There is an old saying that it takes a community to raise a child. Unfortunately, our communities have not been working together to give our children the education they deserve. Some parents, some teachers, and the current education system have failed our children. Parents and teachers need to come to the table and work together to make our education system better for our children instead of blaming each other for our children's education shortfalls. There are no quick solutions to these problems, and one change will not make everything better.
We cannot just throw more money at schools and expect our kids to do better. In fact, Indiana ranks third in the nation with the amount of tax dollars spent on education, and yet our results have remained stagnant. I want to work with the teachers, administrators and parents to get their input on how we can make sure tax dollars are spent efficiently on helping our children learn and grow.
Teachers must be involved in all discussions about improving education. For example, there has been a lot of talk about evaluating teachers and basing their compensation on their performance. Some teachers automatically reject the idea instead of being a part of the discussion of creating a better system of evaluation and compensation. I invite and encourage all stakeholders in our education system to share your ideas and concerns with me, but especially teachers.