Providing our children, our young people and our young adults the tools to excel in life is very important to the success of a community.  I’ve become increasingly concerned that our “education systems”, including public-schools, colleges and universities, have been hijacked for social indoctrination purposes rather than providing our population with the knowledge that they can use to make their lives as great as they can be.

The public-school system needs to be fixed.  Our children are not being taught history, or economics, or even our process of government.  Instead, in many instances teachers are using assignments to promote their own social agendas or dissonance onto our children.

Laws and regulations are in place outlining our “public contract” with our teachers but I’ve even heard of some neglecting to recite the Pledge of Allegiance at the beginning of the day and having biased news programs being piped into our children’s lives without our consent.  We, the taxpayers and citizens of the community, fund the programs that teach our children and we need to exercise our oversight to ensure that the rules are being respected.  

Schools should be non-partisan, balanced, historically accurate, safe, inclusive learning spaces.

We need citizens to become involved in their schools’ social studies programs with regard to political activism.  We women need to get involved to ensure that girls restrooms and lockers are safe for our children.  We need to stop being “entertained” by the Hollywood depictions of bullying in such platforms as “Mean Girls” and insist that these public places that WE ARE FUNDING adequately reflect our values and are places of inclusion but focused on the purpose of education of shared country history and accomplishments.

School choice should be available to each citizen that prefers to have their children educated through an alternative platform from the public school system.

Our higher education system is broken, and the government endorsed financial incentives that created the situation need to be analyzed and revised.  I call it “bad parenting”.  If you have a system that rewards certain behaviors and enriches people based on their exploitation of those “rules”, then it shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone when they act in their best interest rather than in the interest of society (often under the guise of operating in their perception of what’s best for society.)  Being a lawyer or doctor or computer science tech has been glorified over being a mechanic, or plumber, or electrician.  Our society exalts sports performers, entertainment personalities and other non-economic expansionary functions over skills-based jobs that result in making things.  We’ve had a skills based labor shortage for over a decade because our “system” doesn’t direct or encourage our young people to consider those types of employment. 

I strongly support the re-invigoration of our trade schools and we should institute incentives for students that train to fulfill needed skills within our economy and community. 

The 13th Congressional District is a rich area for the expansion of trade schools, building on the community college platforms already in place.  I intend to collaborate with community leadership through their business development programs and cultivate  local businesses to identify and develop the strongest programs possible to increase the competitiveness of our District when business are considering moving to Georgia or expanding their southern footprints.  Georgia is a highly diverse state with many international companies operating here, and the district is a mix of service and manufacturing based activity.  We should be more than competitive with the north Georgia Atlanta based counties due to our more accommodating life style and community affordability.

I believe that the opportunity for industrial and trade schools should be made available to all 6 counties in the 13th Congressional District of Georgia. 

Giving industry a trained and educated work force will assist us in cultivating new businesses to look at investment and expansion in our District, and provide additional opportunities for our citizens to work close to the communities where they live.