Education
EDUCATION
Parents bear primary responsibility for their children's education.
MPA supports excellent public education while protecting reasonable access to:
Charter schools
Private education
Homeschooling
Vocational education
Apprenticeships
Technical training
Schools should emphasize:
Reading
Writing
Mathematics
Science
History
Civics
Financial literacy
Technology
Critical thinking
Practical life skills
College is valuable.
It is not the only respectable path.
PROPOSED / DRAFT — EDUCATION MODERNIZATION, MASTERY & THREE MEALS
Education should prepare students for adulthood, citizenship, employment, skilled trades, higher education, public service, and lifelong learning. Schools must place academic growth and student well-being ahead of institutional convenience, rankings, or athletic prestige.
YEAR-ROUND SCHOOL WITH REGULAR BREAKS
Public K–12 schools should operate on a year-round calendar instead of closing for one long summer break. The year should include regular scheduled breaks for students, families, and staff, while reducing the learning loss and childcare disruption caused by an extended shutdown.
States and local districts remain responsible for designing the calendar, transportation, staffing, and daily schedule. The calendar must provide adequate teacher planning time, family notice, reasonable vacation periods, accommodations for agriculture and local needs, and additional instruction for students who need help mastering required subjects.
THREE HEALTHY MEALS AND WEEKEND AVAILABILITY
Every public K–12 school should make a nutritious breakfast, lunch, and evening meal available to every enrolled student during the school day or extended-day program without stigma. Schools may provide dinner on site, through an after-school program, or as a safe take-home meal when transportation schedules make on-site service impractical.
Schools should also offer nutritious meals on weekends when students voluntarily come to an approved school meal, tutoring, enrichment, recreation, or supervised community program. Weekend participation is optional; a child receives the available meal by attending the participating school or program. Districts may coordinate transportation and service with community organizations when practical.
Meals must meet evidence-based nutrition and food-safety standards. States and districts may use local agriculture and culturally appropriate menus. No child should be denied a meal because of family debt, missing paperwork, disciplinary status, or inability to pay. Funding and administration must be transparent, coordinated with existing nutrition programs, and designed to minimize waste.
MASTERY BEFORE PROMOTION
Students should advance because they demonstrate readiness, not merely because another year passed. A student who has not mastered essential reading, writing, mathematics, science, and civic competencies should not be automatically promoted into work for which the student is unprepared.
Retention must not be automatic or punitive. Before retention, the school must provide timely notice to parents, targeted tutoring, summer or extended learning, diagnostic evaluation, disability and language accommodations, and a written improvement plan. Parents should receive an explanation of the evidence and a fair appeal process. Promotion decisions should consider demonstrated mastery across multiple measures, not one test score.
FAIR AND COMPARABLE GRADING
States may operate their own schools and curricula, but student records must be honestly comparable. Transcripts should report:
The school’s local GPA
A common unweighted 4.0-scale GPA
Any weighted GPA, clearly labeled
Course rigor and level
Mastery results in core subjects
Career, technical, artistic, civic, and service accomplishments
No state or school should gain an artificial advantage merely because its grading scale allows numbers above 4.0 or uses substantially lower proficiency standards without transparent disclosure.
BETTER ASSESSMENT, NOT TESTING ALONE
Testing remains one tool, but education should measure more than test-taking ability. A balanced assessment system should include:
Reading comprehension and communication
Mathematics and practical financial literacy
Scientific reasoning
History, civics, and constitutional understanding
Research and source evaluation
Digital and AI literacy
Career and technical competence
Problem solving and applied projects
Writing and oral presentation
Portfolios, laboratory work, and demonstrations
Growth over time as well as grade-level proficiency
Assessments must be accessible to students with disabilities and English learners while preserving meaningful expectations. Results should identify where help is needed, not merely rank or label children.
ACADEMICS BEFORE ATHLETIC PRESTIGE
Athletics, physical education, music, art, clubs, and extracurricular activities are valuable parts of education. They must not consume resources, scheduling, admissions preferences, or institutional attention in ways that weaken the core educational mission.
Participation rules should support academic progress, and schools should provide tutoring and recovery opportunities rather than simply excluding struggling students. Public reporting should distinguish instructional spending from athletics and major facilities spending.
THE UPDATED CLASSROOM
Schools should modernize instruction through smaller targeted learning groups where needed, tutoring, updated laboratories and career equipment, secure technology, teacher training, apprenticeships, dual enrollment, financial literacy, skilled-trade pathways, responsible AI instruction, and direct connections with employers and colleges.
Technology should support teachers rather than replace them. Student data must be protected, screen time should be age-appropriate, and districts should publish the educational purpose and cost of major technology purchases.
IMPLEMENTATION & ACCOUNTABILITY
Phase calendar, meal, assessment, and mastery reforms through public pilots before statewide expansion, with published costs and outcomes.
Direct new funding first to classroom instruction, tutoring, special education, career training, teacher development, meals, and demonstrated facility needs.
Require schools to publish reading and mathematics proficiency, student growth, attendance, graduation, postsecondary enrollment, credential completion, staffing, discipline, safety, and per-pupil spending in comparable form.
Give parents timely access to curriculum, major assignments, academic records, school policies, and a clear appeal process, subject only to narrow lawful privacy and safety exceptions.
Audit major technology contracts for educational value, student privacy, cybersecurity, recurring cost, and conflicts of interest.
Tie vocational and apprenticeship programs to recognized credentials, employer demand, completion, placement, and wage outcomes.
WHAT MPA WILL MEASURE
Grade-level reading and mathematics; growth by student and school; chronic absenteeism; graduation and credential completion; tutoring effectiveness; teacher vacancies and retention; meal participation and waste; college remediation; apprenticeship placement and wages; school safety; and spending reaching instruction.
NATIONAL SKILLED TRADES & APPRENTICESHIP INITIATIVE
Federal education and workforce funding should support partnerships among high schools, community colleges, unions, employers, trade associations, military-transition programs, and licensed training providers.
Programs should provide:
Paid apprenticeships.
High-school dual enrollment.
Modern training equipment.
Industry-recognized and portable credentials.
Credit for verified military and work experience.
Direct paths into electrical, HVAC, welding, machining, automotive, nuclear, construction, healthcare-technical, cybersecurity, and similar skilled occupations.
Funding should follow verified completion, credential attainment, employment, wage growth, and safety outcomes. Federal hiring should remove unnecessary four-year-degree requirements when verified skills and experience establish competence.
Related policies: Families & Child Care; Workers' Rights; Artificial Intelligence, Synthetic Media & Automated Accounts; Liberty, Equality & Opportunity.
Status: Proposed / Draft — not yet formally adopted.
Originally published: August 15, 2026.
Last updated: October 2, 2026.
Version: Draft 0.6.