Simply put, being a mother of two and a teacher are what make me a good candidate.
Since I began teaching 17 years ago, I have watched education continue on a downward spiral, and I have worried about the future of our schools in Georgia from an educator’s standpoint. But I was “only a teacher”. What could I do? I wrote my school board members from time to time, and I commiserated with my colleagues about what NCLB has done to the community schools and how it has tied teachers’ hands in so many ways. I became more and more frustrated at the decisions passed down from the state.
Now I have two young children, and I am worried about education from not only a teacher’s perspective, but also from a parent’s perspective. As a teacher, I can handle classroom disruptions; as a parent, I want my children in a school that does not tolerate disruptive behavior. As a teacher, I can handle student apathy; as a parent, I want my children in a school environment that fosters the love of learning. As a teacher, I can teach to the mandated tests that the schools are forced to give every year, even though many of them are not connected to the state standard; as a parent, I want my children to become problem solvers for a future that is changing daily.
What I see is the disenfranchising of education. I see parents and teachers, schools and communities blaming each other for our schools’ failures when the politicians and the policy makers are to blame. I see career politicians, who have never been in the classroom, telling those of us who live our educational system every day what is right for our kids. I see those same politicians vote on state policy for individual schools, schools that know what is best for their communities.
I want to make a difference.
I will make a difference.
I need your help to make a difference.
I am running on the ABCs of education: Accountability, Budget and Community.
ACCOUNTABILITY: Accountability not only for teachers but also for students, parents, educational systems and politicians. What was once a partnership between the school and home has become a disenfranchised blame game. Parents have been disregarded by the schools and the state as irrelevant to their children’s education. All parents have both a right and a responsibility to their children’s schooling. I can’t think of any parent who does not want his child to succeed. As State School Superintendent, I want to help mend the bridge between the school and the home. This means having parents accountable for their children coming to school ready to learn. It means that parents must help the school in teaching their young people. It means that parents should have a choice in schools. If one of these groups is not held accountable for student learning, then we fail our young people.
BUDGET: We must take our educational system in Georgia seriously. It’s time to ensure that the educational budget is used to effectively teach students on all levels. I will work to eliminate positions that have little or no contact with students, thereby increasing the individual school budget. I will then stay within the confines of the budget so that both students and teachers benefit.
COMMUNITY: We need to give the schools back to their communities! What’s best for students in Atlanta may not be best for students in Rome or Valdosta. Our job as educators is to ensure that we are teaching students to reach a specific standard of learning, not to ensure that we teach them exactly the same thing at exactly the same time. Who knows better how to teach students: the state or the teachers within community itself? Taking away the community school was a disservice to the students and to the school community. We must give the schools back to the communities!
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