Education

To make America great, we need a top-notch education system that is accessible to everyone both early and late in life. This requires schools and research that push the boundaries of what we know about our world and that help people become healthy, productive citizens, with the skills needed to work on the great challenges of our time.

To achieve this we need a national strategy that is aligned with both the demands of our economy and the problems that must be solved. As a scientist I know from experience that solving complex problems requires skills in math and science as well as in visual arts and communication. By rethinking the role of education we can help students find meaningful employment and lead more fulfilling lives.

Our traditional teaching methods are unable to meet this challenge, but providing a more integrated approach requires significantly more effort to build and develop. As Senator I will push for reforms to minimize standardized testing and put the focus on developing resources that improve long-term outcomes such as college graduation and job placement.

As Senator I will advocate for a program that helps educators develop a set of public and open resources that can be shared and remixed to align skill development with the economy of the future. I will also fight to end the paywall that prevents the latest government funded research from getting into the hands of students and teachers.

Finally, I will set forth a plan to help citizens make career changes and get past chronic unemployment. Automation is already set to disrupt the labor market at a pace and scale unlike any other point in our nation's history. This will require significant retraining of America's vast labor market into new and emerging fields that will ultimately provide better pay as well as more meaningful employment.