Providing the best education for our children and supporting our teachers should always a priority for the state of Alabama. As your State Senator here are a few of the issues facing education that I plan to focus on.

1. Parents are a child’s first teacher and provide the best decisions for their child’s education. Parents should have the choice in what school their child attends-whether it be public, private, or a home-school.
2. Funding for early childhood education is essential. Pre-K initiatives such as the “Headstart” program provide critical training to academically at-risk children to prepare them for school. A strong literacy foundation is vital in the development of a child to be able to reach his/her full potential. Both public and private programs supporting early childhood literacy will be supported. The Alabama Reading Initiative has been significant in the growth of literacy rates in areas of K-12 by teaching literacy through instruction of content of all core subjects.
3. Children in rural areas should have equal opportunities to receive exposure to specialty courses regardless of the lack of funding in these areas. I support the Alabama ACCESS (Alabama Connecting Classrooms, Educators, & Students Statewide) program to provide distance-learning capabilities that will link instruction with students through technology in the classroom. Teachers in other parts of the state will be able to teach our students through various multimedia and technological tools and will provide courses that otherwise may not be offered in rural areas.
4. Education is vital to produce a competitive 21st century workforce that will foster new technology and innovation. Funding must be provided and protected for trade schools and job training programs that will teach young students important skills as well as provide healthy, educational alternatives for at-risk students.
5. Second to the parents, a teacher is the most important figure in a child’s education. They do not receive enough praise or support from the community and are one of the most underpaid groups in our society. Teachers must be protected against frivolous litigation and there must be more support to encourage highly trained individuals to become educators. Training, recruitment incentives, loan forgiveness, and tax relief would ease the burden off of individuals who have a desire to teach and help them pursue their goal while providing financial assistance.  I agree strongly for the need to protect teachers. That is why  I support an incentive-based pay structure for teachers that would encourage each teacher to constantly pursue more for themselves and their students regardless of their years of experience.