Jay Dean

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Survey Responses

RESPONSES TO THE 2024 ATPE CANDIDATE SURVEY:

1. If elected, what are your top priorities for public education?

strong outcomes, best educated children in the country, workforce development, support teachers

2. Voucher programs take many forms (tax credits, scholarships, education savings accounts, etc.) and are either universal or aimed at specific subpopulations (special education students, low-income students, students attending schools with poor A-F accountability ratings, etc.). Would you vote to create a voucher program of any type to pay for students to attend non-public K-12 schools, such as private or home schools?

Only if someone can show me how we find it in perpetuity, without raising taxes or cutting funding from public schools, and how to ensure accountability of taxpayer dollars at a private institution without infringing on the rights of the private institution.

3. In 2023, the Texas Legislature passed House Bill (HB) 3 requiring a number of new school safety measures. However, many believe the Legislature did not adequately increase funding to cover the cost of the mandates in HB 3 or other locally adopted school safety measures. How would you work to make schools safer and ensure such initiatives are properly funded?

I’ve been meeting with my local school districts to ask what they need.

4. Despite a record-breaking surplus of $38 billion during the 2023 legislative session, school funding formulas were not increased to keep pace with inflation since they were last adjusted in 2019. Do you believe Texas public schools should receive additional funding? If so, how should the state pay for it?

Yes we get what we pay for and if we want the best schools we need to fully fund them.

5. Texas has faced growing teacher shortages in recent years, with many schools hiring uncertified teachers to fill the gaps. How would you work to ensure Texas public schools have an adequate number of trained and certified teachers?

Again talk to the local schools, see what they need, identify the barriers and address them

6. Inadequate compensation hampers the recruitment and retention of high-quality educators. Do you support a state-funded across-the-board pay raise for all Texas educators?

yes

7. The high cost of health insurance available to educators is a significant factor decreasing their take-home pay. How would you address the challenge of rising health care costs facing Texas educators and ensure access to affordable health care?

Teachers need reliable and affordable healthcare. And this is also a broader problem to address in affordability of healthcare across the state. And access to doctors especially in our rural communities. All of the above.

8. What do you feel is the proper role of standardized testing in the Texas public education system? For instance, should student test scores be used as a metric in determining teacher pay, school accountability ratings, evaluating teachers, measuring student progress, etc.?

No. I have filed several bills to reduce STAAR testing, and remove the high stakes.

9. In your opinion, what is the proper balance between accommodating an individual parent’s or student’s wishes and the taxpaying community’s interest in directing and maintaining an optimal educational environment for the student population as a whole?

Again, I think this is why we need to trust and empower our local schools. They can often work things out individually within a community better than a one size solution from Austin.

10. Do you believe the Teacher Retirement System (TRS) should be maintained as a traditional defined-benefit pension plan for all future, current, and retired educators, or do you support converting TRS to a defined-contribution structure that is more like a 401(k) plan, in which future benefits are not guaranteed?

Teachers deserve the reliable benefits they were promised.

11. State law allows educators and other public employees to voluntarily choose to join professional associations such as ATPE and have membership dues deducted from their paychecks at no cost to taxpayers. Do you support or oppose letting all public employees continue to exercise this right?

Not something I’ve looked into so I would want to talk with my local teachers about it to learn more. Not a problem I’m hearing from them.
 

Not applicable for 2022; the candidate was unopposed.

Did not respond to the 2018 ATPE Candidate Survey.