Teaching skills to meet job markets

We had several hundred thousand Chicago residents employed in manufacturing forty years ago. Then the ground shifted, and our regional economy quickly pivoted toward professional services. The ground is shifting once again. The jobs of today, in services and manufacturing, are rapidly being automated. Our public schools need to proactively respond.

 

As board member representing the 4th District, I'll support efforts to engage Chicago employers to understand the skills required in the next ten and twenty years and provide curricula that can meet those needs.

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I'll work to retain and recruit new Career and Technical Education (CTE) teachers in high-growth fields. 

 

I will also ask Chicago Public Schools board to do as the states of California and Oregon have done and issue detailed guidance on how AI can enhance and not undermine the learning experience. AI can provide students entering an unfamiliar workforce a force-multiplying tool, but it should be no substitute for the kind of creativity and intellectual exploration that we should always expect from our students, and academic integrity should always be enforced.