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>> I want to follow up on that education, your comments
about education and wanting to restore those cuts
or at least some of them, you did hear in your district
that negative feedback on the education cuts?
>> Oh sure, yeah.
I, you know, I had the support, there were bills last session
that the various teachers groups were against and I was
against those bills with them, I was one of not
that many republicans that actually voted against some
of the protections for teachers that have been in place,
some of the benefits for retired teachers
that I didn't feel needed to be rolled back.
And I felt pretty comfortable with my voting record
with exception of the budget cuts
and I guess I was thinking I'm going to go back to my district
and my teachers are going to be for me
and they'll give me a pass on those cuts but I had teachers --
just yesterday, I had an email from a teacher who was upset
with me still over budget cuts.
So I think money matters and if we're asking our teachers
to do more with less, then they see that as disingenuine,
no matter how you may have voted on another issue
so I've definitely heard it in my community from parents
that want to make sure that their schools are improving
and they have all the resources they need to teachers
who are tired of being told by the state
that they need to do more with less.
So in my district, I have actively gone
around saying it's my intention
to support more funding for public schools.
I don't think that's a losing issue for republicans,
it certainly shouldn't be.
>> How much do you think that varies across districts?
I saw I guess we can now say Chairman Pitts this morning
at the Tripp Live Event and, you know, his response
to the similar line of questioning was to say
that really all I'm hearing from administrators
in my district is that, you know, it enabled them
to fire some of the deadweight they needed to fire,
you think there's a lot variance along districts
and that's why some republicans are kind
of holding strong on this?
>> I don't know, I think people maybe can take things different
ways, I've not had any
of my superintendents tell me they were able
to fire deadweight, the message I get from my superintendents is
that they're in need of more money to continue operations.
They've certainly been able to get efficient
and that's been the greatest thing is
that efficiencies have grown in some respects
and certainly they can achieve more perhaps
but I think class sizes have gone up and in some cases,
based on the people in my district that I talked to,
they think we need to spend more money in public education
so I'm very comfortable with going back
to my republican primary and saying
that I'm pro-public schools.