An educated workforce is the foundation of a strong economy and a prosperous nation. Especially during an economic downturn, education is the beacon that will guide us to a better future, help Americans get back to work, and equip future generations to lead. Local control, rather than federal mandates, are a driving theme of my education perspective. I believe parents, educators, and local administrators are best equipped to make decisions that impact their local schools and their local students.
We must view how we educate our children through a 21st century lens and employ approaches that utilize new tools and information. We know that one size truly does not fit all when addressing the learning needs of our kids. Each child has unique skills that must be drawn out through evaluation and nurturing. My own three children have opportunities to learn that were never available to me growing up, and each of them processes information and pursues knowledge in different ways. We must embrace the future and re-evaluate the practices that have led to the plummet in U.S. literacy rates and the decline of our global competitiveness in mathematics and science.
Our education system faces the constant challenge of attracting the best talent, determining effective ways to evaluate and incentivize performance, and directing appropriate resources to areas of need. We must make an investment in our educators and equip them with the best teaching tools available. In Illinois' 10th District, we are blessed with many exceptional schools. But since not all of our children have access to these schools, in many cases we are not serving many of their needs. We can do better.
Recruiting and rewarding talented educators is also critical. But to have the most talented educators to reward, we must also reform the system so that choosing the profession of teaching is incentivized not penalized. On this vein, one idea is to allow those who earned social security benefits in a previous career to retain those benefits. Currently teachers lose these pre-earned social security benefits, creating a disincentive to pursue a career in teaching. We must find the best among us who are willing to teach and compensate them at a level comparable with other American professionals.
In order to foster a true learning environment, educators and students must feel safe. I support the Student Teacher Safety Act that empowers full-time teachers or school officials to search students on public ground when acting on suspicion based on their professional judgment and experience. This Act also allows states and school districts to conduct reasonable searches to ensure the schools remain free of all weapons, dangerous materials, and illegal narcotics.
I support putting control of education-resources in the hands of leaders at the local level, where people understand the needs of their community and are invested in the performance of their schools. And I support altering ways that we evaluate schools. I believe growth-model testing – where an individual student is tested for improvement and a teacher and school are evaluated based on improvement of its students – is better than the current testing practices. Both of these reforms would empower the education system with a greater sense of accountability among educators, students, and local leaders.
Reform should extend to higher education and make it more attainable for all students. It should, however, be earned, not handed out. In a highly competitive global job market, an undergraduate degree is a requisite for many careers. With this increasing demand, the ever-rising cost of an institution of higher learning is financially unfeasible for many families. In Congress I support programs such as the 401(Kids) Family Savings Act which helps parents save for higher education. I also support strengthening the reasonably-priced quality education and accredited degrees from local community colleges.
The education of our children is our most important investment in the future. It is our collective responsibility, as parents, educators, and citizens, to ensure America's children have the best education possible and are able to compete in our global world.
