In Maryland, we continue to make public education
investments a state budget priority. As a result, Education
Week named our public schools the nation’s best three
years in a row. Maryland also tackled the high cost of
getting a college degree by freezing tuition at our state
colleges and universities four years running. Bearing in
mind that not everyone will go to college, states need to
have an aggressive plan to focus resources on developing
middle skills. With many of today’s jobs requiring
more than a high school diploma – but less than a bachelor’s
degree – we launched Skills2Compete to increase
Maryland’s skilled workforce 20 percent by 2012. We
are working with employers to align degree programs to market demand and translate those requirements
through our Workforce Investment Boards.