Education...
k-12 education
As a former high school agriculture teacher, school board member and parent of three, Reagan (kindergarten), Madison, & Taylor, education is a priority to me. We are fortunate to have some of the best local schools in the state but we must constantly be looking for ways to make sure our area school children get the world-class education they need to meet the challenges of tomorrow.
My priorities include: maintaining aid to local school districts as the state’s top budget priority; rewarding promising young teachers to provide an additional incentive for them to stay in the classroom; and increasing state school bus transportation aid for our rural districts to allow local school boards to better manage rising fuel costs. As with all other state budget priorities, we must balance the educational needs of our children with the property taxpayers’ ability to pay.
Most importantly, we need to preserve our rural school districts. The vast majority of our rural schools are facing severe economic hardships due to declining enrollment. The loss of student numbers directly leads to the loss of government support despite similar overhead costs for all school districts. Due to this significant burden, I will be actively pushing to create an additional school funding formula for school districts that have had three consecutive years of decreasing enrollment. This new formula will provide higher per student allotments for declining schools so that our rural schools can continue to provide quality education to students.