Issue Position: Education

Issue Position

Whether you are a parent, a grandparent, or just a citizen concerned about the future, there is no investment more critical than our children. For too many years, we have thrown larger and larger sums of money into a system that has delivered poorer and poorer results. Kentucky's legislature has attempted in recent years to hold schools accountable for the product they are expected to produce: well-educated kids ready to realize their own potential and compete on the global economy. I strongly favor continuing that trend, and raising the bar even higher. Although not opposed to increasing funding for schools, including significant raises in teacher pay, I will demand that such increases are predicated on improvements in results.

Teachers play a critical role in the education of our children, but they are not solely responsible. Administrators and local government must take a results-oriented approach toward continually improving our school systems.

I am also strongly in favor of increasing the role and responsibility of parents. When schools fail, it is their children who are doomed to poor job choices and limited opportunities. For that reason, I will advocate for parents to have the right to exercise choice in the nature and location of their own children's education through tax credits and other empowering vehicles. This will not lessen teacher's ability to do their job; rather, it will offer them an empowering partnership with kids' most important resource: their parents. Kentucky must boldly prioritize this investment in our future.

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