GOP candidates for education superintendent

Republican candidates for state Superintendent of Education:

Sally Atwater

Job: Special needs teacher

Prior experience: Executive Director of Pres. George W. Bush’s Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities and worked in the Department of Education under Pres. Ronald Reagan

-Emphasis on math, science and teaching of networking skills.

-School and bus safety should come first.

-Contract out state-owned school buses.

Gary Burgess

Job: Anderson County Board of Education member

Prior experience: Education Transition Assessment Team member under Superintendent Mark Zais, principal and teacher

-Favors a curriculum of the arts, civic responsibility, technical education and cursive writing.

-Close the achievements gap and give parents control over school choice.

-Call a teacher’s assessment to determine problems within the education system.

Meka Childs

Job: Former deputy superintendent under current Superintendent Mark Zais

Prior experience: Education adviser to Gov. Mark Sanford and teacher

-Supports individualized education.

-Stop federal meddling into South Carolina’s education.

-Recruit and retain quality teachers.

Amy Cofield

Attorney

Prior experience: Teacher and anti-Common Core activist.

-Supports parental school choice.

-Protect conservative values in schools.

-Free schools’ curriculum from federal supervision.

Sheri Few

Head of nonprofit South Carolina Parents Involved in Education

Anti-Common Core activist, and advocate of abstinence-only sex education

-Return to classical education instead of a career-based learning.

-Support parents sending children to private schools through vouchers and tax credits.

-Review South Carolina’s textbooks for liberal bias.

Don Jordan:

Math professor at University of South Carolina

-Supports a teacher evaluation system approved by teachers and districts.

-Wants a teacher pay raise.

-Supports vouchers and charter schools.

Elizabeth Moffly

Charleston County School Board and PTA member

Prior experience: Three-time superintendent candidate and Republican activist

-Create both college prep and vocational routes to a high school diploma.

-Align high school diploma’s 24-credit graduation requirement to Commission of Higher Education’s 19-credit recommendation for college admission standards.

-Adoption of a 10-point grading scale.

Molly Spearman

Executive Director of South Carolina Association of School Administrators

Prior experience: State Representative and Deputy Superintendent of Education

-Update the education system to meet the demands of an information- and technology-based economy.

-Support the governor’s plan to create county career centers.

-Rigorously recruit and train quality teachers.