Issue Position: Education Reform

Issue Position

Our Constitution guarantees that we all have a right to our own opinions. We do not, however, have a right to our own facts. That certain legislators have decided to structure the very fundamentals taught to our children, based on their own opinions rather than hard science is abhorrent. For Wyoming to compete in an international economy, we cannot afford to have our children handicapped by an ideologically-driven science curriculum.

Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) subjects are the tools of a 21st Century economy. We need to promote the teaching of STEM subjects and do so as early in a child's academic career as possible. Promoting STEM subjects to both male and female students would make strides in closing Wyoming's embarrassingly large wage gap.

We need to stop "teaching to the test" in our public schools. Education bureaucrats in this state have muddled testing to the point that "PAWS" test results do little to provide quantifiable information regarding our children's progress in key subject areas. Testing serves a purpose, but it should not be the primary focus of educators.

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