Education

A major path to economic recovery and sustainability is an educated workforce. There is a gap, however, between the needs of the workplace and the education of the workforce. We need to close this gap and it needs to happen on multiple levels.

Elementary and Secondary Education

The dropout rate has improved but it is still too high, particularly for minority groups. We need to continue the progress made on reducing this statistic. To achieve this, I support raising the drop out age without parental consent from 16 to 18.

Measuring the quality of elementary and secondary education needs to be standardized. MCAS measure the proficiency of our students in a statewide test but nothing standardizes the quality of a letter grade from each school. All too often students are accepted into post-secondary programs with A and B grade averages that are not representative of what the student really knows. It is very expensive and time consuming to get these students up to par through remedial courses. I will support efforts to correct this problem.

Post-Secondary Education

There needs to be more of a dialogue between businesses and post-secondary educators to create curriculum that teaches to new and emerging technologies, particularly around the STEM disciplines (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math). I will work with town and city administrators to create this dialogue between companies that could move to our district and the post-secondary schools in our area that would provide the educated workers.