Education

One of the key factors in Connecticut’s ability to compete economically now and in the future will be how well we educate our children to prepare them for jobs in demand. That means appropriately funding local public schools, closing the achievement gap, strengthening our vocational and technical schools for job and skills training, and ensuring that students have access to our world class higher educational institutions.

The quality of our local public schools depends on adequate state funding. Over the past two years I have worked to protect the state’s investment in local education so that even in these difficult budget times, our students still have great places to learn and grow. This year, Connecticut also took major steps to close the achievement gap between high and low income schools and qualify for new federal education dollars. We provided incentives for experienced teachers to take jobs in low performing districts, strengthened high school graduation requirements to ensure students are ready for college and the job market.