Issues

Safety
All children deserve and require safe environments to thrive emotionally and academically. As leaders in public education this means we must do everything possible to eliminate violence and act aggressively for the protection of students. We must also provide safe routes to and from schools while also ensuring the best possible learning spaces while students are in our care.

There are other ways we must keep students safe too. Unfortunately, many children receive their best daily nutrition at school. It's important that we do all we can to provide food that is best for them. We have come a long way in this area, still, there is more work to do. A powerful diet of organic, locally grown, and nutrient dense foods should be our goal if we truly intend to improve behavior and raise achievement.

Order
For students to appreciate school our hallways, classrooms, and common areas need to be orderly. Expectations of students need to be universally high, no excuses. Policies need to be enforced. And, teachers need to be supported in their efforts to maintain positive classroom experiences for students. This can happen by using evidence-based interventions that provide positive supports to students and teachers.

Academic Rigor
Research has proven that all students do better when they have equitable access to rigorous course work. Too often we have made excuses for some students because of their social status or for other reasons. We can no longer accept the false notion that some students are not equipped for challenging curriculum. Today we realize that there is only one kind of school that is right for every student, and that is one offering academic rigor and expecting a high level of effort from every student.

High School Reform
By now it is a truism that high school as we know it is a relic. The industrial model of secondary education is defunct. Students too often miss the relevance of what they learn and how it relates to their lives. We must act quickly to align high school with post-secondary programs, workforce expectations, and future markets. To create the next high school system, we need to rethink how we use space, time, and technology to meet the academic needs of increasingly sophisticated students.

Equity
In public education there is never enough resources to attend to every need. Equity means providing the leadership to decide who gets what, and which needs take priority. For me, this means providing adequate education options for every student, while also addressing the most serious needs of those who present the greatest challenges. My social training drives me to speak consistently for the “least of them.” Our finances are complex, but not so much so that we can’t apply common sense when allocating resources. If we are to spur social and societal parity, we must make sure that we use our Title 1, Compensatory Ed, and Special Education dollars in the way they are intended to be used.

Career & Technical Education
Forget about what you’ve heard about Career & Technical Education (CTE). It isn’t your father’s vocational education. In an age when high-wage, high-growth occupations require more in terms of technical skills, CTE is not only a proven pathway into the mainstream economy, it is also a pipeline to post-secondary education. Data has shown that students across all socio-economic and racial categories do better in core curriculum when they also participate in CTE. Nationally, CTE programs have become essential education partners to business and industry, providing highly trained, college-ready graduates who have the skills to advance faster than their non-participating counterparts.