By Steve Rader
WASHINGTON, NC – Michele Morrow, the Republican candidate for NC Superintendent of Public Instruction, recently addressed the Beaufort County Conservative Club, declaring that her top objectives for the state’s school system were safety and academic performance.
Morrow said she wanted to get “politics out of the classroom” in order to concentrate on academic learning. On safety, Morrow said there needed to be improvements focused both externally against intruders and internally against bullying and violence. She pointed to the staggering number of teachers being threatened and assaulted in the classroom, and said that teachers needed a safe and secure work environment.
“I want to make our schools the safest buildings in the state,” she declared.
Morrow pledged to work with both the legislature and local school boards to improve discipline in the public schools. To promote safety, she advocated having at least two school resource officers in each school. She noted her Democrat opponent, as head of an ultra-liberal foundation, had funded an organization, which sought to remove all resource officers from schools. Morrow also called for a written Code of Conduct for students..
“Our schools have to start focusing on academics,” Morrow observed. She said it was unacceptable that at present only 25 percent of 8th graders are proficient in math, science, and reading. ‘We need to promote excellence in students, not mediocrity, and we need to instill hope and purpose ,”
in students,” she observed.
Morrow called for a quality curriculum that is pro-America and pro-famiy, including teaching of America’s founding documents. “In particular, we need to get back to actually teaching math,” she said, as opposed to the ‘common core’ version. Morrow also called for building a technical and trades curriculum in partnership with business.
