As a former high school teacher I know that investing in education is one of the most important things we can do not only for our children but for the benefit of our whole community.

But the best thing Washington can do for education is realize that our role is limited. Washington must keep its promises but let those who know our childrens' names- parents teachers and school board members- make education decisions.

Education is the silver bullet to improve this Nation's standing worldwide... and our teachers know that.

Education should be one of our top funding priorities talking about it does not help the teachers and students who desperately need promises fulfilled.

I think we spend too much on K-12 education a.k.a. teachers' salaries. It's the only industry where you never see any productivity increases.

The big shift in approach on education that we are taking - which is different from what happened before - is that we trust teachers and we trust heads.

What we're doing now is we're saying that individual schools can spend the money on their own priorities so that head teachers can decide what's truly important because the big shift in approach on education that we're taking - which is different from what happened before - is that we trust teachers and we trust heads.

But the fact is no matter how good the teacher how small the class how focused on quality education the school may be none of this matters if we ignore the individual needs of our students.

I have an education degree from the University of Minnesota and I was a teacher for about a minute.

A lot of children like I did move away from words because of the fear - which is something you have to take out of education: the fear of worrying about what marks you'll get detention worrying about letting people down your parents teachers.