Candidate for
Governing Board Member; City of Santa Rosa High School District

I'm a political and educational conservative. I don't believe the government can ever function more effectively than private enterprise which has given us all the good things, physical and artistic, that we are surrounded with today. Therefore, I support Vouchers, Proposition 38. As an added argument for Vouchers, I would point out that our current governor, Mr. Davis, who is against Vouchers, has turned his back on government education by offering monetary incentives to teachers and schools for improving test scores. This idea of monetary incentives says that government run schools can't do better than poor to mediocre without capitalistic, private enterprise incentives. Voucher schools would only do what Governor Davis says has to be done - people must be motivated to do well.

On the actual school level, I'm not only for higher standard as a Board goal, but I'm also for not lowering whatever the current standards are before the schools actually give the tests. The Board needs facts on which to make rational judgments, not theoretical ideas based on sentimental beliefs. First, students may take the tests as many times as they wish, not just once, and second, no student in California can be deprived of a high school diploma. The state educational code says that at 18 years of age any student can come to any community college to get his high school diploma or can take the GED. In other words, with few exceptions, if a California student does not have a high school diploma, he/she has chosen this outcome.

I also think that my forty years of successful teaching qualifies me for the Board because I know what works and what doesn't work without being dogmatic about it. For example, a good teacher is always teaching thinking first and his/her subject second. Even in history, teaching a subject only as fact or information is never enough.

The bases for my educational philosophy is in my ballot statement which is attached.

I think my 35 years of teaching 8th grade English at Santa Rosa Junior College makes me a highly qualified candidate for the governing board of the Santa Rosa High School District. Certainly this experiential fact indicates that the city high schools have some room for improvement. In education, of course, there are no absolute remedies to most pedagogical problems because the schools are dealing with human nature. Nevertheless, I believe the following observations might help.

The members of the faculty, administration and board should never accommodate students by lowering standards for academic achievement and rules for classroom behavior. To prevent this from occurring the following basic fact should always be remembered: Education beyond survival skills is a learned human activity, not a natural one. Therefore, the classroom environment should be formal, not informal. Discipline is crucial to learning, a student who disrupts a class hurts all the other students the most, not just himself. Respect is essential for student success and better grades. To encourge this attitude of respect should be the goal of everyone who is directly involved in education.

Last, I believe in competition; therefore, win or lose, I'm voting for vouchers.