Joe Cunningham: “I speak as a teacher and a coach for many years. I have my entire family either as coaches, teachers, or principals in…”

“I speak as a teacher and a coach for many years. I have my entire family either as coaches, teachers, or principals in public school. Last weekend we attended the public school teacher awards for outstanding teachers, and I want to tell my colleagues, parents lauded those teachers, students lauded those teachers, and I agree that public education is the key to the future of America. I agree. I would say another step is parental involvement. And community involvement is another very important key. I do not want to take away from that. My passions are national security and education. But how do we get the maximum amount of dollars to do that? That is what the issue is. One of the things we said was charter schools. The unions opposed that when it first came out, but it has proven well. We are trying to give the key to the local, to the parent, to the teachers and I would say even the families, because a grandparent, a person that earns $25,000 a year or less, if they want to save for their children's education and we do not tax that, that is good, I would say to my friend.”