Sandra Ringelstein: A robust public education is a cornerstone of competitive, modern society

To The Daily Sun,

Thanks to the folks in Moultonborough, Madison and Tamworth who have attended bipartisan candidate nights.

In a lively discussion about the merits of public education, my opponent in Carroll County District 8 suggested that we need to “get back to reading, writing and ‘rithmatic.” I’m sorry — I cringe.

In a world of STEM and AI and competing global economies, our kids need so much more. We cannot go back to the Dark Ages. Let’s have the best public schools here in New Hampshire, where all our kids get a formidable, quality public education in everything from science and technology, the trades, arts and language.

Some, under the guise of freedom, are attempting to pull us backward. As we divert public funds away from public schools, we deregulate a system of support that provides a safety net for both kids and parents.

I was raised in a time during John F. Kennedy’s optimism of "Camelot" and Ronald Reagan’s message that we are “a city on a hill." As a beacon of democracy, let us not sell ourselves short in this important hour of history. I am running as the daughter of an Italian American who, with worn shoes and a love of this country, obtained his Ph.D. in food science and technology; who taught me that the human mind has endless possibilities to learn; who valued a public school education for all children where opportunities abound.

Let us not sell our kids' or our future short.

A robust public education where the state supports its local school boards and the board supports its administration and the administration supports its amazing faculty — all kids learn, regardless of race, religion and gender. Supported public education is foundational to our democracy and our future, to our civics and our civility.

Sandra Ringelstein

Moultonborough