Issue Position: Family Values

Issue Position

Family Values:

Education: The North Carolina education system has traditionally been one of the worst in the Nation. We must change this…for our children, our communities, our economy, our Nation. Recent history tells us that throwing money at our schools is not making a difference. We all want "better facilities" for our children, but we must turn our attention from form and let it rest on substance. I believe in an education system that emphasizes the academic performance and enrichment of its students. Through a variety of laws enacted during the 2013 Long Session, the General Assembly passed important education reforms to improve student literacy and graduation rates, to incentivize and reward effective teachers, and to provide parents with more tools and more choices in determining the best education for their children. With such reforms on deck, the North Carolina education system is well on its way to changing its reputation.

Jacqueline & her family after the Calvary Church Season Finale Concert 2011
The Sanctity of Life: Whether belonging to an unborn child, a disabled adult, or the elderly, all life is precious and deserves constitutional protection from conception until natural death. I share the views of pro-life advocate, Imelda Jensen, who in her testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee stated the following: "The inalienable right to life proclaimed by Thomas Jefferson, and the equal protection of the laws, secured to us by the 14th amendment, are not selective grants of governmental benevolence; they are inherent properties of each human being, whether unborn or aged or unable to care for himself. The glory of our constitutional system is that we recognize these principles as essential parts of man and not as gifts of the state." During my Freshman term in the N. C. House, I sponsored and supported legislation to ban the discriminatory practice of sex-selective abortions, to improve the health and safety standards for clinics performing abortions in the State, and to protect a health care professional's right not to perform an abortion as well as a taxpayer's right not to pay for an abortion. It is essential that we continue to promote this culture of life through public policy, and I will maintain my commitment to advocate for the rights of the unborn and for the conscience rights of the individual.

Traditional Marriage: We all know that the family is the most basic building block of society. With hundreds of nonpartisan and nonsectarian marriage and family scholars repeatedly finding that children do best when raised in context of intact, traditional marriages, we must do whatever is necessary to protect this sacred institution. I fully support North Carolina's Marriage Amendment, which provides that "marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized" in North Carolina. For more information on where I stand on the issue of traditional marriage, please see my published article, "Marriage: In Society's Moral Cross-hairs."

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