The challenges that our young people face are enormous which puts youth issues at the top of my priority list.
The facts regarding students are staggering and don’t bode well for youth today:
- Youth unemployment is a world-wide crisis
- 1 in 3 high school students in the US drop out – that’s 7,000 every day or one student every nine seconds
- High school students from low-income families are 6 times more likely to drop out than students from higher income families
- High school drop outs earn, on average, $250,000 less over a lifetime than high school graduates, costing state and federal governments more than $26 billion in lost revenue
- 83 out of 100 teens are unemployed
- Approximately 15 million jobs nationwide need to be created to support the influx of young people into the existing and future labor market
Education is at the top of major issues regarding youth. I believe it is essential that we find new and creative approaches to education to make it more relevant to today’s reality.
Knowledge is empowerment and we aren’t doing enough to empower our youth. Quality education is part of our basic human rights as Americans. Education needs to start at birth and continue for life. We need affordable early childhood education through free college tuition. Education should be encouraged as a family value because it is fundamental for both the strength of our workforce and the future of our children.
It is essential that we find new ways of addressing the challenges that I listed above and I will convene a task force to suggest changes needed to implement more creative approaches.
