Michael Ouk has been living in
Lynn for over 21 years. He is a graduate of Brickett,
Marshall, and English, where he graduated from in 2002. In 2006, he
received his B.A. from Gordon College, where, according to Ouk, his desire and his ability
to help those less fortunate were broadened and deepened.
Ouk has worked as an ABA Counselor for children diagnosed with Autism
Spectrum Disorders, a Teachers’ Assistant for 2nd and 3rd graders, and a
Mental Health Counselor for patients diagnosed with chronic mental
health illnesses and Substance Use Disorders. Currently, he’s an
Enrollment Coordinator at the Program of All-inclusive Care for the
Elderly.
He also volunteers his time as secretary of the Khmer
Cultural Planning Committee, which hosts the city’s largest cultural
community fair on the Lynn Commons every Spring. In 2012, Michael co-authored
the city ordinance creating Lynn’s first Human Rights Commission.
Here Ouk answers a few questions regarding his candidacy for Lynn School Committee.
Why are you running for School Committee?
Since graduating from Gordon
College in 2006, I have been committed to improving Lynn by empowering
the under-represented and under-served groups throughout the city,
including young people and the elderly. I decided to run for School
Committee because I want to continue making lasting improvements to the
quality of life of our young people, our seniors, and working families
residing in Lynn. I believe that doing so has to begin with
improving our schools.
We all know that when young working
families move into the city it improves our residential tax base, and
that those families create a more enticing customer base for potential
businesses to locate in the city, which would increase our commercial
tax base. The boosts in revenue would then go back to the people in the
form of improved infrastructure, schools, and public services – leading
to a self-perpetuating cycle of progress for the city.
I hope
to be elected to the School Committee because I want to help accelerate
that progress while making it more transparent, equitable, and
accountable to all the people of the city.
Describe the knowledge and abilities that you believe a successful graduate of the Lynn Public Schools should possess.
I believe that good public schools
should give our graduates a solid foundation from which they can
successfully step into the world of responsible adulthood and into the
21st century workforce. Good public schools should teach the basic
subjects, essential skills, fundamental knowledge, and cultural literacy
that all Lynners must possess in order to be good citizens, workers,
neighbors, and parents.
Our public school educators have the
monumental task of shaping our children’s worldviews (their lasting
ideas about themselves, their city, their country, and the world) and of
transmitting the principles of our common American culture to each new
generation such as those found in the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence - like the belief that all men and women are created equal and should be treated equally.
There’s
no doubt that Lynn Public Schools produce academically successful
graduates. However, not all graduates achieve similar degrees of
success. I acknowledge that there may be a number of socioeconomic
realities and/or geopolitical backgrounds that can create speed bumps
for students’ academic achievement which are beyond the scope of a
teacher’s training or available resources, but I think there are ways
our school district can mitigate some of those hindrances by expanding
linguistically and culturally appropriate wraparound services to our
students and their parents. Doing so would help bridge the achievement
gap while unloading some of the burden placed on teachers in the
classroom.
In order to provide for my proposed expansion of
services, the LPS district must have strong advocacy for a fairer
foundation budget formula and adequate funding for public K-12 education
at the state level. That advocacy must begin from within our School
Committee, which I would be excited to take part in.
The Lynn Public School System is currently underfunded by approximately $15 million. Given the city's financial constraints, do you think the focus should be on seeking waivers for this deficit and changes to the net school spending language or on finding ways to increase revenue and allocate more money toward public education?
For Fiscal Year 2016, the
Massachusetts Legislature created the Foundation Budget Review Committee
(FBRC) to reexamine the state's formula for determining how much it
costs to adequately educate each child in our public schools. If
elected, I will use my office to seek inclusion in the FBRC's
discussions and advocate for the Legislature to take a fresh look at the
model school budget in light of the state's potential capacity to
invest more in K-12 public education and to update the foundation budget
formula to reflect recent changes in Lynn’s education needs, such as
new classroom technologies, accounting for Lynn's relatively larger
proportion of low-income families, accommodating our many English
Language Learners, and meeting the need for more Mental Health services.
Based
on data from the US Census Bureau, the percentage of the state’s
economic resources that is dedicated to K-12 public education is lower
than the national average, which means there may be untapped potential
for Massachusetts to invest more in public education. If the state can
dedicate a larger share of resources to education spending while relying
less on local revenue to fund K-12 education, it may free up Lynn to
allocate more resources to other needs in the city, such as public
safety and infrastructure, while still ensuring that our students
continue to have the best education possible to prepare them to be
competitive in the 21st century workforce.
In your opinion, are the issues facing public education in Lynn overall similar or different from the educational issues being discussed nationally? How so?
The American Society of Civil
Engineers notes that most schools in the US were built to educate the
baby boomer generation. The need to modernize our education
infrastructure has become more apparent in recent years, and no one
feels that urgency as much as our students and teachers. Lynn's
education infrastructure, including sufficient classroom space and
technology requires significant upgrades, renovations, and replacements
in order to meet the needs of 21st century students and educators.
When
the doors of the new Marshall Middle School open in 2016 it will
already be at its full capacity of 1,100 students. Like other urban
school districts throughout the nation, student enrollment in Lynn
Public Schools has risen steadily since 2009, and the Massachusetts
Department of Elementary and Secondary Education projects enrollment to
continue to increase in the coming years. We must expedite the process
of replacing Pickering and other schools that are virtually bursting at
the seams so that all of our students can have safe, comfortable spaces
to learn.
Why should Lynn voters cast their vote for you on November 3rd?
My philosophy of education is
holistic and community-centric, with a strong emphasis on nurturing
healthy families. I believe it takes a 'village' to produce socially
adjusted, civically engaged adults who, in turn, produce new healthy
families and continue Lynn's progress in the 21st century. Voting for
me would mean voting for someone who is a Lynner through and through;
who knows what it's like to grow up in a bi-cultural, multi-lingual home
environment; and who has a demonstrated ability to bring people and
individuals from various backgrounds together to build consensus and
work toward a common vision of equality and community revitalization.
I'm honored and humbled to ask the citizens of Lynn to vote for me on November 3rd,
so that I can use my first-hand experience of the Lynn Public Schools
to strengthen my advocacy for the needs and concerns of our city's
students and families while supporting and building upon the heroic
efforts of our teachers and support staff.
Please, don’t hesitate to reach me by phone (781.346.9676) or by email (OukForLynn@gmail.com). You can also find more information online at www.OukForLynn.com, and on Facebook at facebook.com/Committee4MichaelOuk.
