Education
It is undisputed that children react to different teachers and learning environments. There is no “one size fits all” approach to education. When addressing the educational needs of our youth, we need to pursue policies that permit parents and youth to find an educational environment that best fits each child’s needs. Additionally, the Federal government continues to increase pressure on our educators to meet stricter standards and competencies while eliminating academic freedom and teacher discretion.
Our country was founded on principles of individuals’ rights that give the greatest protection to the core family, and our education policy should continue that respect. To this end there must be school choice. Parents must be allowed to choose the school that fits the needs of their child and sound educational goals.
Allowing school choice increases competition between schools, requiring each individual school to be responsible for instituting best practices and driving educational innovation. Standardized testing, while a valid tool for assessment, should not be the only tool used to determine adequate yearly progress. School administrators should be encouraged to assess their own programs and teachers to keep their classrooms populated, and school systems should be evaluated first by the community which they serve. Allowing school choice advances these goals.
Economy, Opportunity, Taxes, Smaller Government, More Freedom
Many people believe these are separate issues—they are not. Each is intricately associated with the others in a complex network of policies in which changes to one will invariably affect the others.
Americans, and especially the people of Illinois’ 2nd Congressional District, need more and better opportunities for careers. Simply put, we need real career-level jobs. What we don’t need is an influx of minimum wage jobs. One provides for the family; the other reduces unemployment percentages. But we have a government that is dedicated to creating an environment that actively discourages business growth, depresses domestic investment and destroys economic stability. Washington bureaucrats have created a cloud of uncertainty through over-regulation, increasing taxes and punishing the successful.
We need policies that encourage domestic growth and investment. I am not looking to protect the “1%”; I will be working to provide more opportunity for every American to become part of the “1%.” The more that Washington works to create income redistribution, they increase dependency on governmental paternity and take away from personal responsibility and ambition. People become pacified with subsistence living on government handouts, ensuring they will continue to vote for their benefactors.
In truth it isn’t the equal economic opportunity of conservative values that have created the “1%”; it is the governmental pursuit of substandard income equality that isolates the successful from the rest. The economic net that was intended to catch the falling and spring them back onto the ladder has become a pool of quicksand. Those caught in the mire don’t need more sand; they need a rope. Our American belief should not be in government providing that rope. The rope is created through the strings of opportunity and the threads of individual ambition, woven together with the principle of hard work and with the pride that comes from making the best product available. Government doesn’t do this; people do.
Government needs to get off the backs of businesses. Government needs to eliminate administrative policies that discourage business creation. Government needs to eliminate taxes that depress domestic investment. Government needs to eliminate the regulatory mire that destroys economic stability and expansion. We can fix the economy by bolstering the ability of individuals, small businesses and corporations to invest and grow. It’s time to unleash America’s potential for the 21st Century, once again making her the economic powerhouse that she has the ability to be.