Matt Dunne: A Breath of Fresh Air
By Bill Newman
He lives in Hartland and is a Democratic Candidate for Senator from Windsor County. I met him at the election headquarters for Democrats in the Old Fellows Building (Room 208) 100 River Street in Springfield.
He talks to you, not at you. Relaxed and flexible, he had no problem with my prefacing questions with comments to help to focus his remarks on Springfield. Other readers might have other concerns. Ask them. He is willing to talk to individuals, or groups wherever you may be. This man will listen and give you a focused reply.
A few words about Matt's education at Brown University. His degree was in Public Policy. Seeing the common concerns that different groups have is what he looks for when talking to different groups. Once you've done this detective work you can then find effective solutions that can be transformed into public policy.
What have you done to make Youth feel OK- that they have something to contribute to the political process? While in the State House of Representatives (he was there for eight years) he put together a Legislative Research Shop. University of Vermont students interested in politics did research on issues of importance to legislators. Entirely bipartisan, they had to meet all kinds of deadlines. Students felt good when they saw their research translated into law. Back in their hometown many students became "leaders" on issues of importance to themselves and the community.
In Windsor, students in Beth Dutton's class came up with the idea of a Youth Court. They did the hard work of figuring out how they felt it should work. Matt explained how the legislative process worked. Working together it became a reality and is still going strong.
Matt has just returned from Washington. For two and one-half years he was the Director of Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA). Six thousand volunteers worked on low-income projects that dealt with Health, Education, Youth, Seniors, Jobs, etc. The results of this work are available to all on the Internet (www.americorp.org/vista).
How about jobs. . .What factors are important to get things going? You need a well-trained workforce. With completion of the Howard Dean Educational Center, the first in the state with one-stop shopping for all levels of talent from high school grads to individuals with Associate Degrees in Engineering, this is a great magnet for business.
Matt feels that town and individual efforts to attract companies into renewable energy like wind and solar products is a very good thing, and have his support.
Business incubators rate priority. By encouraging homegrown talent there is a good return for your efforts. I was concerned about programs for gifted students, both in and out of the school system.
How did he feel about such thinking? My model was taken from the Inventors Hall of Fame (there are others). They have come up with Camp Invention, a summer program, and are already at work for Club Invention (after school) and L”i” Inventors for pre-schoolers. A curricular for K-12 is already available.
How do you get such stuff accepted by the schools and elsewhere? He felt that such programs should first pass muster with the State Board of Education and the State Department of Education. If there was a positive response it should be past on to principals who he felt really wanted to open up opportunities to challenge students with an original turn of mind. Enlisting the cooperation of fraternal community groups like the Rotary, Lions etc. as sponsors should be sought.
Lastly he mentioned that the National Foundation for teaching Entrepreneurship might be helpful. This group attempts to integrate entrepreneurial skills into a school system and, in so doing, provide the how-to skills to test out your ideas in the business world (more on the Internet.)