Education

Education is a cornerstone of a well-functioning nation and democracy. I have family and friends that are teachers. They are to be commended for their tireless work to help our children learn, often under difficult conditions and not enough in-classroom support.

However, too many schools are simply failing our children and it goes beyond simple tax formulas and money. Some teachers do not give their best effort and yet remain in their position for years. Some school districts are well above the state average in per pupil spending, but well below average in graduation rates and achievement. We must re-think our kindergarten through high school (K-12) system to be performance and results driven, period. But to get there:
• Parents must get more involved in, and given more choice over, their children’s school and curriculum. Vouchers for non-public schools, expansion of charter schools, etc. must be ‘on the table.’ If parents are more invested in their child’s school, they will be more invested in their child’s educational performance.
• Patronage havens of bureaucracy like the Suburban Cook County Regional Office of Education, where the chief was arrested on theft charges (see SouthtownStar editorial for more information: http://www.southtownstar.com/news/opinion/editorials/1991885,011510edit.article ) must be shut down. If a program or system doesn’t help children achieve in the classroom, it deserves the highest scrutiny for possible elimination.
• Principals and local school boards should be given more latitude to dismiss poorly- or under- performing teachers.

But we can’t put this all on a teacher’s back. If a child comes to school hungry, they cannot focus. If there are no jobs or career opportunities, young people will have little hope for a prosperous future an education can help them attain. If neighborhoods are unsafe and gang-ridden, children will fear just getting to and from school every day.

Improving our state’s education system can be done if we continue to push practices and policies that we know work for kids (as seen in test scores, graduation rates and the percentage of kids that go on to higher education) and eliminate those policies that are failing our children.

Issue Focus: Life Issues

Two deeply personal stories have forever impacted my view on life issues: the infertility my wife and I experienced and my grandmother’s death from Alzheimer’s. And while the issues I chose to focus on are the same as thousands of voters I’ve met the past seven months: jobs/the economy, our tax and spending policy, and government reform; I would be doing a disservice to voters to not discuss my views on these critical issues.

Abortion

I am pro-life and, as I reflected upon the abortion issue as I embarked upon this journey for public office, I have always considered myself pro-life.

Abortion is principally a federal issue but in the areas where a state legislator can make an impact: I support parental notification and/or consent; I oppose late-term and partial birth abortions; and I oppose tax dollars being used to fund abortions.

I also oppose the “harvesting” of human embryos for embryonic stem-cell research, cloning or other such programs. I support ‘safe haven’ efforts and streamlining adoption to make it easier for couples to love and care for children. I would support added counseling services for women considering abortion. And if a mother’s life is at risk, with the wonderful medical technology we have today, all effort should be made to give that baby a chance to live in addition to saving the mother’s life.

But I do have empathy for people that face difficult choices as my wife and I spent more than five years of emotionally, mentally, spiritually and financially draining infertility treatments in an effort to bring life to our family, which has left me with a difficult and somewhat contradictory dilemma as I seek to be a legislator.

After years of heartache, we were blessed with the birth of our daughter in October 2007, and quickly surprised by the emergency birth of our son in February 2009 – 11 weeks premature (he is healthy and doing well).

But the fertility process has left us with cryogenically frozen embryos. We may still try to grow our family, but have not yet decided as there are health risks for my wife and other factors to consider. We will not donate the embryos to science or sell them.

So, I find it difficult to take moral and legal obligations away from a woman or couple as I’ve been confronted with from our infertility treatments. I also can empathize with the rape or incest arguments but as a wise man once told me, there is only one criminal in such a scenario and it is not the baby, who gets the death penalty while the rapist may only serve a few years in jail.

The best I can do is continue to be responsible for the things I need to be, not create a double-standard I don’t also live by, and continue to advocate for those things which I do support, which is promoting life and helping to reduce unwanted pregnancies and abortions.

I hope you will keep my real life experience in mind as you evaluate this issue in consideration of my candidacy.

End of life care

I still miss my grandparents, who have all long since passed on. I haven’t visited them in a few years, but remember taking my fiancé to their graves to ‘meet’ her before we married.

My maternal grandmother suffered for years with Alzheimer’s before dying a shell of the woman she was. After struggling to care for her in our home (I slept in a sleeping bag on the floor for a while so she could have my bed), my parents could no longer care for her as they wanted, work and raise two young kids, so she moved into an area nursing home to live out her remaining days.

The critical point to end of life care is that people create wills and have explicit instructions on how they want to be cared for in their last remaining days. This helps remove governmental or court involvement in what is a private family matter. I do not believe government should be endorsing euthanasia (such as physician assisted suicide) or mandating artificial care if a patient does not want it.

As much as my grandmother’s ‘life’ was effectively over long before her physical and spiritual death, she still deserved care and love until those last remaining days and I would continue to advocate for the care of our fellow citizens until their natural death.

If you missed Carol Marin's article about 19-year incumbent Rep. Burke's primary race, please take a read. One excerpt: ". . .'Which is why Burke is, for the first time, out knocking on doors and shaking hands. "At the last count, 1,787 hands," he said, adding he's never "had to run a campaign. We take this very seriously. And Speaker Madigan [recommended] that he get involved. I trust and defer to the experts.'"

I enjoy knocking on doors and meeting voters. Not sure my primary opponent does as she hasn't been seen and circulated exactly zero petitions herself, instead relying on known Chicago Democrat operatives.

Marin's full article at:

http://www.suntimes.com/news/marin/1969609,southwest-side-political-brawl-010210.article