BOSTON
Gov. Deval Patrick called for an eight-year overhaul of public education last week, seeking to transform pre-kindergarten through university learning with a proposal that also would make the state’s two-year community colleges free for all high-school graduates.
In the most ambitious plan since education reforms in 1993, the new Democratic governor will seek to lengthen the school day by at least two hours, create a universal pre-kindergarten program, strengthen curriculum requirements in math and English and launch new teacher training programs.
The free community-college funding proposal would be enacted by 2015. The state’s 15 community colleges are among the costliest in the nation but are considered critical to the economy because at least 20,000 unfilled jobs in the state require a two-year degree, according to the plan.
Patrick, however, did not detail how he would pay for the proposals, estimated in some quarters to cost $1 billion annually by their completion. Instead, he will convene a “readiness project” to recommend changes and improvements to the state’s existing education system and ways to pay for the changes.
“Right here, right now, I commit my administration for the next 10 years to a statewide and sustained effort to change fundamentally the way we think about and deliver public education, to get ready for our future,” Patrick told 1,800 undergraduate and 860 graduate students at the University of Massachusetts-Boston commencement ceremony.
The governor also blasted away at anticipated opponents of the proposal, comparing them to doubters who questioned whether the colonies could break free of Britain, the United States could prevail in World War II or the country could safely send a man to the moon and back.
