Issue Position: Education

Issue Position

Excellent education is the foundation upon which a stable democracy, a world class economy and the American dream are based.

Each of us gets one vote. It is in the interest of all that the vast majority of voters are well educated and well informed so that they are able to understand data and critically consider policy choices and candidates. That is all that protects us from charlatans and disaster.

Education is equally critical to the success of a market-driven economy for two reasons: 1) Knowledge drives global competitiveness and our standard of living, and 2) Only widespread access to education will ensure that all of us are employable, resulting in the distribution of income and wealth throughout the population.

As research attests, education is the gateway to a wide array of economic benefits to individuals and society, including
* Lower poverty rates
* Lower unemployment rates
* Lower levels of public assistance needed
* Higher tax payments
* Better overall health (reducing health care costs)
* Higher rates of volunteerism (part of the informal economy), and
* Higher rates of educational attainment--levels of education attained by one generation drive levels of education attained by offspring, perpetuating of all of the above.

Yet the under-performance of our educational system is well documented, both in terms of overall attainment and in terms of disparity of attainment. Spending per student varies widely state-to-state and by socio-economic demographic, perpetuating a cycle of poor education leading to limited earning potential leading to poor education of the next generation.

We rise or fall as a nation based on the educational attainment of each and every member of our society. After 24 years in education, I am both well informed of the challenges, and well prepared to tackle them.

Elements of better education for all must include,
acknowledgement that education is a strategically important sector and that all decisions should be made with only one goal--student learning
widespread exploitation of new knowledge on brain theory and how people learn
widespread exploitation of new technologies and learning strategies
widespread integration of new research on the importance of character in success
national commitment to local control, but universally high expectations in education
continued exploration of strategies to make higher education a better investment

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