WEMU offered the opportunity for any candidate appearing on a ballot in Washtenaw County in the 2018 general election to submit a campaign message directly to our audience. Sherry A. Wells is running for the State Board of Education for the Green Party. What follows are the audio and remarks the candidate wanted to share with you.
I am Sherry A. Wells, candidate for the State Board of Education for the Green Party. The Third Time’s the Charm—I’ve done my homework these last 4 years. I’ve attended and commented during the State Board meetings. I’ve attended local school board meetings from Detroit to Pontiac, Berkley to Benton Harbor and a small town/rural one to round it out. I’ve attended many, many activist programs about education, special education, early childhood education and related issues such as transit and homelessness. I’ve listened to teachers, students and parents.
The Green Party’s Four Pillars of Social Justice, Grassroots Democracy, Nonviolence and, yes, the Environment, all apply to our schools. We are the party of the 95% who make up the village for our children.
“Poverty is the biggest obstacle to education.” How can teachers be evaluated when the students come to school hungry, without clean water, without a roof over their heads, with parents who are working two jobs just for survival without adequate transportation or affordable child care? We need wrap-around community services investing in our children and true public schools, not corporations using them for private profits.
The State Board of Education is charged by the Michigan Constitution to advise the legislature of the financing needed for education—and those funds can be found. Redirect the per prisoner cost of $47,000 with prevention, treatment and alternatives to incarceration. Adjust taxes to be no less a percentage of income of the highest as it is of the lowest. See www.482Forward.org for those figures and how it can be done.
Schools of choice? Families’ first choice is neighborhood schools for their children and for those schools to give each child the quality education that that child needs. 482Forward also has the best illustration comparing equality and equity. All students are special; each has his or her own learning differences.
I’ve been in public schools throughout. I earned a degree in Education from Michigan State University. There was a teacher surplus at the time that could have been reduced to classroom sizes, so I went to law school at Wayne State. My son and daughter are each an “only” child, so 25 years of K-12 makes me familiar with parental involvement and the strengths and weaknesses of our schools.
I’ve listened to parents and teachers and the community. We need me, Sherry A. Wells, on the State Board of Education to be the voice for you.