Issue Position: Workforce Development

Issue Position

Our education system is not serving the best interests of many of our students. Our schools are confined by strict curriculum standards and state mandates that do not cultivate career skills in those not headed to a four year university. Across the nation, companies are scrambling to find skilled labor to work in manufacturing plants, as a result of the baby boomer generation reaching retirement.

These skilled labor positions used to be filled by graduates of schools that provided and encouraged hands on learning. Now our schools are forced to teach to standardized tests that require our students to memorize out of books. Every student learns differently, and measures should be taken at the state level to develop hands on learning in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programs to not only supply the workforce shortage, but to provide Ohioans with a brighter future.

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