Candidate for
County Superintendent of Schools; County of Riverside

Since becoming Riverside County's Superintendent of Schools in 2007, Kenneth Young has outlined his priorities for the success of every student in Riverside County as defined by completing high school well prepared for college and the 21st Century workforce. He believes this can be accomplished by creating a culture of high expectations for each student and then building the support systems necessary to help students realize those expectations. Those support systems start at home and include our schools, student peers, and our communities. He believes we must all work together to accomplish this moral imperative.

Focus

With this vision in mind, Superintendent Young continues to place strong emphasis in the following areas:

• Financial Stability of Our Schools - California is in a deep, prolonged state budget crisis that is severely impacting funding for public education. County Superintendents are responsible for the financial oversight of all public school districts in their county.

• High School Graduation + There was a time in our country's history when students who did not complete high school could find a job working in a factory or on the farm. Times have changed. Today's job market requires students to master the fundamental skills needed in the modern work-place. Superintendent Young is committed to ensuring that every Riverside County student completes high school with those skills.

• Prevention of High School Dropouts + Life as a teenage drop out often leads down a path of violence, drugs, crime, poverty and incarceration. Under Superintendent Young's leadership, the Riverside County Office of Education has implemented a dropout recovery program know as Come Back Kids, located at RCOE operated regional learning centers across Riverside County.

• Workforce Readiness+ Research shows that Career Technical Education (CTE) and Regional Occupation Program (ROP) courses help students stay in school, become better prepared for the workforce and post-secondary education. Superintendent Young has restructured the Riverside County Office of Education's Career Technical Education department to improve services for more than 30,000 students annually in CTE and ROP classes across Riverside County.

• College Preparedness- Many of today's good paying jobs require some level of college education. Superintendent Young is committed to significantly increasing the number of students enrolling and completing post-secondary education at community colleges, universities, trade and technical schools, apprenticeship programs and military academies.