Guest speaker Richard Sims of the NEA interviewed on MPBN radio
Richard Sims, Ph.D., chief economist at the National Education Association, who gave a talk at UNE on March 4, 2010 on "The Future of American Education: An Economic Perspective," was interviewed by Irwin Gratz for MPBN radio before his presentation at the Portland Campus. Sims told Gratz that cuts in school aid in Maine and around the nation will slow the U.S. economy in the long run. Education has taken a greater hit in budget cuts than in the past because of the severity of the current recession, Sims said. Layoffs of education personel mean less spending in the local economy, and larger classes and shorter hours in the classroom mean a less educated workforce for the future. Sims' lecture was sponsored by UNE's Center for 高清不卡福利 Humanities.