Issues

Question 1

Question 2

Question 3

Question 1: Despite of the increases in funding for education, education funding remains an important issue in the state. What are your views on education funding?

Answer: In virtually every survey, national and local, our schools top the list of our concerns. Are our children getting the best education? Those of us satisfied that our children are getting a fine education wonder how we can continue to fund it. But many parents do not feel that their children are getting a good education. And many feel that the funding is unfair and a new formula should be developed. Why is this problem not yet solved? We have known about and worked on the problems for decades. Is there no one with the answer?

If just one state in our union of 50 had found the solution, we could quickly copy their success. But none have, lawsuits abound throughout our nation as residents in one area of a state wrestle with residents of another area over portions of state tax dollars. Locally, citizens struggle with each other over additional funding. It is easy to become discouraged.

But there is spring in the air of educational innovation. New buds of invention are breaking through the frosty ground. A long awaited thaw is taking place and solutions are unfurling like new leaves in May. As with most innovation, it is a host of bottom-up solutions rather than an imposition from the top down. The post secondary option, created several years ago by the legislature in response to parental request, is one of the blossoms. This program allows students to attend college at state expense when they are ready; not just when the stodgy old K through 12 sequence is complete. Students learn at different rates, mature at different rates, have different proclivities and different energy levels. One is not better than the other; just different as jigsaw puzzle pieces are different. The puzzle cannot be completed without each piece. Parents are taking advantage of home schooling, internet schools, publicly funded charter schools and privately funded schools in ever greater numbers. Parents are choosing diverse educational options that fit their child’s needs.

Our public schools, constrained by decades of well intentioned laws, redundant oversight, and complex and outmoded funding formulas, are struggling. Columbus Public is reeling under the change. But fine leaders, like Superintendent Gene Harris, are changing their schools and creating options for students. They are bringing ideas and innovations to the legislature and worn out legal chains are beginning to be broken.

Why is this so difficult? Our tradition is determined to keep every child learning in the same line, at the same rate, in the same room. Our tradition labels children as having too much energy or too much interest in their environment and judges their intelligence as if our infinitely complex brains were understood by science. The more we learn about the brain, the more science realizes that the brain is galactic in scope and our knowledge of it is earth bound. Parents will no longer accept this failing tradition. We cannot stop the change nor should we try. Ohio must embrace innovation.

Some of our schools are dong marvelously. Several years ago, the Gahanna Jefferson School District was in deep trouble. The Administration was clear in their contempt for parents and arrogant in defense of perceived administrative authority. Gahanna parents were rightly furious. A resignation allowed a new board member to be appointed. The new school board replaced that awful superintendent and brought in new leadership. Today, the Gahanna Jefferson School District is thriving because there is a culture of trusting and deferring to parents; a culture that is open to innovation, even though innovation brings with it difficulties.

Education is changing. During the next decade, it will morph in marvelous and dramatic ways. We, in the legislature, are listening and implementing the innovations brought to us by amazingly creative Ohio parents. It will be a rocky decade, but it is the beautiful spring in educational invention. The solutions are finally coming together.

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Question 2: The skyrocketing cost of health care is not only causing hardships for many families in Ohio, but for many businesses as well. What ideas do you have to help control costs in this area?

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Question 3: Why do you feel you are the best candidate for this position?

Answer 3: I believe that my education, military experience, 12 years of progressing responsibility with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, 18 years as Mayor of Gahanna, and 5 years in the legislature have given me the knowledge and insight to continue working for good change for Ohio.

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