A highly educated workforce is critical for maintaining Rhode Island’s good quality of life and a robust 21st century economy. Research conducted at our world-class research institutions—Brown University and the University of Rhode Island—serves as a catalyst for high-technology entrepreneurism that help us attain leadership in industries yet to be dreamed. I believe that good education should begin in kindergarten and continue seamlessly though professional, doctoral and post-doctoral degree and training programs.
I am working to improve mathematics and science education in our elementary and secondary schools though promotion of strategic partnering with industry and academic scientists like explorer Dr. Robert Ballard of URI’s Graduate School of Oceanography. Dr. Ballard began the world-famous Jason Project, in which students can explore remote areas of the world via high-definition satellite communication. I believe that science is best learned when our young scientists experience science directly, so I have worked to foster programs that incorporate hands-on education methods such as aquaculture in the classroom.
I am highly supportive of our state’s public higher education system, especially the University of Rhode Island—Rhode Island’s Land Grant and Sea Grant Institution. I am working toward affordability in higher education for all Rhode Islanders and working to build the research and outreach capacity of our public institutions of higher education through new laboratories and greater research funding. I strongly believe that public higher education in the Land Grant tradition is the ‘great equalizer’ bringing the American dream of upward social mobility through hard work and merit within the grasp of all Rhode Islanders. I also believe that the a passion for life-long learning, fostered early in life, is not only good for the pocketbook, but essential for building and maintaining a humane and wise society.