Issue Position: Our Education

Issue Position

Over the past couple of years I have watched as the Michigan GOP has repeatedly attacked public education and sought to vilify our teachers and their unions. They have passed laws that eliminate tenure and attack benefits and slowly strip away their right to collectively bargain. They have accused them of laziness and being overpaid even though the average salary for an educator does not equal what an employee would make in the private sector with a comparable level of education.

Now many of these have teachers have become demoralized and I pledge to stand by them if elected and I also pledge to work to repeal the insidious legislation that is aggressively destroying one of the greatest assets of our state, public education. In 2010 the Governor's budget cut $370 per pupil from local school districts which totaled almost one billion dollars in cuts to meanwhile giving away 1.8 billion dollars in tax breaks to Michigan corporations.

After two years these tax breaks have not proven to have had any affect upon this state's economy or lowered its unemployment rate. But the cuts have worsened an economic crises within our school systems that now the Republicans in Lansing are trying to thrust upon the shoulders of Educators who the GOP refers to as greedy and have been using this crises as an excuse to destroy their unions. It is my understanding that prior to the Governors cuts there was actually a $170 per pupil overage that would have gone a long way with helping to fund our schools.

Instead our schools now suffer from larger class sizes because of teacher layoffs, forced privatization and the cutting of long standing programs that have been a tradition in education such as art, music and drama clubs. Leaving our teachers disheartened and robbing them of their fundamental right to an education that will prepare students for a brighter future and allow them to expand their creative outlets.

When faced with this funding disaster the GOP solution has been to pass legislation to sell public education to private corporations in the form of Charter Schools and Cyber Schools that the data has shown have not been responsible when it comes to educating children. They lack quality controls and responsible oversight and put profit above doing what is best for our students.
The Republicans in Lansing are in the process of completely destroying education because of their lack of understanding of the needs of our children and their desire for profit.

If elected, I pledge to work with educators to fix the ailing public education system. I promise to look for real solutions and not just take funding away from our districts with no concern for the consequences. I will stand united with all concerned educators and parents who want to see the children of this state have every opportunity available to grow and receive a quality education based on equality. As many citizens of this state I am horrified by these attacks and hope that in the upcoming elections we will all stand unified to rebuild our state. Teachers mold the building blocks that shape our future and lead to economic prosperity. Together we can build a better tomorrow for our children, a tomorrow that we can all be proud of, I hope that you will join us.

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