McKinney - House Legislation

EDUCATION

Education is an issue that reaches every member of our society. America's future depends upon the quality and the level of access to education provided to our nation's students. Community involvement is an indispensable component to building a quality educational system. To facilitate dialogue, I recently held a "Meet and Greet" Symposium with student leaders, Principals, and School Board Members to allow students to ask questions and to raise issues and concerns they may have, directly to their elected leaders. The exchange was stimulating and the students have remained engaged. We look forward to doing this again.

Because our students need high quality teachers and administrators and smaller classroom sizes to improve the student-to-teacher ratio, I have co-sponsored H.R. 2178, The Student Bill of Rights. This bill also calls for quality guidance counseling, quality facilities, textbooks, instructional materials and supplies, up-to-date library resources, and better use of computer technology. I have also co-sponsored H.R. 1380, the Higher Education Affordability and Equity Act of 2005, to expand the incentives for education. I have also sent letters to the congressional appropriations subcommittees in order to insure that appropriate funding levels are available for school mentoring and counseling programs, that funds are not further cut from the Pell Grant program, for increased funding for the No Child Left Behind program, and that funding continues for the TRIO program, which assists first-generation college students to attend and pay for college.

I will continue to support legislation provides funding for teacher training and other initiatives.

I am also working with the Georgia Department of Labor, the Georgia Building and Construction Trades Council, the DeKalb County Public School System and the Georgia Department of Technical and Adult Education in launching a new initiative called The National Youth Apprenticeship Collaboration (NYAC). NYAC is an innovative program addressing unemployment and undermployment among youth and young adults by providing them the opportunity to gain skills and certification in the building and construction trades. The 4th District of Georgia will be the first region to implement the NYAC initiative, followed by the rest of Georgia, Texas, Florida, Virginia, Ohio and Alabama.