How will you work to facilitate higher education to high school graduates, particularly those in financial need?
As a father of eight, I believe strongly in an educational system that will provide higher education to those who seek it and that will give students an academic environment that encourages free speech and thought, which will allow them to succeed both in and beyond higher education.
I support getting back to the basics of education, and better preparing students to do what it is they are seeking a career in. I believe that our current higher educational system needs reform, as it is not providing students with the opportunities they are pursuing. I believe that expanding community college programs, technical institutions, private training schools, online universities, life-long learning and work-based learning in the private sector to create competition for four-year schools is a good way to not only make worthwhile education more accessible now, but to motivate four-year schools to match these alternatives’ costs and levels of job-preparedness. In Congress, I’ll support legislation addresses (sic) these alternatives, and makes them accessible to all.
Another initiative I’d support is to increase access to higher education savings accounts. This will make it easier for any child to attend a higher education program, whether they choose a four-year school or an alternative program. Many higher education problems arise from poor preparation at the lower educational levels, so I support state-led initiatives to improve K-12 schooling.
What will you do to improve employment opportunities for college graduates?
I believe higher education needs to be reformed so that it can better prepare students for their desired fields instead of where many end up right out of college — in jobs, typically low wage, that have nothing to do with the education they and their parents just spent tens of thousands of dollars on. I support the need to help college-age Americans from every class in every community to learn skills, enhance persistence, and find work. I also think we need to promote life-long learning and institutions that can provide it. We need to be thinking broadly about that 18- to 24-year-old cohort, and what it looks like to create a civilization of lifelong learners.
If elected, what new initiatives will you bring to the district?
I support initiatives that increase benefits to students who are taking more difficult courses, form partnerships with colleges and universities to improve science and math programs.
The reality is that the digital era is going to have more diversity around the way kids are taught. It means rethinking the traditional 25-to-1 homogenized student to teacher ratio that dominates classrooms at all levels. Interactive on- line learning modules make it possible to have lessons one-to-one, or three-to-one, or five-to-one, or internship and experiential learning or travel learning.
There are of course concerns, as well. What schools have been teaching is becoming less and less attractive to today’s young people, and the reputation of higher education more broadly — its biases and apparent attitude toward much of society is preemptively turning many would-be students off. And then, there’s the waning value of a college education.
Free expression on campus is vital to students in higher education. Challenges to free speech on campus are widespread, and I oppose them. Students at all kinds of campuses routinely reported feeling hesitant to express their viewpoints and frequently self-censor for fear of how their campus administration could respond. We must end this kind of intimidation on our colleges and universities. Freedom of speech is the beacon of our constitution and every student should never feel afraid to speak up about the values the believe in.
Party: Republican
Occupation: Chief executive officer — Warm Springs, a subsidiary of Post Acute Medical.
Campaign website: https://kylefor20.com/
