House of Representatives District 114: Candidate Q&A
Candidates for this office were offered a questionnaire on education issues by The Parents’ Campaign. See below for responses received to date.
Tony Lawrence
1. What is your experience with K-12 public schools, personally and/or with your children or family? Ex-wife public school teacher/two children: pre and K-12 public schools.
2. Do you agree that the Mississippi Adequate Education Program (MAEP) should be fully funded every year? If yes, what actions will you take to ensure full funding? If no, explain why. Yes; cut legislators’ pay!! Mississippi has the highest paid legislators per capita and the lowest paid teachers!
3. What will you do to ensure state revenue that is sufficient to provide all of the services Mississippi’s citizens need to lead productive lives? Fight for the people of Mississippi, not the GOP!
4. Will you oppose vouchers that send taxpayer dollars to private schools, religious schools, home schools, or virtual schools? Why or why not? Vouchers should be outlawed!
5. Do you agree that all K-12 schools that receive taxpayer dollars, including private voucher schools, should be accountable to taxpayers for the quality of education they provide, using the same accountability measures as public schools? Yes!
6. Public schools serve the vast majority of Mississippi students with disabilities. Do you agree that special education services in public schools should be fully funded every year? (Special education has been underfunded by the state every year since 2008.) If yes, how will you accomplish full funding? If no, explain why. Yes!
7. Do you agree that Mississippi should provide high quality early childhood education statewide? Yes!!!
8. The nation’s top teachers say that the greatest barriers to school success for K-12 students are family stress, poverty, and learning and psychological problems. What steps do you believe legislators should take to alleviate these obstacles for Mississippi children? Affordable healthcare, including mental healthcare.
9. Do you support raising teacher salaries at least to the level of our neighboring states and raising pay for teacher assistants? Yes. Teachers need a big raise.
10. Do you agree that retired educators (and other retired state employees) should be able to draw their retirement while serving in the Legislature? Not sure; most likely not.
11. Legislators have little or no staff to help them understand the many bills they must consider. Before introducing or supporting a bill that could affect public education, will you commit to seeking input from teachers, principals, superintendents, and parents of public school students in your district? Who will be advising you on education policies? Yes.
12. Legislators receive tremendous pressure from the leaders of their chamber (House or Senate), state and party leaders, and corporate lobbyists, to vote in ways that may contradict the will of their constituents and harm their communities. How will you respond to this pressure? No. Of the people, for the people, by the people.
Richard Westfall (defeated in primary)
1. What is your experience with K-12 public schools, personally and/or with your children or family? Our two grandsons attend St. Martin schools. We are very happy with this school system. Parents really like the “Active Parent” online site where we can monitor grades, attendance, email directly with teachers and stay up to date with current events.
2. Do you agree that the Mississippi Adequate Education Program (MAEP) should be fully funded every year? If yes, what actions will you take to ensure full funding? If no, explain why. Funding MAEP is an absolute priority. However, the formula needs to be updated. I will work to better define the MAEP formula and push to fund the formula.
3. What will you do to ensure state revenue that is sufficient to provide all of the services Mississippi’s citizens need to lead productive lives? As a conservative Republican, I will work to lower taxes to create an environment for statewide business growth and new business development. The goal is to create maximum growth and State revenues. We are seeing this trend today.
4. Will you oppose vouchers that send taxpayer dollars to private schools, religious schools, home schools, or virtual schools? Why or why not? Private, religious, home and virtual schools are an important part of the overall education system for Mississippi and should be supported in the right way with adequate accountability. Children learn in many ways, let’s find what works best for our children.
5. Do you agree that all K-12 schools that receive taxpayer dollars, including private voucher schools, should be accountable to taxpayers for the quality of education they provide, using the same accountability measures as public schools? Yes, I do.
6. Public schools serve the vast majority of Mississippi students with disabilities. Do you agree that special education services in public schools should be fully funded every year? (Special education has been underfunded by the state every year since 2008.) If yes, how will you accomplish full funding? If no, explain why. I have visited the Exceptional School in Pascagoula at Christmas time for the past few years. I am overwhelmed every year with the great work being done by the teachers in very difficult conditions. The love and support given by these teachers to their students is truly amazing. We must support our special needs teachers and students with adequate funding.
7. Do you agree that Mississippi should provide high quality early childhood education statewide? Yes, this is where education begins. Our young people must be ready to learn as they enter Kindergarten.
8. The nation’s top teachers say that the greatest barriers to school success for K-12 students are family stress, poverty, and learning and psychological problems. What steps do you believe legislators should take to alleviate these obstacles for Mississippi children? This will require a change in our culture. Legislation alone will not fix all of these issues. We must encourage stronger family values with greater parental involvement. We must have the right programs statewide to recognize these issues for each student and help correct them.
9. Do you support raising teacher salaries at least to the level of our neighboring states and raising pay for teacher assistants? Yes, it is imperative for the State to aggressively work to reach and perhaps exceed the SE average.
10. Do you agree that retired educators (and other retired state employees) should be able to draw their retirement while serving in the Legislature? I do.
11. Legislators have little or no staff to help them understand the many bills they must consider. Before introducing or supporting a bill that could affect public education, will you commit to seeking input from teachers, principals, superintendents, and parents of public school students in your district? Who will be advising you on education policies? Yes, teacher feedback is critical in forming effective legislation. I will seek counsel from teachers in District 114 first. I recently attended a Teacher Town Hall in Ocean Springs with gubernatorial candidate Bill Waller where significant teacher issues were discussed. I was able to gain valuable insight simply from this one meeting.
12. Legislators receive tremendous pressure from the leaders of their chamber (House or Senate), state and party leaders, and corporate lobbyists, to vote in ways that may contradict the will of their constituents and harm their communities. How will you respond to this pressure? I will work to understand both sides of an issue and will vote with the voice from my constituents in District 114.
