Issue Position: Improving Education by Empowering Parents, Teachers and Communities

Issue Position

When I was born, my father was a teacher. My grandmother taught in a one-room schoolhouse. Good teachers are one of our state's most valuable resources, and it is a disgrace that Missouri teachers' average starting salary is 48th in the nation, and average compensation of all Missouri teachers is 40th in the nation, while the bureaucracy continues to grow and grow. Missouri kids deserve the best educational opportunities in the nation. Quality education has three essential elements: local control, excellent teachers and involved parents. Missouri needs a Governor willing to stand up to Washington bureaucrats telling Missouri families how to educate their children, and Missouri needs a Governor willing to bring innovative ideas to this state that will allow parents to get their children the education they need and deserve, whether in a traditional public school, charter school, private school, religious school, or homeschool. As Governor, I will stand for local control, for great teachers, for involved parents and for our children.

Action Plan:
*Never withhold appropriated funds from schools, as Governor Nixon has done time and again to score cheap political points;

*Fight Common Core or any new attempt by the federal government to dictate to parents and educators how we should educate our children;

*Restore local control and empower hard-working teachers in classrooms, involved moms and dads and concerned citizens on school boards;

*Cut back on the blooming administrative roadblocks and expenditures generated by the over 2,000 employees at the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education that serve as an impediment to improving education, and use the money saved to improve teacher pay;

*Empower parents to guide their children's education by introducing more parental choice in our educational system through educational savings accounts and course access, allowing parents to seek alternatives to failing public schools in other traditional public schools, charter schools, private schools, religious schools and through home schooling;

*Ensure that our students graduate ready for the workforce by supporting innovative, new programming to prepare them for the workplaces of tomorrow;

*Support robust distance learning course offerings, to ensure that all children have access to a curriculum that will allow them to thrive;

*Restore local control over teacher hiring, firing, promotion and tenure, while ensuring that our best teachers are recognized and appreciated;

*Fight to protect the ability of our children to afford a top-quality higher education and make our state universities models of safety and learning, ensuring that students today can work their way through college, giving them the keys to a better future for them and the families they will raise, without having to take on an average of $24,000 in student loan debt to get through a state school.

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