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Like many of you, I care very deeply about the value and promise of education, especially as a product of Prince George’s County public schools and the University of Maryland, College Park. However, our schools have increasingly been used to try to address all of society’s social ills. Our school systems simply were not designed to perform that function. If elected, I will only support programs that promote the educational function of schools and provide the funding needed to enact them.
No Child Left Behind
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Currently, I favor abolishing the No Child Left Behind law. I believe that No Child Left Behind is an example of good intentions gone bad. I recognize that there are some good aspects to the law. However, it is another unfunded mandate, a burden to schools, and is leading to the distortion of the learning process. Education is about more than memorizing facts. It is also learning to think analytically and many other things that No Child Left Behind can not account for. The only thing that I would propose in its place is the reporting aspects of the law on the academic performance of the various populations within the student bodies. This would also include standards on calculating high school dropout rates, which are subject to much massaging, especially by the worst performing school systems.
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Funding for Higher Education
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I plan to explore options for increasing funding for higher education, including having Pell Grants indexed for inflation. However, it could reduce the number of grants given if additional funding is not found. During the last economic downturn, the state contribution to higher education, percentage-wise, decreased in many parts of the country. Congress has worked to lower the interest rate that students will pay on student loans. Something critically more important is to help students reduce the amount of debt that they take on in the first place. I will promote banning institutions of higher learning that receive Federal funds from entering into agreements with credit card companies to market their products on campuses around the country. These agreements are always sold as means to raise funds for the universities, but at what expense? Promotion of indebtedness is not a primary function of our institutions of higher learning.
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Strengthening Community Bridges to Education
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I believe that we can improve educational and community outcomes with a concerted and aligned effort between the numerous organizations that work in Prince George’s and Montgomery counties. I do not believe in reinventing the wheel. The school systems of both counties have programs in various stages of development that need community action to make them more successful and have a wider reach. I will lend my time and money to try to make this happen. We need community help for our students before they ever set foot into the schools, to help their parents promote a more education-oriented home life and to provide more opportunities in struggling communities to long-term gainful employment. This is possible through the concerted efforts of our governments, community organizations, and faith-based communities. One of the reasons that I am running for office is that I felt that our Congressman could have been working with the community to a much greater degree while the Republicans were in charge. Our schools systems have increasingly become the whipping boy for what ails our society. There are so many people and organizations working to make things better for our students and for society in general. They need help. There are some things that government can not do. It can not fix societal ills through school systems. But, together, we can.
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