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Scudder Parker On The Issues |
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Education |
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I will work hard to strengthen early childhood education and reinvent secondary education. We need to teach problem solving, reasoning, and other thinking skills in a dramatically new environment.
There are very practical ways to approach this change. Workforce training has set the stage, but the effort needs to be broadened and expanded. We can do much more with experience-based education, an approach that will engage the business community, local institutions, and state government. The opportunities for apprenticeships are almost unlimited, and we know this can work.
These efforts are underway in Vermont, but they need to be strengthened and consistently supported. Here are three examples.
The Hazen Union Forestry program gives students a solid working connection to the forest, tapping trees, cutting lumber, supporting a biomass heating system for the school.
The Stafford Center in Rutland is an amazing resource for innovation in teaching a wide range of both practical and creative skills.
Burr and Burton Academy in Manchester has made a commitment that all students will find success by learning in the ways that work for them. The results are clear: children learn more and they learn faster; dropouts decline, smart, involved new workers join the workforce; corrections populations are reduced.
But even with models like these to build on, Jim Douglas has placed no emphasis on innovative education. Instead, this administration—unique among administrations nationwide—has proposed to raise education taxes while cutting education spending! And Jim Douglas is basing his campaign for re-election on the basis of a “scholarship” program that will not improve Vermont’s education system. Vermont cannot afford to have a governor who is focused only on election-year posturing. We cannot afford Jim Douglas’s approach any longer. |
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Investing in Our Youngest Children |
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Policy Statement, August 23, 2006. |
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View the PDF of Scudder's latest policy statement about education. |
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Agriculture |
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Economic Development |
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Education |
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End of Life Issues |
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Energy |
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The Environment |
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Health Care |
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Property Taxes |
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Housing |
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War in Iraq |
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Women's Health Care |
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