Diane LENNING, Ed.M. Makes Strong Bid to Win in 2010!

By Diane A. Lenning, Ed.M.

EDUCATION LEADER with the ideas other emulate! Diane is the only candidate with a "comprehensive plan" to "fix" our schools!

Lenning is a third year law student, pursuing a JD, to assist in writing legislation that will systemically "fix" our schools statewide. Having taught young men ages 14-25 in the CA Youth Authority, there are no surprises for her. Also, Lenning is a MEDAL of FREEDOM AWARD winner given by the U.S. Senate in 2004 for her political analysis and talking points regarding foreign and domestic issues.

1) Budget reviews and refocusing Categorical funding are important starters for much needed change, to assure local control and responsible expenditures.

As a former union leader, one of 25 State delegates elected among 335,000 peers, LENNING has stood on the 10,000 member delegation floor for many years, speaking to bring the union back to focus on educational activities rather than political issues. Education is not a Democrat issue, it is everyone's issue. Lenning believes a greater union focus on getting more money to the classroom for much needed services, materials, and professional development will improve the learning environment for all students, helping to close the achievement gap from lower performing schools to the levels of higher performing schools. It was directly due to her activism and running for this office in 2006 that has brought together a "common-ground" national focus on "reducing the drop-out rate," and other mainstream education issues such as Performance Based Pay.

Lenning believes strongly that her issue of

2) "reducing the drop-out rate" is the civil rights issue of this generation. Every young person deserves a quality education, and every neighborhood deserves a quality school. Lenning believes it is important for every voter to choose according to their own research, and has fought successfully to be included in mainstream forums. Lenning is former national Chair of the Republican Educators Caucus and has worked directly on the new plan for

3) Performance Pay for teachers, reporting her ideas to Congress. Lenning believes student scores are important criteria for determining a "high quality" teacher; however, it should be "one" of 5-10 criteria used to base performance pay for teachers, because of the obvious inequities of teaching assignments. Lenning believes higher salaries and incentives will attract "high quality" teachers to the profession and improve student achievement; and bringing back more jobs, therefore more taxpayers will be the way to raise the needed funds for education.

Educators, parents, and administrators know best what to do to "fix" our schools. Instead, some focus on irrelevant untimely ideas. There is no one item that is the panacea to "fix" education. Lenning could write a list of 50-100 ideas, but has chosen the top seven issues she believes will improve our schools faster. Lenning also supports

4) "free choice" in education in regards to charter schools and other education alternatives, but knows they are facing problems similar to public schools. Lenning believes focusing on getting all our kids into school is a high priority.

5) Safe schools are important, recruiting two city police on every high school campus.

6) Updated and improved vocational education including technology will assure our students gain the training and skills necessary to get a job right out of high school.

7) Providing teacher professional development for struggling teachers, such as Peters Procedures, will empower teachers to bring success to undisciplined learners by assuring a quality education environment where the classroom is one of mutual respect, and students are actively engaged in a rigorous curriculum. ...(To find out more about Lenning, and her plans of how to "fix" our schools, research her websites and face book pages).
http://www.DianeLenningforCaSuptOfPublicInstruction2010.vpweb.com and http://www.DianeLenning.com Email: diane@lenning.com PO Box 4306, Huntington Beach, CA 92605-4306