2008 Response

1.  Strongly Agree - It is important that students get the best individual attention that we can give them not only to catch “at risk children” but also help children and young adults explore potential or areas that they may not know they have. 

 2.  Strongly Agree - I would like to see additional abilities/opportunities for class accreditation for high school and college students who provide mentoring or assistance to others.

 3.  Strongly Agree - I agree that we have a serious problem in recruiting and retaining quality educators in Idaho.

 4.  Strongly Agree - If we are truly interested in investing and preparing future generations for the world of tomorrow we need to start with those who are responsible for their training.

 5.  Strongly Agree - It is unfortunate that often the best and brightest of our society find that they are financially unable to share their specific special talents with others in educating.

 6.  Mixed - I support those who wish to educate their children privately, parochial, charter or by home school. It is just as important that we do not diminish funding per student in the public school system for those parents who do not have that ability. What a parent perceives as a more beneficial education is every parent’s responsibility, however this process cannot diminish other childrens educational opportunity funding per student.

 7.  Mixed - We need to have a system that rewards those exceptional instructors and administrators while at the same time have the ability to replace those who are incompetent, ineffective or detrimental to the learning process. I do not believe teacher pay system should be biased solely on a couple of so called ‘tell all tests’ but, there also needs to be accountability with some sort of possibly monthly progress assessments.

 8.  Strongly Agree - It is obvious that anyone that reaches retirement age and has devoted half of their life to teaching future generations, should be rewarded for that service.

 9.  Agree - I am not a fan of any ‘Right-to-Work’ policies. We need to make sure that if a teacher is released or not renewed it is because of incompetency or inappropriateness, not because of personal vendetta, personal views or just simply of ‘low-balling’ contracts. Our childrens’ future cannot afford to be ‘low-balled.’ However, schools also need to be assured that incompetency, ineffective or detrimental instructors can be terminated without reprisal.

 10. Strongly Agree - I get very nervous when sub-contractors replace full or part-time staff in our schools. They do not pay attention to as much detail as direct staff. There are those occasions where sub-contractors are placed around our children without strict background checks. I do believe probationary periods for some occupations. Care of our children should not necessarily go to the cheapest.

 12. Funding of education/economic opportunities is one of my top three priorities for the state. If we want future generations to be competitive in the world market of tomorrow we need to provide them with those opportunities.

 13.  Three areas that I am personally most passionate about: 

·  Funding and creating additional higher education opportunities whether they are ‘academic’ or ‘hands-on’ training.

·  Give cities and counties the ability to vote on imposing impact fees for schools instead of burdening existing property tax payers.

·  Safe schools and routes from those who would do them harm.

For additional information I have attached a copy of educational views directly from my web site WWW.JEREMY4IDAHO.COM