The Issues » Education

Putting Parents in Charge, Not Bureaucrats

Share Your Education Story with Tom

The classic public education model upon which this country was built works best when every student and every need is the same. But, our students walk into our schools with a rich diversity of gifts and challenges.

We need to get creative about school days and school years, about teaching and teachers, about resources and funding. We need to think radically about fundamentally changing the way we educate and how it all gets paid for.

Since the pivotal 1983 release of A Nation at Risk, we have known that America’s schools are falling behind those of other industrialized countries. Now, more than ever, we find ourselves part of a truly global economy with workforce needs changing and businesses facing employee shortages in critical areas such as engineering, science, and health care.

We need to give everyone a seat at the table. All voices and ideas are welcome:

  • School Choice Public schools, private schools, charter schools, home schooling.
  • Affordability Grants, scholarships, internships, public/private partnerships.
  • Teacher Training Traditional teacher licensure and fast-track licensure programs for teaching-inclined professionals in some of our most innovative and needed fields.
  • Compensation The world turns on incentive and teachers are no different; pay structures should be in place to reward strong and innovative work as in every other field.
  • Funding Strides should be made to make per-pupil funding more equitable.
  • Lessen Bureaucratic Morass Well-intentioned policies such as No Child Left Behind often leave our teachers and administrators overburdened with paperwork, little to no additional funding, and less time to teach our children; there must be a better way.

For our children, for this state, for our future, we must do better.