Issue Position: Education
Issue Position
As a former community college teacher, Dr. Chu knows first hand the difference education can make in helping citizens achieve the American dream, regardless of race, gender, ethnicity or socioeconomic background.
In the Assembly, Dr. Chu authored legislation to provide low performing schools with $13 million in special federal funding to improve student achievement and to eliminate the current one-time restriction of eligibility for modernization grants, allowing school districts to apply for modernization funding every twenty-five years.
She led the fight at the State Board of Education to provide help in the curriculum for English language learner students. She also fought for increased state funding for immigrant students, championing the effort to bring in $30 million for supplemental instructional materials for English learners and $3 million for development of a standards-aligned primary language test for English learners.
In Congress, she will continue to fight to expand educational opportunities for all Americans.
Dr. Chu believes that the San Gabriel Valley has some of the hardest working educators in the nation. But she also realizes that sometimes, bureaucracy gets in the way. That is why she will work to reform No Child Left Behind, a law with the right intentions that has been plagued by inadequate funding promises, inadequate implementation by the Department of Education and other shortcomings.
As a result the law has failed to provide high-quality teachers in every classroom and failed to adequately support and pay those teachers. Teachers should be allowed to teach, not spend most of their time preparing students to fill in bubbles on standardized tests.
Dr. Chu will also address the major problem of teacher retention: Currently, 30% of new teachers leave within their first 5 years on the job.
Dr. Chu's education goals include improving the means by which assessments are done; improving the accountability system so that we are supporting schools that need improvement rather than punishing them; establishing high-quality after school programs; and expanding Head Start.
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