Education is the foundation of our future. If that foundation crumbles we will not be able to build a promising future for our children. I am passionate about education and it will be my priority to go to the State Senate and fight for the funding our schools, our children, and our teachers need to succeed.

I am opposed to the legislature using any portion of local school district contingency funds for any reason! We need to be increasing funding, not taking it away. I believe that my candidacy offers the only hope for changing the gridlock in the Kentucky State Senate that is holding us back. If elected to the Senate, my opponent will be just another “no” vote directed by the leader of the Senate. This was demonstrated by his “no” vote on $4 million in construction funding for Calvary Elementary, Lebanon Elementary, and Marion County High School. Adding insult to injury, in the face of record joblessness, he voted “no” on $6.2 million for a vocational school for Marion and Washington counties.

Here is how I see it: If we are to prepare our students for the work force and higher education, our schools need funding. To do this we will need to cut legislator perks, cut spending, hold down taxes and create jobs.

My support of fully funding education is not an empty campaign promise. How will we pay for it? There is only one way. We can do this by allowing Kentucky’s existing race tracks to add VLT’s to their current offerings. Days after the legislation is signed by the Governor, it will generate $500 million new dollars to state government in licensing fees from the five horse tracks. This will be followed by continuing revenues from taxes on their earnings. These are dollars that Illinois, Indiana and West Virginia are currently getting from Kentuckians who go to their riverboats and race track casinos to gamble. We need to keep those dollars in Kentucky.

I am committed to educating our children so they can reach their potential and I will take the hard stands necessary. This election is not so much about me, but about you and the future we create for our children.