DRAFT: CBIA’s 2007 Government Affairs Program

A Strategic Plan for Connecticut: Transforming Challenges into Solutions

Skilled Workforce
Recommendations for Education, Job Training, Housing

Goal: Raise academic standards in public education for all students; close the achievement gap for urban, rural and minority youth; ensure that all students entering kindergarten are ready to learn; and strengthen the state’s job training system. We also must maintain an adequate supply of affordable housing alternatives.

Recommendations:

Education

• Support the expansion of the Vanguard Schools model which recognizes schools that raise student performance and extends the best practices of these high achieving schools to those needing improvement.
• Ensure that all three- and four-year-old children at or below 185% of the federal poverty level have access to quality early childhood education, as proposed by Gov. Rell.
• Support charter schools and magnet schools that demonstrate improved student performance by removing the limit on charter school capacity and providing equitable resources – matching those of sending districts – for per-pupil operating and facility expenditures.
• Adopt the Connecticut State Scholars high school standards and graduation requirements and redesign high schools to successfully prepare students for entry into post-secondary education and employment.
• Support the governor’s science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) initiative.
• Continue to strengthen the technical high school system and ensure that high quality machining programs, including welding, drafting and blueprint reading, are available to prepare students for careers in manufacturing.
• Provide bonding for equipment for manufacturing programs and eliminate out-dated apprenticeship hiring ratios in the skilled trades that hurt students and the small businesses that want to hire them.

Job Training

• Assist potential and current employees improve their employability skills and access to high paying jobs by supporting employer-driven training, expanding apprenticeships and increasing workplace adult literacy programs.
• Expand customized job training programs for employers to assist them in enhancing workers education and skill levels.

Housing

• Support efforts to expand workforce housing throughout Connecticut in order to keep and attract quality employees by
• Increasing coordination between housing, transportation and development policies in the state to maximize economic growth.
• Reducing regulatory barriers and create incentives for increasing the supply of housing that is affordable to Connecticut’s workers.

Read CBIA's Priorities for 2007