House Committee on Education and the Workforce to Host Innovation Forum and Showcase
Floor Speech
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Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, tomorrow the House Education and the Workforce Committee will host innovators from across the country for the bipartisan Innovation Forum and Showcase. The Innovation Forum will begin at 10 a.m. in room 2175 of the Rayburn House Office Building. Five panels of innovators will speak and answer questions from committee members about their work. From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., members of the public are invited to tour the Innovation Showcase in the Rayburn foyer, where the innovators will be available to share information about their work.
As a senior member of the committee, I am so proud of the bipartisan Innovation Forum and Showcase. This event will certainly highlight hardworking American innovators from all walks of life. Tomorrow, there will be 24 innovators who have traveled to Washington to discuss how they run career and technical education and workforce development programs in their communities.
I am incredibly honored to have Joe Luther, from the Central Pennsylvania Institute of Science and Technology located in Pleasant Gap, Centre County, Pennsylvania, be there. Mr. Luther is the horticulture and landscaping instructor at CPI. He is well loved by his students and has received numerous accolades for his performance in the classroom.
In 2014, Mr. Luther was named the ACTE New Career and Technical Education Teacher of the Year for Pennsylvania. In December, he was awarded the National Career and Technical Education Teacher of the Year from NOCTI, which is presented annually to recognize career and technical education teachers for their outstanding service.
I visited Mr. Luther in his classroom at CPI and out in the community, where his students routinely work on projects or participate in competitions. In January, Mr. Luther's landscaping students secured their fourth consecutive first place win at the Pennsylvania Farm Show as a part of the agricultural education landscape exhibits.
Mr. Speaker, the Pennsylvania Farm Show is the Nation's largest indoor agriculture event, and the CPI students beat a total of seven other schools to take the top prize for their exhibit. I know these students are talented, and it is their teacher, Mr. Luther, who truly inspires them to reach great heights. Through his hands-on instruction, Mr. Luther affords students in his classroom the ability to design, build, and maintain their landscaping projects. He lets them interact with customers and discuss real transactions. He brings real-life scenarios into the classroom at every opportunity to show students what their futures can be like in the workforce.
I look forward to having Mr. Luther here in Washington for tomorrow's Innovation Forum and Showcase. I know that, because of dedicated teachers like him, scores of students will be set on a path to success in life through career and technical education programs.
Mr. Speaker, I am grateful to all the innovators who will participate tomorrow to share with Congress and the public how they are addressing the Nation's education and workforce development challenges. As co- chair of the bipartisan House Career and Technical Education Caucus and a consistent advocate for high-quality career and technical education, I know these programs not only shape the future of our Nation's youth, but will be the foundation for a new era of economic growth in the United States. And the future looks bright.
Mr. Speaker, on a related note, I was thankful to the Senate last evening, which passed my legislation which already passed out of this body almost a year ago, H.R. 2353, the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act. I look forward to ironing out just a few minor differences, some good refinements that the Senate made, and we will see about getting that to the President's desk, quite frankly, providing greater access to more effective, skills-based education for all Americans seeking the American Dream of opportunity.
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