Previous Offices Held
2025 – Augusta Board of Education Ward 4 (lost); 2022 – State Rep District 60 (lost); 2020 – State Rep District 85 (lost)
Top Three Priorities
My first priority is focusing the discussion on how to provide the education we owe the next generations. My second priority is to ensure that the school department becomes fiscally accountable. Third, but vital to achieving the first two, is resetting the public conversation around our school department to steer us toward respectfully honest debate, where transparency and accountability are embraced instead of feared.
Why are you running?
I’m running because the Augusta School Department needs to put measurable performance ahead of dogma and rhetoric.
What is the biggest challenge facing your area’s schools? The biggest opportunity?
A frighteningly large percentage of our current students don’t think the education we’re providing is worth their time, and nobody dares ask why. When an 8th grader tells the city council that playing sports is her only reason for going to school, shouldn't every self-identified educator be alarmed? The best way to fix that is by making our schools more than publicly funded daycare. They should be a place where students expect to learn things which can make their futures better.
A top issue for many parents is the age of Maine’s school infrastructure. How would you address this issue locally from your position on the school board?
Because I’m not aware of any glaring instances where ASD has neglected infrastructure, I am more concerned about empowering good teachers than the age of the buildings they’re working in.
Do you think the state government is too involved in local schooling? Not involved enough? The right amount of involved? Explain your answer.
To the extent that Maine’s Department of Education neglects emphasizing “students need to learn useful things (and how to think for themselves)” more than it does the bureaucratic and intellectual minutia of not admitting that we’re not doing as well as we were even just a decade or two ago, they are making it harder for parents and citizens to solve problems. Same for legislators and other less-local politicians substituting sound bites and oversimplified political memes for substantive debate.