Protecting Families, Building Futures:

Protecting Families, Building Futures:
Why Mat-Su’s Path Forward Depends on Schools That Teach and Parents That Lead

Mat-Su stands at a crossroads—and for once, it’s a hopeful one. The West Susitna Access Road is opening doors to unprecedented economic opportunity. Port MacKenzie is becoming Alaska’s deep-water hub for critical minerals. The infrastructure is in place. The jobs are coming. The question now is whether our schools are preparing our children to seize this moment.
They’re not. And that’s the real crisis.

The Economic Opportunity Is Real
Let’s start with what’s working. In July 2025, the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority submitted its application to unlock the West Susitna Access Road—a 78.5-mile all-weather route connecting remote mineral-rich territory to the broader Mat-Su transportation network. This isn’t theoretical. This is happening.
The Estelle Project contains gold, copper, antimony, and rare earth elements—materials critical for clean energy, defense systems, and high-tech manufacturing. We’re not just talking about jobs; we’re talking about hundreds of positions in construction, logistics, engineering, and skilled trades. We’re talking about local businesses thriving. We’re talking about long-term economic resilience anchored in lawful development and community-first planning.
Port MacKenzie adds another layer. Nova Minerals has secured 42.81 acres for a military-grade antimony refinery, backed by a $43.4 million award from the U.S. Department of Defense. The refinery will produce materials critical for everything from advanced electronics to clean energy infrastructure. Port Mac’s deep-water capacity makes it ideal for bulk exports and logistics staging. Mat-Su is becoming a national hub for critical minerals—the kind of strategic asset that translates into generational wealth for families who can work there.

This is the economic foundation. Now comes the harder part: preparing the next generation to build it.
The Education Crisis: We’re Preparing Them for Yesterday, Not Tomorrow
Here’s what I’m hearing from parents, teachers, and young people across the Valley: our schools have lost focus. They’re not preparing students to lead in the boom coming their way. Instead, they’re mired in distractions that belong nowhere near the classroom.
The problem isn’t money. The problem isn’t resources. The problem is clarity of purpose.

Schools have a job: academic excellence, civic literacy, and career readiness. That means mastery of science, mathematics, language, and history—the disciplines that build capable, self-sufficient adults. It means training students in technology and trades so they’re ready to lead in construction, engineering, logistics, and infrastructure. It means civic education grounded in constitutional principles, not ideological agendas.
Instead, we’re watching classroom time consumed by social engineering. Instead of teaching problem-solving, we’re teaching confusion. Instead of building confidence, we’re teaching self-doubt. Instead of preparing engineers and builders, we’re producing young adults who don’t know their own place in the world.
This is a tragedy—not just for individual students, but for our community’s future. When the West Susitna corridor opens, we’ll need skilled workers ready to build. We’ll need leaders ready to manage logistics, oversee construction, and innovate in technology. Will our graduates be ready? That depends on whether our schools refocus on academic excellence now.

The Role of Parents: Where Values Live
Here’s what I believe should be non-negotiable: parents shape values. Schools teach skills. These are different jobs, and they need to stay different.
When I grew up, this was understood. Teachers taught. Parents raised children. Moral development happened at home—at the dinner table, in faith communities, through family conversations. Schools provided academic rigor and civic instruction. The division of labor was clear, and it worked.
Today, that line has blurred dangerously. Schools are trying to parent. Parents are being told they shouldn’t worry about moral development because schools will handle it. The result? Neither is happening well. Parents feel powerless. Teachers feel overextended. Students feel caught between contradictory messages.
We need to restore the boundary.

Social issues—identity, values, family structures, moral development—belong with parents. That’s where they should be discussed, wrestled with, and decided. Teachers should be supported in teaching their subjects with confidence, knowing that families are handling the deeper work of character formation.
This isn’t about limiting discussion or preventing education. It’s about respecting the fundamental truth that parents—not bureaucrats, not activist organizations, not distant ideological movements—have the right and responsibility to shape their children’s values.
When we restore this clarity, everyone benefits. Teachers can teach without fear of litigation or activist pressure. Parents can guide without worrying that schools are undermining their values. Students can focus on learning skills that matter.

Removing Ideological Agendas: Let Schools Do Their Job
Look at what’s happening in public institutions across the country. Outside organizations are pushing frameworks and agendas that have nothing to do with academic excellence. Activist groups are dictating curriculum. Ideological movements are reshaping what gets taught and how.
In Mat-Su specifically, we’ve already seen this play out with our library system. We made the difficult but necessary decision to remove the borough’s affiliation with the American Library Association, recognizing the legal and ethical risks posed by external ideological influence. Yet despite this clear directive, unofficial groups continue trying to circumvent that decision by pushing materials aligned with outside agendas.

The same thing is happening in our schools—sometimes subtly, sometimes overtly. Material that has nothing to do with academic preparation is crowding out time and resources that should go to core academics.
We need to be clear about what we’re fighting for: schools that serve all families lawfully and transparently. Schools that protect girls’ sports and spaces by ensuring biological sex determines participation and access. Schools that restore clarity in language—he and she, corresponding to sex at birth—rather than introducing concepts that leave young people confused about basic reality. Schools that focus on what they do best: teaching.
A Borough Worthy of Our Children

I’m running for Mat-Su leadership because I believe we can be different. We can be the community that shows Alaska—and America—what’s possible when we get the fundamentals right.

We can build an economy that lifts families while maintaining civic integrity. We can defend core services—education, libraries, public safety—from activist disruption. We can promote objective, neutral governance that serves all residents. We can fight against opaque decision-making and lawfare tactics that undermine local autonomy.
Most importantly, we can restore purpose. Our children deserve schools that teach truth, not trends. Infrastructure that creates opportunity. A borough that sees them as future leaders, not political experiments. A community that values work, wisdom, and generational stewardship.
The West Susitna mining corridor is opening doors. Port MacKenzie is ready. The opportunity is real. But it will only matter if we’re preparing our children to walk through those doors as capable, confident, skilled adults.

That preparation starts in the classroom—with schools focused on academic excellence, with teachers supported in their core mission, with parents empowered in their fundamental role, and with ideological agendas removed from the equation.
That’s the Mat-Su I’m fighting for. That’s the future our children deserve. And that’s the Alaska we can build if we have the courage to get the basics right.