Education
If there is one uniting theme of my public service career, it is a strong commitment to education. Simply saying, “our children are our future” is not enough any longer. We must make sure our teachers and our students have the resources they need to conquer the opportunities of this century. This does not mean a blank check to school systems or to higher education. Our education system is one of the best in the country. But we cannot rest on those laurels. We have an extraordinary opportunity now, in these very challenging budget times to re-look at our education system, to ensure it is focused on outcomes our students – of all ages – need.
This does not mean creating new bureaucracies or shifting resources to the latest fad policy of the day. The Jobs for Maine Graduates program is a shining example of Maine’s great alternative education programs based in our public schools. When students are given the chance to participate in Jobs for Maine’s Graduates, 96% of them graduate from high school. We need to expand this successful model to every school in Maine. Maine businesses partner with local schools to make this work.. Maine needs to make sure this successful model and others like the Vocational Technical Schools have the resources they need.
As a former teacher, I know that Maine cannot succeed unless opportunities exist for Mainers of all ages to receive a quality education. I chaired the task force that redesigned Maine’s K-12 and higher education systems. As a legislator, I sponsored first in the nation legislation using state funding to expand the Head Start program. Under my leadership as speaker, the legislature passed Learning Results, which set the standards for what children need to have learned before advancing to the next grade. As Governor, I will continue the fight for a strong educational system including higher education that is focused on preparing students for the future
How will we do it?
Tomorrow’s economy will come from ideas, and bringing those ideas to market. Our young people need to be skilled in reading, writing, math, and computing. And they also need, from first grade onward, to understand business. Children in school today will hold an average of eight or more jobs over the course of their career. The skills they will need are not just reading, math and science. For that reason, entrepreneurship needs to be taught in all schools. The skills it takes to run a business are the same skills it will take to be successful in this century; innovation, teamwork, and understanding opportunities from new ideas and new technologies that will arise every day.
King Middle School in Portland is a model. Business people are walking up and down the hallways, working with students. Jim Wilfong, an experienced entrepreneur and small business advocate, offers an entrepreneurship class at Fryeburg Academy. We need business people like these in the classrooms of every school in Maine.
The educational role continues through college. We need students to learn how to make ideas real. Doug Hall’s innovation program at the University of Maine does just that. Doug is a graduate of the University of Maine, who went out in the world and established a world-wide reputation for helping businesses to innovate. He has now come back to the University of Maine to help students there understand how to innovate. Doug says that innovation should not be a major, but that 80% of students should graduate with innovation as a minor. That’s true for every higher education student in Maine.
Our community colleges must also play a vital part in educating Maine people. We have the fastest growing community college system in the country and there is a waiting list of more than 4,000 students. Getting these students into the classroom will ensure that we have the highly trained workforce necessary to compete in today’s economy. We need to support our community colleges by making sure that anyone who wants to enroll is able to. That is a goal we must achieve. These skilled graduates will play a major role in powering Maine’s economy forward.
We need to create a “lifelong learning” culture in Maine. I graduated from law school at 64. I know you can never stop preparing for new opportunities. I will make sure our existing workforce has the help they need to keep going to school to learn new skills needed in this global economy. Our state cannot compete economically by just educating young people; we need our entire population to upgrade its education and skills. Continuing education must become the norm in Maine, not the exception.
Finally, in order to continue to be competitive in this century’s knowledge based economy, Maine needs to ramp up the number of people getting a post secondary education. Maine’s economy will need something close to 40,000 people with a college education to keep pace in the global economy. All our educational institutions need to take on this challenge. My administration will make access to higher education the priority, by living by the rule of today’s economy – innovate or die. I will lead the processes of rethinking how we deliver education, using technology, attracting new students, and lowering the cost so it is accessible to everyone.
