At the Kenai Soldotna Joint Chamber Luncheon, U.S. Sen. Mark Begich addressed a number of topics but emphasized education for future Alaskan jobs.
Sen. Begich said that Congress has increased the amount of education funding from the federal government by five percent.
Sen. Begich(D): “All important to invest in our K-12 education but now putting that aside I have some legislation around STEAM education which is, I call it STEAM because I say Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math. It’s very important to invest in these areas to make sure that we are no longer on the middle of bottom of the row when it comes to science and math, we need to be on the top so that’s an investment there. Another piece of legislation that I’ve done is on career education. My view is that when you graduate from high school whatever you want to do, we want to make sure there is access available for you, whether its a two year program, a certification, whatever it might be.”
During his presentation to the Luncheon he said that preparing for the future job boom in both Arctic exploration and pipelines starts with education in order to guarantee Alaska’s jobs stay with Alaskans.
