who then went on to speak about his second emergency item: higher education. “We need to expand and support our community colleges.”

The governor wants $500 million to recruit researchers and Nobel laureates.

As expected, roads were a topic for Abbott, who asked for more than $4 billion a year more for state roads — transportation his third emergency item.