Rebuilding Public Administration
Safety is a key issue in any whole, healthy and sound community. We need to continue funding public safety, such as fire, police, and EMS.
• The state is not funding law enforcement; instead, it is cutting back 100 state police officers—this is inexcusable!
• Due to our struggling economy, crime rates and suicide rates have dramatically increased.
• There are not enough police officers in our communities to deal with these issues, calling for a real need to reform our public safety system as it stands today.
• Police should quickly respond to a call, not be delayed for sometimes hours due to backlog.
• The more we delay the response the less trust our residents have of those who are in place to protect us. This creates a serious strain between the community and the police.
Our public education system is horribly failing our children. We need a publicly elect school board. Currently, the only qualification to become a school board member is age. We must develop a set of criteria and qualifications for the elected body that makes critical decisions on funding across Detroit schools. It is pertinent that we be more selective of our school board members as they hold the fate of our children’s future in their hands. Do you trust just anyone with the care of your child? How valuable is your child’s education to you?
• School board members should consist of educators and parents.
• These individuals understand the school system better than anyone else. They know what needs improvement and what works. Parents send their children to our schools daily and they see what is beneficial and what is disruptive to their child’s education. Our educators know what supplies are imperative to aid in their students’ learning process. It makes absolutely no good sense to fill the board with members that have no idea what goes on in the daily lives of our students.
• Virgil K. Smith is against charter schools; education should not be privatized.
• Turning education into a business, giving authorization to people that are not educators and do not have any knowledge on how to educate the youth is a dangerous road on which to travel.
• It is the state’s job to educate our children. It is state law that we are responsible to educate a child from ages 6 to 16.
• The state’s Department of Education does not have the manpower to ensure that all teachers are certified, and all janitorial staff members successfully pass all background checks, including clear criminal records.
• We do not have the oversight to hold these people accountable. They are essentially policing themselves.
We need leaders with integrity and that are open to change. A good government is efficient and transparent, which equals effective. This means there is no hiding anything from the public, and the people that run the government are doing so without wasting time and money. This is what it takes to effectively run a government.
• Leaders are willing to listen to their constituents and know that they were elected to serve their people and not benefit their pocketbooks.
• Staff that works well together and is in constant contact with the legislators and the constituents while acting as the median between the two.
• The state is not funding law enforcement; instead, it is cutting back 100 state police officers—this is inexcusable!
• Due to our struggling economy, crime rates and suicide rates have dramatically increased.
• There are not enough police officers in our communities to deal with these issues, calling for a real need to reform our public safety system as it stands today.
• Police should quickly respond to a call, not be delayed for sometimes hours due to backlog.
• The more we delay the response the less trust our residents have of those who are in place to protect us. This creates a serious strain between the community and the police.
Our public education system is horribly failing our children. We need a publicly elect school board. Currently, the only qualification to become a school board member is age. We must develop a set of criteria and qualifications for the elected body that makes critical decisions on funding across Detroit schools. It is pertinent that we be more selective of our school board members as they hold the fate of our children’s future in their hands. Do you trust just anyone with the care of your child? How valuable is your child’s education to you?
• School board members should consist of educators and parents.
• These individuals understand the school system better than anyone else. They know what needs improvement and what works. Parents send their children to our schools daily and they see what is beneficial and what is disruptive to their child’s education. Our educators know what supplies are imperative to aid in their students’ learning process. It makes absolutely no good sense to fill the board with members that have no idea what goes on in the daily lives of our students.
• Virgil K. Smith is against charter schools; education should not be privatized.
• Turning education into a business, giving authorization to people that are not educators and do not have any knowledge on how to educate the youth is a dangerous road on which to travel.
• It is the state’s job to educate our children. It is state law that we are responsible to educate a child from ages 6 to 16.
• The state’s Department of Education does not have the manpower to ensure that all teachers are certified, and all janitorial staff members successfully pass all background checks, including clear criminal records.
• We do not have the oversight to hold these people accountable. They are essentially policing themselves.
We need leaders with integrity and that are open to change. A good government is efficient and transparent, which equals effective. This means there is no hiding anything from the public, and the people that run the government are doing so without wasting time and money. This is what it takes to effectively run a government.
• Leaders are willing to listen to their constituents and know that they were elected to serve their people and not benefit their pocketbooks.
• Staff that works well together and is in constant contact with the legislators and the constituents while acting as the median between the two.
