Issue Position: Education

Issue Position

To strengthen public education we must increase the state's share of funding to at least 50 percent, improve and stabilize the teacher's retirement system (TRS) including a cost of living update, and improve the quality of our classrooms. It is important that we are providing the resources and support to recruit, train, and retain good teachers and support staff such as counselors and career advisors, including competitive pay and benefits as well as mentorship and other professional development opportunities. We also need to ensure our class sizes are appropriate for each age group and that our classrooms are modern and fully supplied. In addition, we must move away from high stakes testing and focus on teaching and preparing our students to enter the workforce or to continue their education. Last, we must reform our school funding method so that it is not so reliant on local property tax payers. Not only is this inherently bad policy it is putting our communities in a financial crunch.

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