Issue Position: Education

Issue Position

EDUCATION (K-12)

A Return the education system to its core function by focusing resources on classroom instruction.

B. Reform basic education funding to allow money to follow the child to the public school of the family's choice. Allow principals to control their budgets and to assemble their own teaching teams.

C. End rigid separation of programs to eliminate costly and wasteful administrative oversight. Allow more flexibility in spending education dollars, especially by local
principals.

D. Remove restrictive class size requirements and other regal restrictions to allow more flexibility and innovation in spending education dollars.

E. Create a transparent accounting system to inform policymakers and the public about who education dollars are spent.

F. TEACHER Quality

i. Raise teacher quality by reforming teacher pay.

ii. Hire teachers based on their proven experience and mastery of academic subject matter, particularly in math and science, rather than on number of teaching certificates earned or school of education requirements met.

iii. Put local principals in charge of hiring the teaching staff for their own schools, so they can select teachers based on the learning needs of their students.

iv. Allow local principals to fire or suspend bad teachers, and hold principals
accountable for teacher performance, and yearly progress in student learning.

G Teacher Pay

i. Change the automatic single salary pay grid so that teacher pay is based on ability to educate children, not on arbitrary degree requirements or years of employment.

ii. Give local principals management control over their own school's budget &
teaching staff.

iii. Establish school oversight at the district level and an appeals process to ensure fair treatment of teachers. Allow superintendents to fire ineffective or abusive principals.

H. Student Testing and Achievement

i. Improve/replace the WASL with an OBJECTIVE text based on the highest quality academic standards available, so that students are fairly judged based on an objective test which does not change from year to year.

ii. Offer more practical career and technical education classes for graduating high
school students who choose to enter the workforce instead of going on to college.

iii. Make a Washington state diploma a recognized sign of a good education, by
raising the academic standard of the WASL or by choosing a better test, so it
more closely matches respected, national tests like the NAEP.

I. Universal Preschool and All-Day Kindergarten

i. Public policy should support stable, long-term relationships between parents and young children.

ii. Encourage voluntary participation and avoid programs based on universal or
mandatory participation.

iii. Respect parental choice by making early learning public assistance portable and child-centered, not fixed and provider-centered.

iv. Build on innovation in the private market, as providers compete to offer flexible, high-quality services that serve the needs of families.

v. Allow voluntary professional memberships, so child care providers are not required to join a union against their will.

J. Encourage public school officials to expand online public education opportunities, so this learning option is available to any willing student.

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