A Focus on the Nation's Future

A strong educational system benefits individuals, their communities, and the nation.  For a country like ours, which is the envy of the world in so many ways, to have an educational system that leaves so many of our children ill-prepared to contribute to a 21st century economy is a travesty.  What’s worse is that in some respects, U.S. educational outcomes have actually declined over the last generation. Between 1969 and 2000, high school completion rates have dropped by 30 percent.   

To reverse these trends we need a comprehensive approach to education that is based on strong research and brings all key parties to the table.

As your Congressman, I will work toward the following solutions:

•    Target pre-school to the children most in need: Investing in high quality pre-school for the most disadvantaged kids pays significant dividends in the future. 

•    Revamp NCLB: No Child Left Behind has successfully allowed students in danger of falling behind to seek additional tutoring and transfer to better schools.  Yet, it has also placed perverse incentives on teachers to ‘teach to the test.’  In addition, it allowed states to set their own standards, so that there are now significant educational discrepancies throughout the country. 

•    Attract and retain talented teachers: Increasingly, our teachers are being asked to do more with less.  Improving our educational system requires recruiting and retaining the best and the brightest, and giving them the necessary resources to prepare our children as they grow and learn.  Research shows that teacher quality is the one of the most important school-related factor in student achievement.  

•    Support technical training:  The future of manufacturing is within the clean energy industry.  We must educate, through apprenticeship and vocational technical training, our future generation of workers to build, install, and maintain the products of our nation’s next industrial revolution.