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Enhancing Education Before coming to Congress, I worked in our public schools for two decades. The best investment we can make in our future is to ensure that our children are receive an outstanding education. While critical education decisions need to be made locally, Congress must provide resources to help our schools and teachers. The biggest challenge facing Central Coast schools is overcrowding. I have visited Oakley Elementary School in Santa Maria, where 850 kids are crammed into facilities built for 400. The school uses 17 portable classrooms and begins serving lunch at 10:30am. This is intolerable. I’m pleased that our school districts received more than $1.6 million last year to support class size reduction, but we need to do more. That’s why I have cosponsored the School Modernization Act, which would provide $25 billion in interest-free bonds to build and renovate schools, like Oakley Elementary.If our children are going to be productive workers in the next century, they must also have access to technology today. I have worked hard to obtain over $5.5 million in E-Rate funding for the Central Coast, to wire more schools to the Internet, and I’m proud to be the author of H.R. 455, the Teacher Technology Training Act, which would help local school districts provide classroom-related computer training to their teachers. I have also authored legislation to give high school students the help they need to go to college. This bill will provide funding for non-profit organizations who specialize in financial assistance to identify and mentor college eligible students and assist them in attending the college of their choice. The bill is endorsed by The National College Access Network (NCAN), a network of private, non-profit college financial aid programs across the country. I also support the Transition to Teaching program which builds on the highly successful of the Department of Defense's Troops to Teachers program by recruiting and preparing talented mid-career professionals from diverse fields to become teachers in high-need subject areas and high-need communities. Local school districts will need to recruit more than two million high quality teachers to enter the teaching profession over the next ten years, and the Transition to Teaching program will help to meet this critical need. I have introduced the Teaching Our Children to Save Lives Act which will allow local school districts to apply for grants through the Department of Education for CPR training. The schools, working in conjunction with community organizations -- such as the American Heart Association, the American Red Cross, fire and police departments, hospitals, and parent-teacher associations -- would begin CPR training in grades six through 12. I am the founder and the co-chair of the Bipartisan Congressional School Health and Safety Caucus to promote and build awareness of safety issues in our schools. |
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