Education

ASK A TEACHER

Education and Innovation all start with TEACHERS! My campaign focus is listening to, supporting, and celebrating teachers. I believe education in Indiana is in crisis and our children’s best hope is to empower teachers to be agents of change.

AND as a teacher for the last 25 years, our focus is on our students - they come first! Students need to be in-person but they also need to be interacting with their teachers and fellow students and developing fundamental skills in language arts, social studies, and STEM through hands-on practice. Teachers should be able to focus on their students and learning IN THE CLASSROOM - not on collecting data, filling out paperwork, and preparing for standardized tests.

Teachers were already stressed to the breaking point BEFORE the pandemic. Yet they made a superhuman turnaround when schools were closed down - without preparation, equipment, technology, and any direction, they did what teachers do best - they found a way and provided one of the few “normal” connections for young people across the globe.

Calls for a return to school and normalcy during the pandemic ignored the fact that there was no going back and that very few teachers wanted to return to a situation where they were unpaid, unfairly evaluated, blamed, and judged for results and issues outside of their control.