Baker all business in Lynn

LYNN – Compressing college degrees into one- to three-year programs is one way to cut high school dropout rates and ease college tuition debt loads, Republican candidate for governor Charles D. Baker Jr. told local business leaders.Baker said state colleges and universities can take the lead in crafting three-year degree programs and help students reduce tuition costs by 25 percent.”That’s a big number,” he told Lynn Business Partnership members gathered Tuesday morning in Eastern Bank’s Market Street offices.Baker, a Swampscott resident, faces Attorney General Martha Coakley, a Democrat, in the Nov. 4 final election.Baker said state colleges can also lead in expanding online courses, combining work and classroom experience and making course schedules flexible with students’ work schedules.”The Commonwealth should be a leader with respect to online education,” he said, adding that one- or two-year degree programs focused on vocational education in skills such as heating and ventilation installation can send graduates from college to a job.”Kids come out of these programs with very little debt,” he said.Baker praised the Phoenix Charter Academy straddling the Chelsea-Everett line for focusing on high school dropouts and working “to pull them back into school.” Phoenix, said Baker, specializes on keeping students in school and helping them make college their goal following graduation.He said the best school principals “refuse to say students can’t learn and are willing to think a little differently about the rules so that they work for kids, but innovative local educators rarely share ideas that make schools succeed.”I’ll create an opportunity for leaders in urban school systems to share what they are doing,” he said.Old Neighborhood Foods President Thomas L. Demakes introduced Baker to partnership members as a candidate with “a great business background” who understands small and medium-sized businesses “are fighting for our lives.”Baker said Massachusetts’ economy suffers from a “mismatch” between employers looking to hire and people looking for jobs. Growing the state’s economy and “closing the achievement gap” are goals at the heart of his campaign.”Let’s do a lot more of the stuff that works and ask, ?Are you providing skills that translate into employment?'” he said.Baker said he will return to Lynn to talk about the ferry service operated out of Blossom Street extension during the summer and efforts to extend Blue Line rapid transit to the city.”I’m happy to come talk to people about that – it’s a conversation worth having,” he said.Economic Development and Industrial Corporation Executive Director James Cowdell said 13,246 passengers took the round trip Lynn-to-Boston ferry between May and September.”Boston Harbor Cruises said we would be ahead of the game if the number was 10,000,” Cowdell said.With Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy sitting near him during the partnership meeting, Baker said he supports ensuring state aid to cities and towns keeps pace with state revenue growth. He said growth totaling $8 billion during the last several years did not match a $500 million aid loss during the same time period.