Problem: High School Grads are not ready for college or the workforce

Education in our public schools 40 years ago was more successful because the public school system only needed to educate 30% of us. The remaining 70% had factory jobs and farms to toil in to insure the posterity of the majority. The competition was between states or even school districts; this is not true any longer. We are in global competition and we are failing to produce the technical work force we must have if we are to compete. 44 out of 50 states have a grade in math of C or worse; Washington is in the F column. When U.S. companies hire foreign workers it is out of the lack of educated American workers from which to choose!

Goals and Solutions

We must produce high school graduates who need no remedial classes to enter colleges; we must have Americans educated and ready in larger numbers to move expeditiously into the technical work force of today's demands. To fail at this will only force our living standards to diminish to unacceptable levels! Accomplishing this will take a change in the priorities in our state government.

Summer School should be used to help average student move to above average. Retired people can volunteer [or whatever it takes] to correct class assignments to free up more of the teachers time so they can do what they do best. Parents and teachers need the resources to ensure students are responsible.

Education needs more of a priority in our state budget. The raw product [the student] must be given the right training, tools and resources to learn. The public schools know how to accomplish this; we need to make sure they have the resources!

We must change the priority in our state budget!

Why you should vote for Hugh Fleet

I have outlined in general terms the slippage of k-12 public education and what our priorities must be in state government to regain our lost lead in Washington State and the United States. To change the priorities in state government one must apply the essence of persistence with ever opportunity with ever conversation from every possible direction. You should vote for Hugh Fleet because of my history of persistence in my public and family endeavors. The power to shape the future is earned through persistence. No other quality is as essential to success. For decades I have quoted the true words of Thomas Jefferson "if you expect the people to be ignorant and free, you expect what never was and will never be."