Orange County, CA November 3, 1998 General
Smart Voter

Political Philosophy for Harald G. Martin

Candidate for
Governing Board Member; Anaheim Union High School District


This information is provided by the candidate

When I was elected to the AUHSD Board of Trustees four years ago, I made several promises. Here's a recap:

I vowed to end bilingual education

  • I worked with Gloria Matta Tuchman and Ron Unz to pass Prop 227.
  • I appeared on TV and spoke on radio several times regarding bilingual education.
  • I have written two published articles on the failure of bilingual education.

I vowed to raise standards
  • Graduation requirements have been raised from a 1.5 GPA to a 2.0 GPA to graduate from the AUHSD.
  • Promotion requirements from Jr. High to High School were raised to a 2.0 from 1.5.
  • We will have a quarterly testing program to verify that students are learning and to point out any weak areas so that we can make corrections quickly.
  • Have worked to end social promotion in the district - merit counts, not age.
  • Teachers are being trained to develop consistent grading standards across the district.

Zero tolerance for gangs/drugs/violence
  • We have upgraded school policies to deal more strictly with dress, demeanor and behavior on our school grounds.
  • I have been instrumental in getting community policing concepts on our school grounds and we now have 3 full time Anaheim police officers and two full time district staff personnel working on these issues. We also have a strong working relationship with Cypress and La Palma police departments.
  • We are working to prevent problems before they happen.

Accountability
  • There have been significant positive changes at all levels of administration within the district.

I will continue to work on the items listed above and I have added a few additional things that I would like to accomplish in the next 4 years, if elected.

  • I want to raise graduation requirements to a 2.0 grade point average in core curriculum (ie., Math, English, History, Science, etc.) I don't think that getting an "A" in PE and an "F" in Math should average out to a "C".

  • I plan to use a standardized testing process across the district on a quarterly basis to make sure that what we are teaching students is showing up in their knowledge base. I want to catch those that are slipping as soon as possible so that we can get them the additional help they need to succeed.

  • I want to put America FIRST in the minds of all students. I do not believe that "multicultrualism" means that we must downgrade our American way of life. This is the greatest country in the world - that is why others have come to live here. I plan to emphasize that over and over and over again so that everyone can take pride in what it is to be an American.

Next Page: Position Paper 1

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Created from information supplied by the candidate: October 10, 1998 08:44
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