“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.”

Welcome to Alaska, the Last Frontier… where moose are a road hazard, fish are a way of life, and where people know not only the bus schedules, but the train schedules, the ferry schedules and the plane schedules. Transportation matters to us and on behalf of Alaska, thank you for moving our freight and our people. We don’t know where we would be without you, but it certainly would be somewhere else.