| Senator
Moore's Education Record |
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- Senator
Moore strongly supports the state’s
ongoing effort to improve public education
from early childhood through college as well
as lifelong learning initiatives, including
a revision of the Chapter 70 formula that
benefits all school districts.
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- In
2004, Senator Moore worked with state
Treasurer Tim Cahill and legislative leaders
to reform the state's School Building
Assistance Program to lift the moratorium on
school construction funding with the state
providing between forty and eighty percent
of funding for principle and interest.
Senator Moore also believes that the state
should provide several design options and
size of student enrollment plans that could
be engineered to local sites rather than
require that architects plans be developed
for each project. However, he opposed
efforts under the guise of reform that would
have resulted in reduction of quality and
competence of building contractors and their
employees.
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- Senator
Moore opposes any further expansion of
charter schools at this time until existing
charter schools have demonstrated academic
achievement levels equal or greater than
public schools and have lived up to their
promise to provide successful models of
learning that can be transferred to the
public school setting.
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- He
strongly supports fulfillment of the
state’s promise to regional school
districts to fully fund school
transportation.
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- Senator
Moore firmly believes that no Massachusetts
child should be left behind by our
educational system and that a strong network
of after-school and curriculum enrichment
programs needs to exist to serve at-risk
youth, academically talented students, and
lifelong learners.
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- Senator
Moore have been pushing for greater
attention in the school curriculum to civic
learning to restore the historic mission of
schools to prepare the next generation of
citizens of a representative democracy. To
that end, he has sponsored two Civic
Education Summits to promote training of
teachers to understand the importance of
democracy to convey to their students. He is
also the lead sponsor of legislation to
establish a civics graduation requirement
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- Senator
Moore believes that school districts,
teachers and students must be held to strong
standards of accountability including the
use of the Massachusetts Comprehensive
Assessment System (MCAS) as one of the
requirements for graduation in Massachusetts
along with successful completion of the
program required by the local school
district.
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- As
a member of the Joint Committee
on Higher Education, Senator Moore supports
greater resources to maintain high standards
of academic quality in our public higher
education institutions – our community
colleges, state colleges and the University
of Massachusetts – including maintaining
competitive salary and benefit plans for
faculty and professional staff, whether
full-time or part-time. He also supports
financial aid programs that attract the best
and brightest graduates of Massachusetts
high schools to our public college system as
well as scholarship and financial aid
assistance to those Massachusetts residents
who choose to attend independent colleges
and universities in New England.
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- Senator
Moore strongly supports the implementation
and have worked for full funding of early
childhood education, with developmentally
appropriate programs for all children under
age 6, the extension of Head Start, and
full-day kindergarten in all communities.
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- Senator
Moore has long supported the development of
school based health centers and enhanced
school health programs on the basis that
children need to be healthy – both
physical and mental health – in order to
effectively participate in the learning
process.
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