Chris Murphy: “Just a quick point. During the May break, I went back and spent most of the week visiting with manufacturers and…”

“Just a quick point. During the May break, I went back and spent most of the week visiting with manufacturers and businesses in northwestern Connecticut. I could imagine what I heard was the same thing from what anybody who makes that trip will hear. It's all about workforce, workforce, workforce, that our economic salvation as a region in the Northeast, but also as a country, is not going to necessarily be, in terms of how cheap we can turn out the rubber balls, it's going to be about the quality of our product, and the quality of our production capacity. That's all about training the new generation of workers. I mean, this money that we are talking about, it doesn't just go for students who are going to a 4-year Ivy League school. This is also money for kids that are going to community technology colleges that are being trained to be tool- and-die makers, that are being trained to be computer technicians at the shops and the manufacturing centers of the next decade and the decade beyond. If we are going to compete as a Nation, as you say, against China and everyone else who is undercutting us, it is going to be because we have the best trained and the most productive workforce in the country. That's what our manufacturers are screaming for, and that's what you address when you talk about putting money into higher education.”