Local friends in education, I feel compelled to give my two cents on the upcoming local election. Please don't equate Will Ainsworth's "pro-business" stance with an "anti-education" view.

What's the number one thing that teachers complain about? Too much time spent on red tape and bureaucracy when you just want to actually teach. While we need to use taxpayer money wisely and make sure our tax money comes back to our local schools (aka repeal the Accountability Act which Will has vowed to work to do), we need to focus on long term revenue that keeps the federal and state government from having too much control over our schools.

We cannot expect to get more funding from the government and then be shocked when it equals more paperwork and teaching standards we disagree with. Just as one example, why would we write a grant for robotics equipment in one of our schools when we could work with a current or new industry and offer them the opportunity to equip one? It would be a win-win. Valuable training experience for students who may not attend college, a highly trained workforce for local businesses to choose from, and more tax revenue for our local schools as their business grows. All without asking the government for more money/control.

This election boils down to two very different philosophies of the role of government in our lives. Will Ainsworth believes that we the people are capable and do not need someone in Montgomery or D.C. telling us what and how to teach. That DOES NOT have to mean that our teachers must be low-paid and left to fend for themselves. It means that he will work to bridge the gap between education and businesses. It means that with an improvement in jobs and local industry we can stand on our OWN revenue and not rely on politicians to squeeze your pay raise out of the next vote.

A vote for Will Ainsworth isn't only a vote for jobs, it's a vote for self-sustaining revenue for education. 

By Whitney Mastin