Red Meat at the REC

I was invited to be the featured speaker at last night's meeting of the Escambia County Republican Executive Committee.

I began the speech with some of my background:  Where I lived, businesses I've owned, where I went to college, a little about my family, and a little about how I ended up on the school board.

Shortly after that, though, I went right into the red-meat issues that I feel are vitally important to fixing education--solving discipline issues, finding a way to unshackle our district from heavy-handed  big government mandates, and expanding wide-open school choice.

I was humbled by the great reception discussion of these issues elicited from the assembled crowd, particularly as it related to getting discipline under control and removing chronically disruptive, abusive, and often-times violent students.

"Some administrators worry about the learning that these chronically disruptive students will miss if they are removed from their classes, but I'm more concerned about the other 99% of students who are there to learn, I'm looking out for them" I stated to a nice mid-speech round of applause.

We also talked about ever-expanding pre-K programs being touted as "educational" programs, when in fact these are glorified jobs programs and entitlements.

We talked a lot about common core.

It was fun to cut loose in a room full of like-minded, conservative citizens;  I enjoyed the one-on-one conversations with many of the attendees after the event as well--I ended up staying until the venue closed and one conversation continued in the parking lot.

What an excellent night, and I'm very appreciative that the REC brought me out to speak, it was a lot of fun.