Issue Position: Improving Education

Issue Position

As a mother of 3 daughters that graduated from Collier County Public Schools, Kathleen knows that parents and local school boards, not bureaucrats, know what's best for students. That's why she lead the 2013 effort to give school districts more flexibility to choose the most effective strategies to close student achievement gaps. Kathleen believes in empowering parents through choice in their child's education, including the option to attend charter or parochial schools. She opposes federal overreach into our education system and any attempt to implement a "one-size fits all" model. Kathleen has voted to place caps on student testing, roll back statewide testing, and eliminate duplicative final exams.

During the 2018 Legislative Session, Kathleen served as chair of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Pre K-12 Education and sponsored legislation to appropriate $6,000,000 in funding to our state's Early Learning programs. Kathleen has also fought to drastically increase mental health funding in schools and improve access to mental health counseling for every Florida student. As a co-sponsor of the Florida Excellence in Higher Education Act of 2018, Kathleen supported reinstating full funding of the Bright Futures Florida Academic Scholars award and the Medallion Scholars award at 75 percent (2018, SB4). This legislation also provides policy and funding tools state universities can leverage to recruit and retain the best faculty, continue to grow professional and graduate school viability, and modernize aging infrastructure and research laboratories.

Kathleen's hard work earned her the Florida School Boards Association, Legislator of the Year Award; Senator of the Year Award from the Children's Forum; the PACE Center for Girls, Collier, Legislative Leadership Award; The Association of Early Learning Coalitions, Legislative Appreciation Award; The Education Foundation of Collier County, "Glass Slipper" Award in 2010; the Children's Advocacy Center of Collier County, Wallace Benevolent Award in 2007

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