MARK BOLER

For US House of Representatives, Texas 26th District

Education

I support ending the United States Department of Education.

It is a giant bureaucracy that wastes our money. The federal government spends billions of dollars that would be better left in the hands of the states or the people. The states and local governments know best what is right for their students, not some clerk in Washington. The No Child Left Behind law is a complete and total failure. It has failed to do anything it was established to do except make federal regulators more money. It should have been called No Child Has a Chance.

Furthermore, the Constitution does not authorize the Department of Education. It is yet another function that has been taken from the people and the states and placed in central control.

Government education worked far better in those years past when key decisions were made by parents (consumers), school boards, and the voters. With the federal government making the rules, all we have are schools that are teaching to the tests. Students are not challenged to actually learn and discover, but rather are forced to keep the national timetable. They can rebel by being disruptive or by simply dropping out. Local control, and experimentation on what works best (charter schools, vouchers, etc), will be the answer, and those won't happen if one massive, central authority is calling all the shots.

I support H.R. 1056, the Family Education Freedom Act, which would allow parents a tax credit of up to $5,000 per student per year for the cost of attendance at an elementary and/or secondary school. This includes private, parochial, religious, and home schools.

I also support H.R. 1059, which allows full-time elementary and secondary teachers a $3,000 yearly tax credit. And I would support H.R. 193, the Make College Affordable Act, which gives a full tax deduction for undergraduate college tuition, reasonable living expenses, and interest on student loans.

I also support making all public governmental positions into right-to-work positions. This means that a person in that position can chose to join a union if they desire, but it will not be a requirement of the position that they do so. If we make joining a union optional for being a teacher, and allow the pay to be commensurate with performance, we can vastly improve the quality of our education system.

Please vote Mark Boler for United States Congress, 26th District of Texas on Tuesday November 8, 2016.