Why am I running for the Texas State Board of Education?

Marty Rowley Marty Rowley
Many of you have asked me why I am running for this position.......

I think a big part of the answer is found in the quote of one observer who said, “Children make up one third of our population and ALL of our future.” There is no doubt that our future lies in the hands of the youth of today and the following are just a few of the reasons why I decided to run for the State Board of Education. 

• I have always believed in investing in the future of our kids and that is why I love working with the Maverick Boys and Girls Club. I am the incoming Board President and have coached basketball and baseball teams there over the last few years. I have also enjoyed serving as a President of the CareNet Pregnancy Centers; a place where the rights of unborn children are given such great value. 

• My own three children graduated from Texas public schools, I have seen firsthand how important college readiness is to graduating seniors and how crucial it is for our kids to be equipped to pursue higher degrees after secondary school. One study reveals that the average annual income for young people with a high school diploma is $27,000, while that same young person would make over $52,000 per year with a bachelors degree. 

•  Our children and grandchildren deserve a school system that will not only teach them how to read, write and count correctly, but will also teach them how to develop a value system that leads them to do the right thing and to make smart choices! Decision making is a crucial part of life, even at a young age. It is important to have a school system that will teach children the value of making value based decisions to further them in life. 

•  We need a well-reasoned conservative voice on the State Board of Education; someone who can bring people together towards a beneficial resolution. Over the last few years there has been way too much time, money, and effort wasted on lawsuits and internal disputes that have hindered the efforts to move forward towards resolving the problems that plague our schools. As an attorney and professional mediator, I am experienced in bringing complicated disputes to reasonable and acceptable outcomes, and I am ready to put that experience to work on the SBOE. 

•  Texas businesses rely on the Texas public school system to provide a first rate, qualified work force. If we are not able to provide effective and efficient public schools with less bureaucracy and more of a local voice, our businesses and our communities will suffer the consequences. A recent study I read said that if those kids who dropped out of Texas high schools would have graduated with the Class of 2007, they would have contributed an additional $32 billion to our state’s economy over the course of their lifetimes. That is the cost to Texas businesses if we don’t take proper care of our educational system, and that cost always inversely trickles down to the very youth that we need to help move forward. 

Over the next several weeks, I will release my full platform and vision for the State Board of Education. In the meantime, I hope this post will give you some additional insight into why this race is so important and why this is a job for someone who has the experience, skills, and conviction to bring needed change to our Texas school system.