The State Board of Education is a voluntary unpaid office, but I believe it is extremely important because the education of our young people is essential to the wellbeing of our society and our state. My varied educational training and experiences qualify me as an excellent candidate to serve. Our Republic requires an educated, responsible, and ethical populace, so what is taught is of great importance. As Abraham Lincoln wisely observed, “The philosophy in the schoolroom of one generation will be the philosophy of the government in the next.”

The following three major points describe some of my educational beliefs:

EDUCATION AND THE UNITED STATES
Our founding fathers intended the Constitution to ensure that our government serve and protect the people.  This presumes an educated citizenry and thus requires an excellent system of universal, free public education that prepares American citizens to succeed in a global economy, not global citizens in whatever remains of our American economy.
Sadly, since the early years of our republic, many ideas detrimental to maintaining our basic principles of freedom and democracy have crept into popular thinking, into our teacher-training institutions, and into our schools.  This includes a distorted, detrimental view of America.
Students must learn and understand that our government needs to be minimally intrusive and low cost, allowing citizens maximal freedom and opportunities. 
In time, government bureaucracies at all levels have become ever more bloated and powerful.    Meanwhile, the enticements of expensive entitlement programs are undermining private initiative and bankrupting our country.  The “nanny state” mentality, which encourages perpetual adolescence, should be offset in our schools. 
Students need to learn about the blessings and responsibilities of citizens living in a free country, through knowledge of history as well as current events, plus training in good citizenship skills.
PURPOSE AND BENEFITS OF EDUCATION
It is vital that education in a democracy provide students with information--not indoctrination--in all subjects, but especially in English, social studies, history, and science classes.  Learning to evaluate all sides of various theories and points of view will foster skills in making critical comparisons and analytical thinking.  Making choices based on information from many sources is a responsibility of free citizens.  Students should be exposed to many points of view and the classroom atmosphere must allow for differing opinions and encourage student questioning of information.
Patriotism must be promoted and stressed by our curriculum and our textbooks, with emphasis on the qualities that enabled our nation to become exceptional on the world stage.  The uniqueness of the great American experiment with its “government of the people, by the people, for the people” must be taught repeatedly at various grade levels.  The opportunities, rights, and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution and Bill of Rights account for the never-ending stream of immigrants to our shores.  This fact alone speaks volumes about the greatness of America. Sadly, the foundations of free enterprise and entrepreneurship, which allow individuals to pursue their dreams, are now threatened by governmental attempts to gain control of many sectors, including business, medicine, and ultimately, education.
COMMON-SENSE PROPOSALS FOR IMPROVEMENT
Family - School Partnership--While our present public educational system in Texas has many good qualities, many problems remain.  Promoting parental support and involvement in education of children is essential, especially with high-risk students who particularly need encouragement and help at home. Parents need to be reminded that student attitudes toward schooling are closely related to parental values. A strong home and school partnership is vital for successful Texas students and families.  The wisdom and input of parents and extended family should be neither downplayed nor ignored by elitist “experts” who intimidate parents, claiming to have every answer on what is best for students.  Innovative ideas for encouraging family participation include “Potluck PTA Meetings” or after-school “Homework Clubs” run by teachers with volunteer tutors.
Communication with Constituents—Open lines of communication with District 3 voters are needed, providing pertinent information about issues before the SBOE and receiving community input.
Disciplinary Questions—Overly-strict limits on teacher discipline have undermined good classroom behavior by “straight-jacketing” teachers and empowering unruly students.  Because our schools rely on “body counts” for government reimbursement, unacceptable student behavior is rarely dealt with decisively. Students soon recognize that poor behavior will not result in serious consequences and many never realize that a free K-12 education is indeed a great privilege.
Textbook Alternatives—One huge expense for Texas education is providing high quality textbooks that are extremely expensive, but which are often lost or damaged by students.  Fortunately, Texas has a well-run and well-endowed Permanent School Fund to cover these textbook costs.  Ignoring the enormous expense and past history of failure as proven by Federal studies, some have suggested we use textbooks on computer software, supplying each child with a laptop.  A simpler idea might be instead to purchase inexpensive versions of our textbooks, printed on newsprint with soft covers, and allow students to retain their books and thereby build a home reference library. If this were also done with early childhood books, families would be encouraged to read together in the early years, an activity definitely tied to later development of reading skills.  Students could highlight and write notes in their textbooks and those books could also be used by younger siblings or traded. 
Educational Options--The problem of student retention versus social advancement remains unresolved.  Determining how students not mastering basic skills at various grade levels are handled is critical.  At present, many low-achieving students become frustrated and cause discipline problems in the classroom, convinced they are destined for failure.  Of course, in order to graduate, all students need to master a core high school curriculum with four years of classes in math, science, social studies, and language arts.  Middle school assessment and aptitude testing would certainly assist students to learn which unique gifts they possess, and provide direction for choosing elective courses that would prepare each one for future work and/or advanced studies.   
Magnet Schools--Where possible, magnet schools should be established, encouraging future workers and entrepreneurs to pursue their talents and skills through a wide variety of alternative educational courses.  Equipment costs for such alternative courses are high and normally too expensive to provide at every high school, but magnet schools have proven their value. 
College Preparation--While student scores on Texas statewide tests (TAKS) seem to be improving, the full picture is not entirely rosy.  In Texas, 50% of all college freshmen are unprepared for post-high school education and need to enroll in non-credit remedial or developmental classes in reading, writing, and or math.  This serves to discourage the college-bound who must now pay tuition just to get prepared for college-level work.  At this point, summertime remedial courses should be offered after graduation in order to help bring students “up to speed” by the fall term. 
Texas’ National Ranking--In addition to the problem above, our Texas school systems are not performing well in comparison to those of other states on national tests.  On the ACT test, students in 44 states scored higher than Texas, and 40 states beat Texas in reading.  On the SAT test, 42 states scored better on critically important grammar/usage (best predictor of college success), while 43 states scored higher on the written essay. In time, as the new, more rigorous SBOE curriculum standards (see below) are taught and tested, student performance should improve dramatically.
National Standards—President Obama seeks to federalize our public education system with his Common Core Standards Initiative, attempting to take over yet another sector of American life. Lured by a one-time grant of $80 per child, forty eight states agreed in a rush to adopt unknown national standards and tests, written by unknown “experts”, all directly linked to teacher merit pay. This initiative is a far more devious and dangerous threat than even federalized healthcare. Why? Because the national standards will most likely reflect far-left thinking and ideas which are contrary to our traditional core values. This is a blatant attempt to brainwash our vulnerable children and change the way an entire generation of children thinks. In addition, input and participation in decision-making by local families, teachers, and citizens will become nearly impossible. Thankfully, Texas and one other state resisted signing on to a program that requires states to adopt, sight unseen, the entire national standards document word for word. Some states that signed up under time pressures are now rethinking that decision.
A Foundation of Basics--“Drills build skills” and are necessary foundations for future learning and adult success. Before recent SBOE changes, Texas standards did not require basic knowledge and skills, but focused rather on “holistic learning” and making learning “enjoyable.”  Such learning theories underestimated the intelligence and motivation of our young people, and resulted in lowered educational achievement.  Let us raise standards back to where they should be so our students can become competitive in a global marketplace.  Certain basic skills and knowledge absolutely must be learned and some must be memorized, e.g. in math, science, and grammar.  Phonics is a time-honored and successful method for learning to read. Grammar/usage rules must be taught explicitly before students can input these skills into their writing.  In math, calculator dependency must be eliminated. Rather than decreasing student enthusiasm when memorization is essential, innovative teachers can easily make drills interesting and fun. In addition, basic subjects as spelling, fact-based history, written composition of all styles, and various sides of scientific theories all need to be taught and tested. This return to a rigorous educational curriculum will, in time, produce students who are once again nationally competitive.