Issue Position: Education

Issue Position

Education

As a teacher I believe that all kids CAN learn, maybe not in the same way or on the same day but they all can learn. I believe it's important to teach them how to think instead of what to think and to give them the skills to become lifelong learners who are productive members of their communities. It's time to stop jumping on the bandwagon of educational fads. It's time to use testing as a way of gathering information for all stakeholders in education to make us stronger and to validate what we are doing. Test results should be used to direct us where we need to improve instead of being used to value the worth of a child, his teacher and his school. For years education in Oklahoma has been ranked near the very bottom out of all 50 states. I'm in the classroom every day and what I see is not indicative of that. Oklahoma has some of the nation's best teachers and some of the most rigorous qualifications to become and remain a teacher. Let's take care of those teachers and keep them in Oklahoma. We definitely have the best and brightest students I want to make sure their needs are met and taken care of. I want to get to work and put the building blocks in place to making Oklahoma the premiere state for education in the nation. We need to continue and use the Oklahoma Promise program to ensure that more Oklahoma students can get an affordable education. We want to encourage those young people to stay in rural Oklahoma, to run farms here, to work here and to start businesses here

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