Congresswoman Matsui Commemorates National Teacher Appreciation Week
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, May 6, 2011
CONTACT: MARA LEE
(202) 225-7163
Congresswoman Matsui Commemorates National Teacher Appreciation Week
Congresswoman Doris Matsui (CA-05) honored our nation's teachers this week, and thanked Sacramento teachers for their commitment to providing solid education to our community's students.
Teachers remain one of the most important influences in our community, said Congresswoman Matsui. Teachers shape the minds of our children, and in turn, shape the future of our country. Yet, teaching is still an undervalued profession in our country, and budget problems have caused teacher's salaries to be cut and a number of teaching jobs to be lost. As we celebrate National Teacher Appreciation Week, I recommit myself to ensuring that our teachers have the support they need and are given the value they deserve so that they are able to provide our students with the best quality education possible.
Last summer, Congresswoman Matsui supported the Education, Jobs and Medicaid Assistance Act. The Act provided $10 billion in grants to state and local governments to save an estimated 161,000 education jobs. Sacramento area school districts had reported that they would need to lay off 1,300 employees in the 2010-2011 school year without federal assistance. H.R. 1586 prevented a number of these layoffs from occurring and put many teachers who have already lost their jobs back to work.
Congresswoman Matsui has hosted a number of career panels and women and minorities in engineering events around Sacramento to promote careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields. And in February, Congresswoman Matsui visited local teacher Alida Imbrecht's AP Civics class at Kennedy High School as part of an ongoing effort to hear from teachers and students firsthand about the challenges they face, and to answer their questions.
Visiting Ms. Imbrecht's class and seeing how she encourages her students every day to engage in their community and their government was inspiring. Teachers are leaders in our communities; we must all remember that, added Congresswoman Matsui.
To learn more about Congresswoman Matsui's work in Congress, please visit www.matsui.house.gov.
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