I attended the lecture by Chet Edwards, a Democratic American Politician, who served as in the Senate as well as a Representative. He attended Texas A&M for his undergraduate degree and then went on to Harvard Business School for his graduate degree. He is an advocate of education and everything surrounding it.

Chet Edwards opened my eyes to the how much of an impact politics and the government can have on education, and the leadership of the politicians can make a change to the systems. Chet’s main focus is to have all children given an equal chance to succeed past their full potential. He believes that there is no policy more important than the education policy. His second belief is that if 90 percent of children can be educated kindergarten through 12^th grade, then 100 percent of the money should be used for public schools and not private schools since the number of children in private schools is a small percentage. Most people on the boards are well off, so they raise the prices of schools, but do not account for the people that are not as well off and want to be educated just as much as they do. Acceptance to universities should be based off of work ethic and academics, not “how much money is in the parent’s bank accounts.”

He also discussed that teachers are who shape our lives. Chet Edwards’ army general said to him, “before the soldiers care about what I say to them, they have to know that I care about them.” This relates to servant leadership and leading for others not yourself. The teachers we have should have their students’ success in mind and the politicians in charge of making a change for the education policy should be thinking about what benefits all children to be educated, not just about the best thing for their campaigns.