State Sen: Education Reform

As a way to inform our readers about the candidates, Patch asked the two candidates for state Senate five questions that focused on topics affecting Marblehead.

Massachusetts has some of the most wide reaching legislation when it comes to education reform and specifically, closing the achievement gap. Given Marblehead often tests in the top percentiles of the state, do you think the town could benefit from reform? What is your stance on education reform?

Sen. Thomas McGee (D)

Over a 13-month period, the Common Core standards were created and vetted by education experts, academics and business leaders. The Common Core will raise standards for administrators, teachers and students. The decision to enact this reform will maintain our high academic expectation by implementing an innovative curriculum that will enhance our students and teachers educational experience.

The standards will improve the current MCAS tests by broadening the test's focus, which will benefit the students of Marblehead. One of the most important aspects of the standards is a strong focus on developing skills to better prepare our students for college and the workplace. Overall, this initiative will be a good opportunity for successful school systems, like Marblehead's, to further establish themselves and their students as leaders in the commonwealth.

Christopher Dent (R)

A cornerstone of education reform in Massachusetts is the Chapter 70 law dealing with state funding of local schools. It is widely accepted that the funding formula that determines how much each community receives is broken. Marblehead is being forced to subsidize a broken state funding system that has been unable to close the achievement gap.

Additional education reform that targets the achievement gap through school choice and merit-based teacher pay and eliminates the current broken funding formula would benefit Marblehead by no longer forcing its residents to subsidize failing schools across Massachusetts.

Check back later for question 3 - where the candidates stand on 40B housing.