Issue Position: Education

Issue Position

When I was a kid, I had great teachers. Teachers that focused on individualized attention in every single class. Whether it was Mrs. Corwin's math class or Mr. Cozzi's political science class, I always felt like my teachers always focused on making sure that all of my classmates and I learned as much as we possibly could. They had time to help us when we struggled, stayed late after school, and taught us the skills we needed to have to be successful in the big, wide world.

These days, fewer and fewer Americans are receiving a high-quality education, and that's making us less competitive in the global economy, contributing to rising crime rates, and resulting in a job market that most Americans can't compete in. Class sizes continue to grow and classrooms get more and more crowded. Budgets for teachers, technology, and facilities continue to shrink. And children are losing out on education that not only places strong emphasis on math, science, reading, and writing-- they're losing out on education in music and the arts that broadens horizons and often plays an important role in developing creative minds.

Look further and you'll see even bigger problems with our education system. Fewer and fewer students can afford to go to college, and those that graduate leave with a diploma and a crushing debt that is difficult to pay off, particularly in the face of grim job prospects in a brutally tough economy. And our teachers-- who have, quite possibly, the most important job in America-- are constantly asked to do more with less. This just isn't right.

America's schools should provide the same thing to every single person who attends classes: the highest quality education in the world. But to do this Congress needs to focus on innovation in education. One of my areas of focus in Congress would be to identify, partner with, and work to establish funding for both public institutions and private companies that are using technology to revolutionize education-- organizations such as Khan Academy, Codecademy, and MIT.

Our Representatives should be working on placing MASSIVE emphasis on education into the federal budget. It is difficult to acknowledge that, somehow, Congress managed to fund programs like the F-22 Raptor fighter aircraft-- a plane that costs $150 million, has never been used in combat, and is plagued with problems-- but hasn't been able to fund computers, after school programs, or new school facilities for children throughout the state and around the nation. By not investing in education, we're not investing in our country's future. The competitive pressures are enormous, and it's obvious how investment in education in countries like China, India, Japan, and South Korea have already started an incredible shift in economic power, job growth, and diplomatic influence.

It's about time we changed this, and put education at the top of the Congressional to-do list.

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