As a public school and university graduate, educational opportunity is a heartfelt priority for me. Also, as many of you know, my spouse, Bart, was a public school teacher and school principal. Together we are fundamentally committed to improving educational opportunity.

For more than 15 years, I’ve worked as a leader in our public school systems and related policy work. This includes having served as Deputy Superintendent/Chief of Staff at the school district level and as Deputy Secretary / Chief of Staff in the Delaware Department of Education.

At present, I am working closely with the Delaware State Education Association to raise the pay of our Education Support Professionals (ESPs): teacher aides, custodians, secretaries, child nutrition teams, bus drivers. They are under-paid and under-valued. Delaware needs to keep increasing investment in our schools. From personal experience, I know that high quality schools result when parents, teachers, school staff and school leadership work together to do what’s best for students.

• I fully support the new public school funding formula and want to ensure that it adequately supports schools with large numbers of children from low socio-economic backgrounds.
• We must continue the work of the Public Education Compensation Committee to compensate competitively our teachers and Education Support Professionals.
• We must continue to support our public colleges and universities, especially Delaware Technical Community College. These schools offer affordable pathways for our citizens to access the education and skills training to ensure their readiness for good-paying jobs.