Former Chair of DNC; Democratic Challenger MA Governor
Universities should invest in student housing
Steve believes that universities have a greater role to play in alleviating pressure on the housing market. Boston’s 35 colleges and universities provide housing for fewer than 30,000 of their 135,000 students,
leaving the rest to compete for space in the neighborhoods. An investment that amounted to a tiny percentage of the endowments of these institutions would go a long way towards solving this problem.
Source: Campaign web site, Grossman2002.com
Dec 7, 2001
Universal access to pre-school for all 3 & 4-year-olds
Steve wants to promote literacy from the earliest years and make sure every child starts school ready to learn. He believes that we ought to have as our goal universal access to a quality pre-school education for every 3- and 4-year-old, as they have in
the state of Georgia. But in Massachusetts we don’t even have universal access to full-day kindergarten. We must do better than that if we’re going to require our kids to perform at the levels we expect of them by the time they finish school.
Source: Campaign web site, Grossman2002.com
Dec 7, 2001
Teacher Corps: free UMass degree for 5 years of teaching
Steve is proposing a 21st Century Teacher Corps. It’s modeled on the military service academies. Steve believes that we ought to aggressively market the teaching profession to high schools students, and provide the most qualified, committed candidates
with a scholarship in an amount up to the total cost of a four-year education at UMass. They could use it at any college in the country - provided they committed to return to Massachusetts and teach in a public school for at least five years.
Source: Campaign web site, Grossman2002.com
Dec 7, 2001
Help more families save for college
The earnings gap continues to widen between college graduates and those without any college education. The “new economy” workforce must adapt to new technologies and upgrade its knowledge and skills all the time. People change jobs much more frequently
than they used to-willingly or not-and those with the most up-to-date knowledge and skills are usually the winners. Steve wants to help more families save for college, and to ensure that every citizen who wants it has access to higher education.
Source: Campaign web site, Grossman2002.com
Dec 7, 2001
More focus on Adult Education and ESL
Almost 20% of adults in Mass. are functionally illiterate, and more than 20% do not have a high school diploma.
Steve believes strongly that adult basic education - adult diploma programs, English as a Second Language, other basic skills training - should be a much more central part of our education and economic development strategies.
Source: Campaign web site, Grossman2002.com
Dec 7, 2001
Partner community colleges with local businesses
Steve supports an initiative to provide incentives to community colleges to create partnerships with local businesses that tailor course offerings and certificate programs to their needs.
This happens to varying degrees at individual institutions now, but we should be building a strong, coherent network of training and retraining programs in this state.
Source: Campaign web site, Grossman2002.com
Dec 7, 2001
Address skills gap: partner colleges with local businesses
A comprehensive economic development strategy must address the skills gap, which employers in Massachusetts say again and again is their biggest problem - they just can’t find enough people with the right combinations of skills for the jobs they
have available. The linchpin of a New Economy economic development strategy ought to be Massachusetts’ excellent higher education system.
Incentives should be provided to community colleges, for example, to create partnerships with local businesses
that tailor course offerings and certificate programs to their needs. This happens to varying degrees at individual institutions now,
but we should be building a strong, coherent network of training and retraining programs in this state.
Source: Boston Business Journal, Op-Ed, “Economic Strategy”
Nov 12, 1999
Community colleges should partner with local business
Incentives should be provided to community colleges, for example, to create partnerships with local businesses that tailor course offerings and certificate programs to their needs.
