Money for vouchers means less money for public education
[Democratic State Senator Merrill] Piepkorn said the state should increase its funding commitments for public education before any extra funding is allocated for a school choice program. "Taking money away, right now, from public education for vouchers,
any money you take and send in that direction, is going to mean less money for the public education we have now," Piepkorn said.
[Republican U.S. Rep. Kelly]
Armstrong said he believes in school choice but doesn't think vouchers would be a good approach because private schools could raise their tuition to take advantage of the new state money. "It doesn't need to be either-or,"
Armstrong said. "We can fund our public school system and we can have the best public school system in the country, and we can still allow for significantly more parental autonomy in school choice."
Expand apprenticeships and paid internships to students
Armstrong emphasized the importance of drawing in young people and retaining them after graduation, according to the North Dakota Monitor. "Our best workforce recruitment tool is our higher ed system," Armstrong said.
Piepkorn agreed, pointing out
that with state support in recent years, businesses have been expanding apprenticeships and paid internships to students. "Our Legislature does not always put as high a priority on higher education as we two gubernatorial candidates do,"
Piepkorn said. He added local unions have ramped up their apprenticeship training programs geared toward younger workers to get them into high-paying career fields sooner.
Armstrong said he doesn't have the "silver bullet" to fix complicated workforce
issues, but addressing housing, health care and educational needs would be a good start to drawing more potential to the state.
Armstrong said much of [school board culture wars] comes down to local control. "I don't think any governor in Bismarck should be making decisions that are uniformly accepted across all counties to all degree," Armstrong said. "We elect school boards, we
elect city commissions, we elect county commissions, and we elect them for a reason, and I am not sure we should be dictating down to them what to do on those things."
Piepkorn said he would have vetoed the state's book banning bills and the state's
abortion ban. "In some of these things, they are making an issue out of things that are not an issue," Piepkorn said. "I think some of these things are being brought into the Legislature from outside sources, national organizations, who have pinpointed
the Legislature to carry forth this agenda." He said in the year since the book banning bill went into effect, only one complaint was made against one book, after it was reviewed by the library board, the book remained in the children's section.