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September 8, 2006

Charleton on a ‘listening tour’

Candidate for State Board of Education on campaign swing

By Janet Jacobs

Running for State Board of Education for District 9, Maggie Charleton has been driving all over East Texas, talking to educators, teachers and students. And while she’s been telling them what she stands for, she’s also been learning what they want.

Less emphasis on TAKS, less top-down control of education from the state, less finger-pointing, more flexibility, more accountability, more taking of responsibility.

“I come out of special education,” Charleton, a retired school teacher, said Thursday when she dropped into the Corsicana Daily Sun on a whirlwind tour of newspaper offices across the 29-county district. “I have to test, but I didn’t use just one test, and I didn’t do it on one day. I had to show growth.”

Multiple tests on multiple days might show more progress and where educators need to be working better than one intense test day, she suggested.

“We’ve got to find a way to take some pressure out of it,” Charleton said.

Charleton, a Democrat, is challenging incumbent Don McLeroy of Bryan. The seat is a swing position in a struggle for control of the board, she insists. Ideology is taking the upper hand on the board, overruling the needs of kids and parents.

She points to the editing of text books to remove references to slavery in history, to remove information about breast self-exams and testicle self-exams from health books, and evolution from biology texts.

Charleton also opposes the use of vouchers or “scholarships” for private schools.

“Public money has to stay under public control,” she said. “And you can’t take part of them (children) out of a bad school, because then you’ve left some of them behind in a failing school.”

Better to fix the problems than let a lucky few abandon ship, she said.

Charleton also doesn’t support corporal punishment, but believes teachers and students need safe schools.

“Schools have to be safe for children and from children. We need alternative education,” she said.

While she wants high standards for education, she does not support a rigid four years of math and science for every high school student. She would prefer it if some vocational technology or applied math courses could be offered as alternatives, she said.

Another problem is going to be finding the qualified teachers willing to go to smaller, rural school districts.

“If you’re a qualified physics teacher are you going to go teach in Avery?” she asked.

Although she represents the Democrats, Charleton said this race isn’t being run on partisan lines.

“When you start talking about children, you lose a lot of that,” she said. “I’m retired. I’d like to do more for children on my way out the door.”

Charleton has one son, who is a musician. She has been married to her husband, Gene, for 38 years.

For more information about her stances on specific issues, go to www.maggieforsboe.org.

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Janet Jacobs may be contacted via e-mail at jacobs@corsicanadailysun.com

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