Issues We Face
Parents play an irreplaceable role in the lives of their children. This vital relationship positively impacts a child's physical, mental, and emotional well-being. The right of parents to maintain a strong involvement in their children's lives and education must be upheld.
It is important that we create rigorous academic standards, measuring student progress against those standards, and attaching some consequence to the results.
We’ve learned that parents and voters feel strongly that accountability is essential. Polls show overwhelming bipartisan support for the common-sense idea that schools receiving public dollars to educate children should be accountable for providing a good education.
We also know that parents prioritize student achievement when selecting a school for their children. In our increasingly resource-constrained and globally competitive world, this desire for outcomes will only intensify.
Accountability was intended to provide weight to state standards and encourage teachers to implement them, and evidence suggests it does focus teachers’ attention on the content that state policymakers want teachers to emphasize. Parents support schools that aren’t failing.
Spending and Curriculum Transparency
With the increase in per student funding and the federal COVID-relief funds, taxpayers must demand transparency when it comes to district spending. We need to be able to explain why teachers don't see this money. Teacher retention is important for students, and they must be compensated properly in order to want to work in the district.
I will also work to ensure that parents, families and taxpayers can know exactly what is being taught in the classroom. We must keep political opinions and beliefs out of the classroom and concentration on the core subjects so that the children are learning and able to succeed.