This Q&A is part of a broader candidate survey by the Anchorage Daily News. View the full survey here.
Mark Anthony Cox | School Board Seat: A | Age: 27 | Occupation: Business owner | macforanc.com
What’s the single most important issue facing the Anchorage School District? How would you address it if elected?
The single most important issue facing the Anchorage School District, aside from low proficiency, is an environment of low expectations. If elected I would take a three-pronged approach to fixing this purveying issue. First, I would reengage the community more regularly and qualify their testimony and comments rather than deride and/or belittle our community members. Secondly, I would convey the message through our superintendent to let the teacher’s teach so that they may educate our children as opposed to teach them how to take test. Lastly, I would set the bar higher for proficiency outcomes and hold those accountable for substandard performance.
Rate how the Anchorage School District has handled the pandemic, and why.
Rating: poor. COVID-19 presented unprecedented challenges which caused states to adopt each other’s policies and to make adjustments as further guidelines and evidence was given. What would be the most beneficial differences that could have been done by the Anchorage School Board is to set the vision of giving parents and teachers/staff an educated option of whether or not they wanted to do face-to-face instruction; while simultaneous preparing our facilities with necessary health equipment and mitigation procedures in place for those who would stay, and approving a virtual curriculum for those who would be home.
Many students are struggling due to pandemic-related challenges, both academically and behaviorally. What are some strategies the school district should prioritize to help students recover from that period?
The paramount lesson for the school district and school board to prioritize is to not repeat this type of decision-making process of following the news of organizations rather than the firsthand accounts of the parents who entrust us with their children to teach and educate.
Is the Anchorage School District doing a good job of retaining quality teachers?
There are teachers who can do their job well within their current parameters, but there are not enough. Our school district currently fails to retain quality teachers due to limiting the teachers’ ability to the point that they must read from a script with certain curriculum. As a school board member, we set the vision and hold the superintendent accountable for not meeting the community’s expectation. To improve teacher retention, we can advocate for those teachers who are limited by the parameters impersonal curriculum presents by hearing firsthand accounts and reporting to the superintendent of the deficiencies within our educational system. Teachers, much like parents,want to be heard and we as school board members have not only the privilege, but the duty, to listen and be proactive to their needs.
If I could change one thing in the Anchorage School District, it would be _. Explain.
If I could change one thing in the Anchorage School District, it would be the reason why students go to school and why parents drop their students off. Our parents are disappointed in our schools’ ability to teach, which ranks among the lowest in the country. Our taxpayers are disappointed in seeing the school board increase spending while our student population declined, which raises our property taxes without seeing results. Our students are stressed, over-tested and not receiving much value from the information being presented to them nor how it is being presented. We are ranked among the highest in the nation for spending the most money per student enrolled, but where are the results? We need to create an environment of achievement and success that a community can come together and marvel at the many benefits of it. We can do this is by letting teachers do their jobs and not give them curriculum that doesn’t work. We also need to control our spending and manage our resources efficiently.
