Issue Position: Education

Issue Position

As a teacher, education is an issue that is near and dear to my heart. Unfortunately, when politics and education meet, too often complex issues are reduced to sound bites that distract from the overall mission of creating a high-quality public education system.

First and foremost, I believe we should have a fully funded public education system that is the beating heart of every community. That is why I sponsored legislation to create community schools statewide, which will bring together parents, students and teachers before and after class in a way that will strengthen parental involvement and improve the overall lives of the community surrounding the school. That is also why I was proud to cosponsor legislation to fund a universal pre-kindergarten system which will give every child the opportunity to start school ready to learn.

I also believe in high standards, both in curriculum and in teaching. When it comes to higher standards for teachers, I think a strong focus on peer and supervisor review is a great thing. Getting feedback from administrators and fellow teachers will help us all learn and grow to become the best we can be. However, I worry that tying teacher evaluations to student test scores -- especially those scores of students who we never see -- will distract from the classroom experience and put too much emphasis on high-stakes testing.

As for higher standards for students, I think that overall the Common Core standards are a step in the right direction towards a strong focus on critical thinking and problem solving, but I also want to make sure that they are developmentally appropriate for all grades. We shouldn't have to be polarized into pro or anti-Common Core camps -- I think there is a middle ground where we can use these standards as a base to improve on.

Having said that, I am very concerned about the focus on high stakes testing that is often associated with Common Core. We all know that students need to be tested…heck, teachers invented tests! But when we are designing curriculum to fit the tests rather than the reverse, we have a problem. When kindergarten children are spending 2 hours for 4 days in a row taking a "fill in the bubble" test, we have a problem. We need to have a serious discussion about the potential harm that this focus on testing will have on our children.

Finally, there is the issue of so-called "educational choice." To be clear, I am opposed to taking money from public schools to send to private schools. I have yet to see research that shows this helps students in areas where it has been tried, and it distracts from the mission of improving our public schools.

However, when it comes to charter schools, the issue is a lot more complicated. I am perfectly happy to support a local charter school that wants to try something innovative and new. However, I am very weary of the push by some to move all of our public schools to the charter model, which reduces or eliminates accountability and transparency currently required of our traditional public schools.

Recently the Knox County School Board approved a charter school application put forward by The Emerald Youth Foundation, a great organization dedicated to helping improve the lives of Knoxville's children. The Emerald Charter application outlines a good plan for the kids involved, it has smaller class size and increased support services, something every teacher in our struggling schools is asking for. These are not new ideas and they are already being practiced in a few Knox County schools. The Community Schools are doing just the things Emerald proposes to do, the biggest difference is that the Community School partnership is with an existing Knox County school. My preference would be for Emerald to commit to a full Community Schools partnership with an existing school, saving millions in facilities cost and benefiting a much larger number of students.

As I said before, these issues are complicated and can sometimes be confused in the political process. No matter what, I believe that Knox County residents and elected officials should be the ones deciding the future of our public schools -- not lawmakers in Nashville. That is why I opposed the State Charter Authorizer which took away local control of the charter school approval process, and could result in higher taxes and lower quality schools for our residents.

Most importantly, I want to hear more from you. If you have a question about where I stand, or thoughts on what we could do to make our public schools the best they can be, don't hesitate to email or call. Whether or not we agree, I value your opinion and the work you do to make our community better.

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