Additional Information

Candidate Survey Responses

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RESPONSES TO THE 2024 ATPE CANDIDATE SURVEY:

1. If elected, what are your top priorities for public education?

My top priority is to support public education by increasing the funding for public schools so that every ISD may meet the unique needs of the communities they serve. I will also work tirelessly to defeat vouchers in our state.

2. Voucher programs take many forms (tax credits, scholarships, education savings accounts, etc.) and are either universal or aimed at specific subpopulations (special education students, low-income students, students attending schools with poor A-F accountability ratings, etc.). Would you vote to create a voucher program of any type to pay for students to attend non-public K-12 schools, such as private or home schools?

No, I would not support vouchers in any form. Our taxes pay for public schools and should never be redirected to any special interest group. I am on the board of the Mothers for Democracy Institute which produced "The Voucher Scam Podcast". I highly recommend that every Texan to listen to this excellent show. I am a "No Vouchers Ever" candidate.

3. In 2023, the Texas Legislature passed House Bill (HB) 3 requiring a number of new school safety measures. However, many believe the Legislature did not adequately increase funding to cover the cost of the mandates in HB 3 or other locally adopted school safety measures. How would you work to make schools safer and ensure such initiatives are properly funded?

I learned during my extensive business career that sources of revenue must align with the costs of doing business. Every school-related law in Texas needs to have adequate funding for people, processes, and technology to support the goals expressed in the legislation. School safety is paramount for our communities and it requires innovative, multi-layered, and ever-improving solutions.

4. Despite a record-breaking surplus of $38 billion during the 2023 legislative session, school funding formulas were not increased to keep pace with inflation since they were last adjusted in 2019. Do you believe Texas public schools should receive additional funding? If so, how should the state pay for it?

Yes. While the current surplus is smaller than it was after the recent property tax adjustments, the TXLEG should allocate the remaining surplus to the schools without also creating a voucher program. We should mandate built-in increases for each ISD aligned with inflation expectations. As we consider our tax policy and rates we must also ensure that our schools are adequately funded.

5. Texas has faced growing teacher shortages in recent years, with many schools hiring uncertified teachers to fill the gaps. How would you work to ensure Texas public schools have an adequate number of trained and certified teachers?

The lifeblood of any organization is the quantity and quality of a properly trained workforce. The Texas Republican party has spent most of last year criticizing and demoralizing this workforce. Significantly, those ISDs with particularly divisive Republican leaders have seen some of the largest attrition becuase of their attacks on teachers on administrators. The only way we can return a healthy and balanced population of teachers is to elect Democrats to office.

6. Inadequate compensation hampers the recruitment and retention of high-quality educators. Do you support a state-funded across-the-board pay raise for all Texas educators?

I support a significant state funding increase to all of the ISDs of which the majority of this funding should flow to raises for Texas educators. I believe the ISDs should control individual salaries. Also, I would support a federal policy to provide a significant reduction of income taxes for all our educators recognizing their contributions to our society. I would also encourage the federal elimination of the Government Pension Offset to provide an extra benefit to Texas educators.

7. The high cost of health insurance available to educators is a significant factor decreasing their take-home pay. How would you address the challenge of rising health care costs facing Texas educators and ensure access to affordable health care?

The high cost of healthcare is a nationwide challenge. By increasing the salaries of teachers, we can ensure access to care while avoiding unintended consequences such as a reduction in health care access.

8. What do you feel is the proper role of standardized testing in the Texas public education system? For instance, should student test scores be used as a metric in determining teacher pay, school accountability ratings, evaluating teachers, measuring student progress, etc.?

Standardized testing is an important tool in our education toolbox, but it should not be overused or used as the sole metric to evaluate school or teacher performance. We should have balanced metrics that we used to create the best outcome for our students and avoid negative consequences such as teachers forced to "teach to the test" or economic penalization of teachers and schools whose students cannot afford private tutoring to maximize test performance.

9. In your opinion, what is the proper balance between accommodating an individual parent’s or student’s wishes and the taxpaying community’s interest in directing and maintaining an optimal educational environment for the student population as a whole?

Every student and parent should have a voice in their educational community. But the good of the entire community must be considered in every significant educational decision. I believe the current system of electing school board trustees who work together with each ISD's leadership to find the optimal balance for each community is the correct model. In places where outside forces such as Patriot Mobile insert significant money to back the election of partisan trustees, it temporarily breaks this balance. I have faith that the love of our community will overcome these imbalances in time.

10. Do you believe the Teacher Retirement System (TRS) should be maintained as a traditional defined-benefit pension plan for all future, current, and retired educators, or do you support converting TRS to a defined-contribution structure that is more like a 401(k) plan, in which future benefits are not guaranteed?

From personal experience, I understand the benefits of a 401(k) plan compared to a pension. An individual owns their assets in a 401(k) plan whereas a pension plan is just a future right to payment. Most individuals would prefer to own their home rather than receive a right to live somewhere in the future. In the same way, the ownership value that derives from a 401(k) is preferable because you pass on the remaining balances as part of your estate. While some may point to the certainty of a pension, it is important to remember that if a pension is underfunded, the beneficiary may not receive the benefits they believe they will receive.

11. State law allows educators and other public employees to voluntarily choose to join professional associations such as ATPE and have membership dues deducted from their paychecks at no cost to taxpayers. Do you support or oppose letting all public employees continue to exercise this right?

The ATPE provides valuable services to Texas educators. I support continuing to allow Texas educators and public employees to voluntarily choose to join this association via automatic payroll deduction.
 

Additional Comments from Candidate on Survey

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COMMENTS SUBMITTED IN RESPONSE TO THE 2024 ATPE CANDIDATE SURVEY:

Tipping my hat to the great work of Grapevine-Colleyville, Carroll, Keller, and Hurst Euless, and Bedford ISDs for their fantastic work. Please remember that my incumbent Republican representative, Giovanni Capriglione, voted twice in 2023 for school vouchers and authored HB1280 also known as the Texas abortion ban.