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Committee for Education Funding Honors Thompson

October 1, 2009

Washington, D.C.—The Committee for Education Funding last night awarded the Outstanding New Member Award to U.S. Representative Glenn `GT’ Thompson, R-Howard. The award was given for his commitment to the nations’ students through advocating education as an investment in the future.

The ceremony, sponsored by the American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association and the Arts and Entertainment Television Network, took place last night at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Washington where several other legislators were honored for their achievements.

Thompson was recognized because of his work supporting career and technical education programs. He is a member of the Congressional Career and Technical Education Caucus, and serves on the Higher Education, Lifelong Learning, and Competitiveness Subcommittee of the Education and Labor Committee.

In support of career and technical education, the Congressman wrote an op-ed in The Hill newspaper in May that contained the following: “As Congress moves forward with the goal of creating new jobs, we must place a national focus on retooling our workforce in order to remain competitive. We must ensure there are enough workers to fill the technical jobs that will soon be vacated by the retiring baby boomer generation and also to make certain there are enough skilled workers to fill newly created jobs. This will foster real economic growth with realistic and sustainable jobs.”

This year was the 40th anniversary for the Committee for Education Funding, (www.cef.org) a non-profit and non-partisan coalition of more than 80 organizations reflecting the broad spectrum of the education community.

Other awards went to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, Sen. Jim Webb, D-VA, Rep. Timothy Bishop, D-NY , Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-RI, and Ellen Murray, the clerk of the Senate Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Appropriations Subcommittee.

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