Education

An informed citizenry is critical to the continued viability and success of our Republic. Money spent on education must reach the children, not be bogged down in bureaucracy and labor disputes.

Unfortunately, our educational system has been failing us for decades. Thirty percent (30%) of children in this nation fail to graduate from high school. Among african american and hispanic students, the numbers are worse, with only 56% and 52% graduation rates, respectively. And this is despite expenditure of trillions of dollars by the Federal Government. For every Eleven dollars the federal government extorts from the sttes, it only returns five. The other six is lost through beaurocratic waste or mismangement. Increased federal government control is not the answer; restoring local and parental control of our educational system would help.

We must encourage excellence among all teachers and reward those who excel. Tenure should not trump the quality of instructors.

Unfortunately, teachers unions at the state and national levels have replaced performance with politics to the detriment of our children and society.

We need to decentralize education and recognize that the consumers of our education dollars are the parents and the children. The current unreasonable strings attached prevent the funds from actually reaching the classroom, supporting administrators and union negotiators at the expense of the children. Effective education policy includes local control of all decisions and empowering parents to choose a quality, safe and effective education for their children from among public, private, charter, and home school options. No parent should be forced to keep a child in a school that is failing to meet his or her needs.