Turn from one top race to another, and you hear education from this candidate and that TV commercial. We're all for education. This board exerts a powerful influence over our public school classrooms, and its actions have a decided bearing on our school property taxes. The first job is vital to the strength of the public school system as it produces the workforce of the future. The second goes a long way in determining how much taxpayers have to come up with to meet our schools' budget.
More successful investments mean lower school property taxes.
Texas needs people on the State Board of Education who are committed to the value of public education and who can make smart investments. In the race for District 14, which includes much of the Big Country but not Taylor County, the candidate who can best fill those roles is Democrat Allan Butcher. Butcher feels the current board has become a divisive battleground for political agendas that conflict with the board's mission of strengthening public education to meet the needs of the children of Texas. For example, Butcher's Republican opponent, incumbent Richard Watson of Gorman, educates his children at home instead of in public schools. There's nothing wrong with home-schooling, but Watson's choice not to participate in the system he is regulating suggests a lack of faith in public education and makes his commitment to its value doubtful.