Pillar J · Community
Education Reform
“Parents decide. Teachers teach. Students learn. Bureaucracy steps aside.”
Curriculum transparency by law. Cap administrator pay while teachers are underpaid. Ban school funds from political lobbying. Funding follows the student: true school choice.
Where I stand
- Curriculum transparency required by statute.
- Cap administrator pay; pay teachers what they're worth.
- No taxpayer-funded political lobbying by school districts.
- Funding follows the student: true school choice.
Pushback, answered
The hard questions, answered straight.
These are the real objections this position gets, with the same answers Zac gives in person. No talking points. No dodges.
“School choice will gut public schools.”
A good public school has nothing to fear from a family that has options. Most families will keep choosing the school down the street, because it is close, it is familiar, and when it is doing its job there is no reason to leave. Choice does not punish a good school. It gives families a way to hold a failing one accountable, which right now they mostly cannot do beyond writing an angry Facebook post. The money exists to serve the child. That is the whole principle.
“Curriculum transparency is an attack on teachers.”
It protects them. A teacher who is proud of a lesson has nothing to hide, and transparency is not aimed at the teacher in the first place. It is aimed at the layers between the parent and the classroom, where curriculum gets decided without either of them in the room. When the curriculum is public, a teacher is never left alone defending a decision that was made well above their pay grade.
“Capping administrator pay is government overreach.”
If a private company wants to pay its executives a fortune, that is its business. A public school district runs on tax dollars, and the public gets a say in how those dollars are spent. That is not overreach, it is ownership. When administrator pay climbs while teacher pay stalls, that is a priorities problem, and the legislature is what sets the rules for how public education money moves. Cap the top. Pay the classroom.
“Districts need a voice in Pierre.”
They have one, and nobody is taking it away. Testify. Advocate. Show up. I spent two sessions at the Capitol fighting for family legislation as a citizen advocate, and nobody handed me a taxpayer-funded lobbyist. What ends is billing taxpayers for professional political lobbying. If the argument for more school funding is a strong one, it can win on its merits without a paid lobbyist making it on your dime.
“School choice is a handout to families who already have options.”
It is the reverse. Wealthy families have always had school choice, and they buy it with a tuition check or a mortgage in the right neighborhood. A family renting in North Rapid has no such lever. When funding follows the student, every parent in this district holds the power that wealthy parents have always held. And nobody is forced anywhere: if the public school down the street is the right fit, the funding follows your kid right there. Choice that only money can buy is not choice, it is a privilege. I want the version every family gets.