Issue Position: Education

Issue Position

For our nation to ensure its long-term prosperity and security, we must provide world-class schools. Education is the engine that will drive the breakthrough technological advancements we will need to tackle virtually every challenge we face today and in the future, including energy and health care. Our children must be given every opportunity to succeed and reach their potential, regardless of where they live. Quality higher education must be an affordable aspiration for all families.

Success starts with supporting our teachers who nurture curiosity, instill critical thinking and foster creativity. Rather than blaming our nation's problems on teachers and stripping their rights to lobby, we should be empowering them with the best tools available. We should be training teachers in their fields--especially emerging science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields, as well as history and the arts. With teachers who are fully qualified and fairly compensated, we can create the outstanding workforce we expect, need, and deserve.

We must work diligently to ensure students who graduate from high school have the skills and tools to succeed throughout life, including training in math, science and the liberal arts. In Congress, I am working to help graduate more students who are prepared for success in a 21st Century world.

I believe there are several ways we can make immediate progress on of our education goals:

Ending the unfair and unproductive attacks on teachers.
Increasing our investment in early learning programs, including pre-kindergarten programs.
Helping states transform their most challenged schools to ensure every child has access to quality education.
Developing shared educational standards that help provide all young people the lessons, skills and tools to succeed in a competitive global economy.
Developing effective measures of learning and academic performance to create high, and realistic, expectations and accountability for educating our children.
Offering affordable technical, undergraduate and graduate education, through community colleges, colleges and universities.

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