In 1997, the General Assembly adopted the "Postsecondary Education Improvement Act of 1997" (HB 1), a bold and visionary act to reform Kentucky's public system of higher education. This piece of legislation established broad goals for increasing educational attainment at all levels, and charged the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education with coordinating the change and improvement necessary for Kentucky to raise our standard of living and quality of life to meet or exceed the national average. At the heart of this Strategic Agenda is a goal to raise Kentucky's educational attainment level to 58 percent by the year 2025, up from its current level of 45 percent. In simple terms, this means that over half of Kentuckians between the ages of 25-64 need to have completed vocational or technical training at the certificate or associate level, or liberal arts or professional education leading to a baccalaureate or graduate degree. Strengthening the employability and educational skills of Kentuckians is critical to moving people out of poverty and into jobs that pay a decent wage. This Agenda identifies high-level objectives, strategies, and metrics that will help improve college readiness and enrollment, produce more certificates and degrees aligned with workforce needs, and work closely with local communities to enhance their standard of living and quality of life. This plan is the product of hundreds of hours of work and thought from hundreds of contributors, including members of the Council on Postsecondary Education, campus leaders, faculty members, students, state agencies, policy leaders, representatives from the business community, the Kentucky Higher Education Assistance Authority, the Education Professional Standards Board, P-12 educators and administrators, and the public at large through a series of policy forums and town hall meetings. This agenda focuses not only on the short-term actions necessary to address the most pressing challenges, but on long-term solutions as well. There is no question that investing in public colleges and universities, and pairing their efforts with targeted economic development strategies, can expand the number of people in high-paying jobs, increase tax revenue without having to raise tax rates, improve the health of the citizens, and lower public and private expenditures on healthcare costs.