Paul Perez Outlines Education Plan
Promoting learning and civic involvement among all residents is the cornerstone of the community education agenda unveiled Wednesday by Trenton mayoral candidate Paul Perez. “Our goal is that all residents — youth and adults; native-born and recent immigrant; bi-lingual or monolingual — know how to learn more, have the skills to find and keep a job, and are informed and actively engaged in our democratic institutions,” Perez said. To meet this goal, Perez highlighted a number of strategies:
•Promoting enrollment in high quality Pre-K education for all students;
•Carefully selecting board of education members and providing them with on-going professional training to increase their skills in leading our school district;
•Establishing a Trenton-Wide Community Education Advisory Board to develop strategies to ensure Trenton’s commitment to learning for all residents;
•Increasing high quality outof-school programs and ensuring school buildings are available for learning beyond all school hours;
•Supporting an expansion of Community Schools as centers of learning and service to neighborhoods;
•Coordinating with area agencies and non-profits to increase the opportunities for all residents to obtain the training and skills they need to be productive citizens — be that ESL instruction, parenting education, nutritional counseling, driver’s education, citizenship preparation, small business planning, homeownership planning, or helping their children in post-high school planning;
•Working with school board members and administrators to integrate civics instruction for all students at all levels;
•Convening stakeholders to reinvigorate high quality vocational education programs;
•Affirming the strong charter schools that serve Trenton’s students but calling on Governor Murphy and the NJ Department of Education to institute a moratorium on new charter schools until the state reviews its selection and approval process. It’s not fair to the district, to teachers, to families, and certainly unfair to the children to continually approve and then close charter schools;
•Engaging local higher education institutions including Princeton, Rider, The College of New Jersey, Thomas Edison State University, and Mercer County Community College in advancing the learning residents and helping in addressing Trenton’s educational challenges.
The Trenton Mayor appoints members to the school board who are responsible for hiring the superintendent and directing the district’s curriculum and staffing decisions. Perez wants school board members who will adopt a comprehensive community schools model in which schools and other community agencies offer educational, health, and other services to students, families, and others residents.
“I urge everyone to read our education policy,” Perez said. “This was created from the love we have for our children and our hopes for their futures in this great city.”
The Perez Education Plan is available at www.paulperezformayor.com.