A strong education is the first step in enabling a productive workforce that supports the State's economy and contributes to its success. I believe the most important way to achieve that is to have as much local control in our schools as possible. We have the ability to elect our local school board members, or choose not to elect them if they are not doing their job. When too much control is centered in state or federal government, it diminishes the ability of the local school boards to make the best decisions for their district. This decrease in control creates inefficiencies and less desirable outcomes for our children.
I also believe the funding formula used should be revisited in order to more fairly distribute resources to all areas of the state. It is not right when some schools receive nearly 50% more funding yet produce lackluster results. We need to make sure the money that is being spent on education is used for the educators, which in turn goes directly back to the students, as much as possible rather than administration or mandated compliance. In conjunction with this, we also need to focus on student and teacher achievement. I believe the best way to have successful schools is to have student and teacher standards that demand excellence, are measurable, and require improvement when those measurements are not met.