Education is the key to Idaho’s future.  Continued Investment in our educational system is critical to ensure the present and future success of our citizens and our state.  We need to make sure our students are prepared to participate and succeed in today’s and tomorrow’s ever-changing economy. The key is to hire, train, and maintain the best teachers possible.  We must devote more resources to the classroom, and our teachers, to help them prepare our children for the future.

To this end I support our public educational system, local control of our public schools, continued support for magnet schools, charter schools, career technical education, and advocate for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math).

As we move forward, experience and actions matter.  The following are just a few of the ways I have supported education here in Coeur d’Alene:

I served on the EXCEL Foundation Board, where we supported teachers by granting privately raised resources for innovative classroom curriculum that would otherwise go unfunded.

I participated with a group of local businesspeople and educators to help set a successful supplemental levy campaign after a School District 271 supplemental levy failed in 2007.

For countless years I participated in rewarding an area senior, for dedication to their studies, a new car while we owned Tom Addis Dodge and Lake City Ford Lincoln.

I have supported Lake City and Coeur d’Alene High Schools by donating an electric GEM vehicle that supports programs in a responsible way.

I introduces Ford’s ‘Drive One for Your School’ program to the Coeur d’Alene area twice a year, for many years, where 100% of the money raised went to our local high schools.

As a board member of the Boys and Girls Club and a participant in the local Backpack for Kids program, I work to ensure our kids have the stability and support to grow and learn.

It is not in my nature to speak in the first person as almost everything in life is a collaboration-we all need to work together.  I just want you to know how important education is to me, and how I have spent time, effort, and resources to help improve education here in Coeur d’Alene.  Please be sure that as your representative in Boise, I will continue working hard to support and improve education.

We in Idaho should manage the federal lands within Idaho’s borders.

The responsible harvesting and managing of timber, mineral, agricultural, and other resources will greatly improve our already strong economy. This responsible management will create more new jobs, increase wages, give more of our citizens access to healthcare, and give us the resources to address critical issues ranging from rebuilding our roads and bridges, to reducing our tax rates.

All Idahoans should have access to affordable healthcare with options to meet the needs of individuals & families.

We need to get more of our citizens covered while at the same time reducing healthcare costs. We accomplish this through improving the economy with more jobs & income growth, competition & transparency in the marketplace, being able to purchase a health insurance policy based on the individual patient’s needs, & addressing key cost drivers.

These cost drivers include prescription drug cost, reducing bureaucracy so that more of each healthcare dollar is spent on the patient, & investing in education/preventative care so that our highest cost emergency rooms are used for emergencies, & not as doctor’s offices.