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Natalie Tennant on Education |
A: Education is near and dear to my heart. It's who I am and how I was raised. My dad is a retired principal. My mom is a retired teacher. I'm the youngest of 7 children, and including my siblings and their spouses, 11 out of 14 of them are educators. So I hear what is taking place on the front lines. Some of the reforms that I see that are important are [not] these huge, sweeping measures. But they can be truancy; let's address that. Let's address discipline because teachers need to be able to have the control in their classroom, and they need backup. I'm about using technology, but it doesn't do you any good if the teachers don't know how to use it. I also think it's important that we are holding teachers accountable. Another reform is innovation zones. Those are the different aspects that I talk about education, but paramount is believing we can have the best system and then all working together to get there.
A: I know that is a question I get from everybody. Charter schools, in terms of education, are not going to be the panacea. But I always believe that if you're using public moneys, they should go to public schools to serve the public. That's why I push innovation zones more than anything. It is a group coming together to say, "This is how we want to conduct our education.".
Q: What would you do to reverse this alarming dropout rate in West Virginia?
A: A couple of years ago, we had a system where social workers would make the phone call [about truancy]. It is no longer funded. We have to put most of our budget into education. Because we're either going to pay for it now or we're going to pay for it later. Even when we talk about education, too, we have wonderful vo-tech schools here across West Virginia. We have wonderful community and technical colleges and trade schools. Those are aspects where we can keep kids in schools.