I was speaking to a New Haven Police Officer this morning who was coming off her midnight shift. She was telling me that her son was graduating from 8th Grade this week and that he was headed for high school in the Fall. She went on to tell me that she was going to get her boy to the library today, as he had a summer reading list from his prospective high school and that he was going to get going on it NOW (her emphasis) and that she was going to work the extra time she needed to get him through school.

Two observations. First, what an amazing role parents play in motivating their kids. This single parent mom was making sure that her son had every chance and every opportunity to do well. Does our government do enough to support these parents? We make it harder from them at many turns.

Second, it is so important for our State University and Community College system to be accessible and relevant to the needs of Connecticut’s employers. This young man will leave high school and be competing with young people throughout the world for the jobs of the future. Are we doing everything we can to support him in the competition? We continue to increase his college tuition, pricing kids like him and their parents out of a college education. Once he is at college, does our system provide him with the cutting-edge training he needs to compete with the rest of the world for the jobs of the future? It seems to me that there is no more fundamental thing could State government be doing. It’s one of the main reasons I am running for Governor.

In a world that is increasingly small and where work can be done by anybody, from anyplace, at anytime –it is critical for Connecticut to invest in it’s young people and for those re-entering or re-training for work. To me, that’s something worth fighting for in Connecticut.