Senate District 22: 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.
Terrence V. Edison Jr.
1. What is your experience with K-12 public schools, personally and/or with your children or family? I don’t have children on my own, but I say I’ve interacted with my nieces and nephews. I’m a loving uncle.
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 I believe the MAEP should be fully funded every year. I would make sure that MAEP is fully funded each year permanently. I will also work with other senators and representatives to keep it funded as long as I’m in office.
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? I would make sure that revenue is sufficient enough in MS and work with neighboring states.
4. Will you oppose vouchers that send taxpayer dollars to private schools, religious schools, home schools, or virtual schools? Why or why not? I wouldn’t oppose vouchers sent to other schoolings because everyone needs an education. However they can get it and some that are more fortunate than others would have to pay some tax dollars as well.
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? Public schools need more help than those that are fortunate. Those who are fortunate to pay should definitely pay their tax dollars as well. I believe public schools need more funding that those who are unfortunate.
6. Public schools serve the vast majority of Mississippi students with disabilities. Do you agree that public school special education services should be fully funded every year? (Special education has been underfunded by the state annually since 2008.) If yes, how will you accomplish full funding? If no, explain why. Yes. Public schools should be fully funded every year. I will introduce legislation to the full senate to see if they agree with my bill.
7. Do you agree that Mississippi should provide high-quality early childhood education statewide? I do agree that MS should provide high-quality early childhood education statewide because there is a large percentage of our children without an education. Some children are advanced nowadays. But not taught through the school system.
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? I believe legislators need an on-call therapist in schools. Also have resources to refer to for free to get help when needed.
9. Do you support raising teacher salaries at least to the level of our neighboring states and raising pay for teacher assistants? Of course I support raising their pay. Teachers do most of the work and have to deal with these children one on one and some as a group. Sometimes they become the child therapist in their own ways.
10. Do you agree that retired educators (and other retired state employees) should be able to draw their state retirement while serving in the Legislature? Yes, because they worked all those years for it and I believe they deserve every penny of their state retirement.
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? I will seek input from all of my teachers, principals, and school superintendents, both working and retired, simply because they are my constituents and I tend to listen to all of my people because I want what’s best for MS.
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 vote accordingly to the bill that is before me and other members of both cabinets and work according to both chambers.
Joseph C. Thomas Sr. WINNER
1. What is your experience with K-12 public schools, personally and/or with your children or family? I am a parent and grandparent of students that attended public schools. I have served on my local school board and the state school boards association.
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. I will vote to fully fund MAEP and closely monitor our State Department to see that those funds are used to help our students. I have served on the Senate Education Committee, my goal was to “stand up for children.”
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? We need more experienced leaders with job creation expertise. We need to prioritize state revenue to make sure that our citizens are taken care of.
4. Will you oppose vouchers that send taxpayer dollars to private schools, religious schools, home schools, or virtual schools? Why or why not? Yes, I will oppose any efforts to send taxpayer dollars from our schools.
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 we should fully fund our special education services each year. We must prioritize funds and use state, federal and private/grant funds to make this happen.
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? We must draft legislation and approve budgets that will help to reduce barriers for school success.
9. Do you support raising teacher salaries at least to the level of our neighboring states and raising pay for teacher assistants? Yes
10. Do you agree that retired educators (and other retired state employees) should be able to draw their retirement while serving in the Legislature? Yes
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? I will commit to use teachers, principals, superintendents and parents for input.
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 always vote for what is best for my constituents and nothing else.
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Colton Thornton (defeated in primary)
1. What is your experience with K-12 public schools, personally and/or with your children or family? I graduated from Union High School in 2011. My experience with public school is from a student’s perspective.
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. I will speak out against the diverting of funds away from the full funding of MAEP. We have neglected MAEP for far too long.
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? I believe we should scale back some of the massive tax cuts we have given to out of state corporations. We want to attract businesses to Mississippi, but we can’t do it at the expense of education. We have lost tens of millions of dollars in state revenue by doing so. We should stop giving out corporate handouts to companies who don’t even keep their money in Mississippi.
4. Will you oppose vouchers that send taxpayer dollars to private schools, religious schools, home schools, or virtual schools? Why or why not? I will always oppose vouchers. Diverting taxpayer dollars away from public schools is a slap in the face to the families that rely on public education for their children. Our efforts should go to fully funding public education.
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. If you are going to receive taxpayer dollars, then you should be held accountable for the outcomes that you produce.
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. We can’t turn our backs on our most vulnerable students. MAEP provides special education services, but it hasn’t been fully funded. We need to fully fund MAEP.
7. Do you agree that Mississippi should provide high quality early childhood education statewide? Yes. Studies show that a quality pre-k education better positions children to be more successful in their educational lives. We do ourselves a great disservice as a state by not investing in the future generations of our state by providing a universal early childhood education program.
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? We should make sure that school districts have the resources to help children deal with these kind of problems while at school. School oftentimes can offer an escape from a bad home life. We can make sure that there are things in place to help alleviate these issues such as school counselors/psychologists and more investments in free/reduced lunch programs.
9. Do you support raising teacher salaries at least to the level of our neighboring states and raising pay for teacher assistants? Yes. We need to increase salaries to the Southeastern average. Our teachers have proven that they deserve this. It is far past the time to pay them what they deserve.
10. Do you agree that retired educators (and other retired state employees) should be able to draw their retirement while serving in the Legislature? Yes. They earned that retirement, so they should be able to collect if after a long career of service.
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? As part of my campaign, I have already spoken with and met multiple teachers, superintendents and administrators both inside and outside of my district. I believe that they are the experts in public education, not the politicians. My campaign is all about opening the door and making sure there is a seat at the table for the people who will be affected by the issues being discussed at the capitol. I vow to seek out the opinions of these people before taking a vote on any bill dealing with education.
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 refuse to accept corporate and lobbyist money. My campaign is dedicated to the voters of my district. They will be the ones that put me in office if they decide to, so my loyalty will be to them only.
