Candidate for
Board Member; San Mateo-Foster City School District

My goal is to educate all children to high challenging academic standards and prepare them to be socially responsible contributing members of our community. Academic standards should guide all students towards a financially productive career in a technologically sophisticated world. Social responsibility must guide our students in how to behave with the highest moral and ethical standards found in our society. Achieving such a lofty goal requires the collaborative effort of our community, our parents, our school board, our district administration, and our teachers.

I mention our community first because the dominant factor in our children's academic & social success is economics. Our community pays for our children's education, and they get the education we pay for. We can no longer blame the politicians in Sacramento and Washington, D.C. for our low level of funding. We are a wealthy community - one of the wealthiest in the world - and we can well afford to put more local money into the education of our children.

I mention our parents second because the second most influential factor in our children's academic & social success is good parenting. Children from stable 2-parent families where the parents are involved daily with their children's education out-perform all other children. We parents can no longer expect the schools to raise our children for us - educating them, disciplining them, and attending to all of their physical and emotional needs. We parents can no longer blame the schools for our children's failures. We parents must accept and embrace our responsibility for our children's education - both academic and social - in spite of our personal desires for social status and creature comforts that interfere with the most important job in our lives - raising our children properly and well.

I mention teachers last not because they are the least important: without teachers there is no education. I mention teachers last because when a student fails to learn or fails to be socially responsible, the causes of the failure - and there is rarely a single cause - are most likely related to a lack of funding for necessary programs & resources (e.g., no remedial or intervention programs), inadequate parental involvement (e.g., not ensuring homework is done and behavioral norms are enforced), poor policies & procedures (e.g., selecting inadequate standards, books, and supplies), and poor management (e.g., no teacher training or support).

As a board member, I hold the interests of our children in trust. I understand the consequence of my actions and how important they are to ensuring our children are well educated and socially responsible. For the last four years I have worked toward my stated goal. If re-elected, I will continue toward this goal.