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for 2004 Pennsylvania General Election Legislative Candidates
1. What are the strengths and weaknesses of Pennsylvania's system of funding public education? What should the Pennsylvania Legislature do, if anything, to improve the system of funding public education? (75 words or less) It is wrong to base education funding on property taxes. I also doubt if gambling profits are also good in the long run. I favor an increase in the earned income tax, which I believe would be more fair to fund education. The state also needs to increase their share of educational costs. 2. How should the Pennsylvania Legislature assist school districts to meet the requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act that expects every student to demonstrate proficiencies on state assessments in reading, math and science by 2014, and for all schools to demonstrate "adequate yearly progress" toward that goal? (75 words or less) The legislature needs to fund some experimental programs to see what can be done to assist school districts in meeting these requirements. Successful programs need to be then expanded state wide. Not every program will work everywhere so we need to try a variety of projects. 3. How should the Pennsylvania Legislature assist school districts to close the academic achievement gap that exists among groups of students in schools and school districts across the Commonwealth? (75 words or less) Part of the problem is funding, which the legislature needs to address. Every shool has different needs, in some respects and we need to work with individual scool districts to try to solve these problems. We need to listen to the individual school districts because, they probably have a very good idea as to what they need. We need to look at schools as schools, not where they are located. 4. What, if anything, should the Pennsylvania Legislature do to increase access for young children in Pennsylvania to high-quality pre-K programs and full-day kindergarten programs? (75 words or less) The legislature needs to increase funding for these programs. We should get to the point where every school district has to offer these programs and also to provide funding for them. The legislature needs to act. 5. What is your vision of the public education opportunity that should be available to every child in Pennsylvania and what will you do to accomplish that goal? (75 words or less) We should provide each and every child with the public education opportunity to go as far as they desire. That would include college or trade school. We need to offer all people, regardless of age, the opportunity to continue their education as far as they desire to go. We need to make more funding available and education more affordable.
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