Larry Smith has devoted his life to public education. He has served as an award winning classroom teacher and a public school administrator in three counties of Maryland’s 6th US Congressional District. He is not a politician who pretends to know the challenges of families and schoolhouses in providing the best education possible.
Larry Smith’s father, John Francis, was forced by economic circumstance to work in the coal mines along the most western portions of Allegany County, MD in 1929. He began his school experience in the third grade learning cursive, but never learning to print, having been forced to omit the first and second grade. He was able to complete just four years of school, grades 3-7 and, to continue to help support his family, he worked along side his grandfather and father in various mines in the region being forced to work in unsafe conditions that resulted in the death of his younger brother, Jerdy Aleuitias Smith. Larry’s father stressed the value of education.
Larry Smith knows first hand the struggles of parents, children, schools and communities in the fight to guarantee that every child receives the very best education, regardless of where they live.
No Child Left Behind-What Larry Smith, a parent, teacher, and school administrator will do to repair it when we send him to Washington.
Despite calls by some to eliminate No Child Left Behind, these calls are not realistic. There is no likelihood that any US Congress, nor any administration, whether Democrat or Republican will fully abandon NCLB.
Elimination of No Child Left Behind ignores the real issues, challenges, and obstacles that are undermining teaching, learning, and achievement.
Larry Smith recognizes that No Child Left Behind shortchanged teachers and students by giving them a submarine with a screen door on it. It is time to send an educator to Washington who will represent the public interest of education not the private interest of politics, deep fried Washington style. If Mr. Smith goes to Washington he will fight to secure essential revisions of No Child Left Behind.
No Child Left Behind must be revised to include essential standards of federal investment that no longer abandons state and local governments and undermines their ability to deliver schools that work for and with children. The federal government invests a mere 8% of K-12 expenditures in public education. So much for the federal priority to leave no child behind. Larry Smith believes that state and local communities have been given a screendoor on a submarine. While Washington has been hard at work for special interests, state and local communities have been forced to raise income and property taxes to meet the requirements of educational mandates it will not fund in order to extend huge tax cuts to the wealthiest families in America.
Larry Smith will fight to propose the National Strategic Defense Education Investment Triad be integrated into No Child Left Behind. Larry Smith’s proposal will require proportionate investments in K-12 education coupled with essential revisions necessary to fulfill the promise and spirit of the provision.
Larry Smith's proposal of the National Strategic Elementary Secondary Education Investment Triad will require essential equilibrium of investment of federal, state, and local governments.
33 1/3 Federal Government Investment
33 1/3 State Government Investment
33 1/3 Local Government Investment
Education as a critical strategic component of our strategic national security
A national, state and local overhaul of the currently deficient and inefficient structural inadequacies that undermine our public schools is essential if the United States is to fulfill the promise of leaving no child behind. This critical structural change is equally a national security priority if the United States is to respond to greater and more sustained knowledge capital of our citizens, essential resources of our democracy and our middle class families in our economy.
Support for counties and states for learning environments that support learning
Larry Smith’s proposal of the National Strategic Elementary Secondary Education Investment Triad would allow for expanded state and local investment in our school buildings by providing the capacity for state and local governments to accelerate the maintenance schedules of the buildings which house our children 35+ hours a week for 9 months of the year for 13 years of their lives. Many of these buildings in our nation do not meet code, still have asbestos, have faulty heat and cooling systems, outdated plumbing and wiring, are energy and fuel inefficient in many cases. These shameful conditions are endless. More, the net effect of supporting our children in schools that are in many cases falling part has an incalculable impact on learning and achievement and the opportunity cost of not having a strategic funding mechanism tied to comprehensive collective public investment in school quality will continue to have serious financial consequences for every state and local community in the nation when these infrastructural investments are deferred and indexed with inflation.
Revise NCLB components that disaggregate groups but ignore inherent learning differences, needs, and styles of each child.
Larry Smith’s proposal will provide for standards of accountability for students with disabilities that are targeted toward the student’s maximum attainable potential, through measurably demonstrated results, and the Individualized Education Program developed by parents and teachers who know their children and their strengths, weaknesses, and limitations and how to best help them succeed.
Revise NCLB disaggregated components to recognize the failure of the federal government to enforce illegal immigration laws
Larry Smith’s proposal will remedy existing disaggregated assessment components that ignore the infrastructural school and community challenges of immigration, specifically students of limited English proficiency to support student learning, do not undermine dignity and do not punish local school systems because of the failure of the federal government to enforce immigration laws.
Mandatory State Teacher Planning Resource Standards for Quality Instruction for all Children
Larry Smith will fight to revise NCLB to require states to create mandatory sufficient teacher planning resource standards for teachers, particularly at the Elementary level. NCLB has created, “time poverty” that has eroded at the capacity of teachers to have the essential time resources necessary to create highly effective lessons, collaborate with peer professionals in quality pedagogical design, and effectively analyze individual student achievement data to improve instruction. Our children deserve classrooms with teachers who have the essential time resources necessary to make quality learning and instruction possible. Larry Smith knows first hand that many teachers volunteer through their lunchtime and afterschool to support students.
Revise NCLB to provide for education of the "whole child"
Larry Smith recognizes that many critical components which accord for the education of the “whole child” have been shoved aside. If Mr. Smith goes to Washington he would propose to revise NCLB to require states not to abandon inclusion of learning in physical education, technology education, and the creative and performing arts.
Require local boards of education to work with parents and teachers to develop capacity to create flexibility in scheduling
If Mr. Smith goes to Washington he will fight for his National Strategic Defense Education Investment Triad revisions in No Child Left Behind to allow for flexible scheduling of school days and hours at the local level with input of parents and teachers to the governance structure of local boards of education.
Congressionally led Executive oversight to ensure ethical practices for our students and taxpayers
Larry Smith will be a fierce proponent for US Congressional oversight of corporate developed research based practices that may gouge our schools, fail to disclose truths of research design and implementation, and market products and services that claim to provide interventions for specific learner needs but knowingly fail to do so.
Enhance efforts to improve teacher quality by providing for incentives to attract and retain the brightest and best teachers.
If we send Larry Smith, a teacher and administrator to Washington he will fight to develop a seamless Pre- K-16 initiative to encourage talented, energetic, committed individuals from all backgrounds of American life to enter and succeed in the profession of teaching, including Pre-K, Mathematics, and Science.
Revise NCLB to require states to establish universal Pre-K for all children
Larry Smith will fight to ensure that Pre-K is an opportunity accorded to every child of every family. This is essential to the universal longitudinal academic success of our children.
Expansion of Tax Credit for investment by those who serve our children
Larry Smith knows first hand that filled with compassion for children, many teachers and administrators spend hundreds, and in some cases thousands of dollars of their families income purchasing clothes, food, books, and other essential items for the children that come into their schools. If Mr. Smith goes to Washington he will propose increasing the maximum $300 teacher material/supply tax credit to $600.
Responsible, student-nutrition centered school lunch programs that respond to the needs of the children of working families
Larry Smith’s proposal will provide a component for “Real Nutrition and Choice Access” for students. Larry Smith has worked with children as a teacher and administrator during their lunchtime. If Mr. Smith goes to Washington he will be an educator that fights to create real access to student centered food choices including daily access to salads with fresh fruits and vegetables. He would examine the potential of extension of current USDA subsidies to provide for local capacity to purchase from local vendors.
Higher Education
"We must no longer allow Washington and the banking industry to force our kids to mortgage their future in order to have one."
Larry Smith, to reporter Maria Smith, on identifying a, "student loan crisis" that is eroding the great American dream of a higher education.
“It is unacceptable for Washington to continue to expect our students to mortgage their futures in order to have one. Our middle class families are being forced to mortgage their homes and watch as their children mortgage their future with student loan debt that amputates the spirit of a future filled with hope that is the dream that is uniquely American. Our students are graduating with a tremendous mortgage on their future by way of the debt levels that have a profound negative impact that is sustained on the quality of their lives for decades. Many of our graduates are hindered from buying a home, starting a family, investing in their communities because Washington has favored banks over people instead of allowing them to invest in themselves without mortgaging their future.”
Larry Smith, speaking to reporter Andy Shotz, in explaining the tragic human consequences of the, "student loan crisis."
Larry Smith has worked with thousands of students as a teacher and administrator. He has advocated on their behalf to secure resources necessary to attain a higher education. Today many of our young people cannot afford to attend college and even many well to do families struggle to be able to send their children to college.
Larry Smith believes that investment in education pays unlimited dividends for our people as individuals, parents, and members of their community. One father recently told Larry that he would be forced to take out a third mortgage on his property in order to pay for the first year of his daughter’s college education. This is the tragedy for many American families.
Larry Smith will fight to sponsor the most innovative plan that will end the mortgaging of our children’s future by Washington elitists and bankers - The Higher Education Investment Act.
Larry’s Smith’s Higher Education Investment Act will provide for accountability in student borrower payback, incentive mechanisms for students to enter a higher educational program and graduate, and a sustained mechanism that renews our national commitment to higher educational opportunity for every American and end the days of mortgaging the future of our people in order to obtain and education. Larry Smith’s aggressive proposal will provide that any student that attends and graduates from an accredited vocational/technical, 2 year, 4 year, graduate and professional program that borrows money for their education through US Department of Education Direct Federal lending will receive a tax credit in the full amount they pay back at the end of each year from their federal income taxes.
Larry Smith’s Higher Education Investment Act allows for ending the requirement that our students mortgage their future in order to have one.
At the end of each year a student who begins repayment will receive the exact amount they pay toward their loan debt back from their income taxes. This plan will allow for direct payment of all borrowed monies to the US Department of Education and a proportionate return of earned income deducted from federal withholding for the same tax year. Larry Smith will be a fighter for middle class families that have been stripped from the dignity of graduating with their future mortgaged.