The Issues Education
Building for the Future: Chris’ Education Plan
- Chris
Inside Education
We all know that quality education is the key to a bright future, but it’s become harder and more expensive to secure the kind of education that allows our children to succeed. Throughout his time in the Connecticut legislature, Chris has fought hard for initiatives to improve our public schools, expand access to early childhood education, eliminate the achievement gap, and make higher education more affordable. These initiatives represent not only investments in our future, but put the American Dream within reach for all families. As a Congressman, Chris will continue the fight to make affordable, quality education opportunities accessible to all.
Closing the achievement gap through early childhood education, investing in teachers, and encouraging parental involvement.
Chris has led efforts to combat the achievement gap by creating a coordinated and expanded system of early care and education and child development, and an achievement gap task force to develop and implement plans to close the academic achievement gap in elementary, middle and high schools, and strategies to eliminate the post-secondary achievement gap between minority students and the general student population. He understands that parental involvement is key to students’ success and has worked to create school governance councils for low-performing schools that have parents, teachers and the community working together to improve those schools. Chris knows that effective teachers are critical to closing the achievement gap. He has led the effort for more varied routes to certification, more targeted professional development, aid to help more early childhood teachers become certified, and the creation of best practices to help school districts implement the most effective methods for reaching students. Closing the academic achievement gap requires cooperation from everyone on the local, state and national level, so that students, their families and our district and state all benefit.
An investment in our college students.
As the first line of funding in federal student aid, Pell Grants have been a crucial component of increased access and diversity within higher education. Chris has seen first-hand how Pell Grants can impact a student’s success during his time teaching at the University of Hartford. Chris will fight to fully fund and expand Pell Grants, make student loans more accessible to more students, as well as finding ways to reduce the often-prohibitive cost of higher education.
Investing in our state’s most important asset – our people.
Chris believes that in order to compete globally, Connecticut must have the best-educated, best-trained workforce in the world. That’s why he has led efforts in recent years to improve and expand Connecticut’s community college and technical high school infrastructure. By creating a real link between tech schools like Wilcox and Kaynor, higher-ed institutions like Naugatuck Valley Community College, and the needs of local businesses, Chris believes that we can give each and every one of our young people the skills and experience they need to compete in the 21st century job market.
Providing the skilled workforce and high-quality jobs that our economy needs to grow.
Our economy is in desperate need of skilled workers, yet our investment in workforce-specific training remains limited in scope. In the General Assembly, Chris fought to establish workforce training programs at all levels, from vocational-technical high schools to professional degrees, and built links between institutions and to businesses to encourage further development. Chris will work to increase the amount of training available to new and displaced workers in order to provide the skilled workforce and high-quality jobs that our economy needs to grow.
Keeping faith with our veterans by increasing educational opportunities.
As the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan begin to near an end, more and more troops are returning home to face one of the worst economic landscapes in recent memory. Many without college degrees, these men and women confront a difficult job market sometimes without the skills necessary to start a stable career. During his time in the state legislature, Chris has recognized this problem and taken steps to address it. That’s why he led the charge on 2009 legislation offering a tuition waiver for service members attending Connecticut state colleges if expenses exceeded those allowances offered under the federal G.I. Bill. And, under a bill passed into law last year, relevant training, schooling or apprenticeship in the armed services will be recognized and applied toward requirements for state certifications, licenses, or continuing education credits when veterans return home. 1 This will save veterans time and money as they work towards building the skills they need to succeed in the 2012 job market, and beyond. As your Congressman, Chris will fight to strengthen and expand the critically important Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act, commonly known as “the New G.I. Bill.” Investing in the future of those returning from overseas is good for our economy, good for families, and most importantly, good for our veterans.
