“Education is the lighting of a fire, not the filling of a bucket.” – William Butler Yeats. I couldn’t agree more. As the parents of a public school student, nothing is more important to Mara and me than making sure all Alaska children receive a good education. I will work to make sure Washington supports the right changes to our schools, rather than getting in the way of progress.

Thank you for doing what you do. As the grandson, son and husband of teachers, I appreciate the effort that you make and the passion you bring to your profession. We share a hope and a faith that education makes a huge difference in a person’s life and has tremendous value to our community. That’s why I like what Henry Adams said: “A teacher affects eternity.”

I figured I’d get Noah started the same way the rest of us grew up in the family, which is with education all around us. I come from a line of teachers. My grandmother taught for a long time. She told me many times that if it hadn’t been for the NEA she’d have never gotten a job. And my sister-in-law teaches here at Bartlett. My mother-in-law teaches. So for me this is a little bit like a family dinner, except there is a lot more people here, and I don’t have to clean dishes afterwards.