Change Starts In The Classroom

I am running for the Board of Education of Bertie County to change the focus for our children’s education to a teaching empowered community environment, an environment that keeps the focus on the teacher-child interaction. Nothing we do should come at a sacrifice to this core principle.

We absolutely have to do two things soon for our children to make this change happen.

First we must permanently end the court case that is being used by some on our Board of Education to prioritize building new schools over other actions that will better teach our children. A different priority list is needed, one that puts student performance at the front of the line.

Secondly we must chart a new strategy in education for Bertie County that starts with the belief that we can provide our children with a great education. That new strategy must be based on returning to the basics of teaching that made our education system the best in the world until the last couple of decades.

The strategy I feel we need to adopt to make real change for our children focuses on four issues:

Teaching Empowerment.
Community Empowerment.
Embracing Technology.
Spending Wisely.

These issues will allow us to do as they did down in Okaloosa Florida, "clear out the underbrush of educational fashions and learning fads that have cluttered our schools, muddled our teaching, and disserved our children for too long."

What follows is a summary view of these issues, but you can read the details by clicking on "Education Policy Positions" on the right, or scrolling back up to the article above.

Teaching Empowerment requires us to enhance the power of the great teachers we already have, and find and prepare other great teachers until our children are the best educated in the world. "Focus on the classroom" must become our goal. We must get back to the basics of what works. We must start with the classic "Reading, 'Riting and 'Rithmetic". The reaction of annoyance by many education "experts" to the missing W and A in this old saying is almost a metaphor for their rejection of the classic form of education. Teaching fads and education novelties must be abandoned. Our children can learn if we simply return to the basics and reward our students and teachers for jobs well done. Improving instruction is key. We must improve instruction leadership and implement mentoring programs at the classroom level. This includes finding the funds to meaningfully reward teachers who make a difference.

Community Empowerment requires us to enhance the power of parents in making the educational decisions for their children. Parents, community members, business leaders, and County Commissioners, must partner in setting the direction of expenditures for educational improvement. We need community advisory boards with parents, government, business, and community leaders and they must be allowed to help drive education goals, even some goals down at the classroom level. We must keep our schools as small as possible and in our local communities.

Embracing Technology means getting past simply buying computers and putting them into the schools, but developing programs and training teachers in how to use the leverage power of technology to expand career opportunities for our children. This requires focusing on the two most important aspects of the Internet for education, distance learning and knowledge research, making sure every teacher is expert in both. Distance learning is especially important as it allows for the computer to become an assistant teacher working one on one with the student to maximize the lessons the teacher is charged with providing, and providing easy access to specialized tutors from across the world on topics of interest.

Spending Wisely and creating a budget is the key job of the Board of Education. For some time I have been discussing school finances and meeting in Raleigh with education experts from all over the state to better understand the state education budget. Bertie County can be more efficient and effective with each dollar being spent. Education dollars need to be spent carefully so that property taxes do not go up. This is extremely important for the elderly on fixed incomes and poor families. The top two nations in the world in education accomplishment spend signifcantly less than what Bertie County spends on education. There is no shortage of money in education. We simply need to make sure our dollars get to the children and the classroom.

Okaloosa Florida proved what can be done by the speed with which they went from the bottom of educational attainment to the best in Florida. However we don't have to go out of North Carolina to see success stories. We can learn from Highland Renaissance Academy in Charlotte. Only 7% white and 100% poor, even higher than the 90% poor here in Bertie County, and they have moved to the top half of educational attainment already. The stories about their success are just one of so many success stories that we can point out. A return to basics will be a plus since our children deserve better.

This is my message to the people of Bertie County. We can provide a great education for our children if the community, educational, and county leaders come together. We know how. Bertie County can become the success story of North Carolina.

I ask for your support in making that change happen.

Thank you.