Jodey Arrington was raised in Plainview, Texas, the son of a tractor salesman and a schoolteacher. Jodey graduated from Texas Tech and his passion of public service took him to Austin, Texas where he worked for Governor George W. Bush. He was then tapped by President Bush to join the White House as a senior advisor before being appointed as Chief of Staff to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. In 2007, he returned to West Texas where he was Vice Chancellor of the Texas Tech University System before taking the helm as President of a healthcare innovation company in Lubbock.
The American education system is broken. We must put parents in charge of their children’s education – not the government.
Our students continue to lag behind their peers worldwide, even though we spend more than $620 billion on K-12 education per year – that’s more than nearly every other major country in the world. Giving states and local school districts more control and allowing competition where possible, is our best option for improving a failed model. By allowing the free-market and local experts to lead, schools will be more accountable and free to prosper. We must not overregulate our school system with a top-down approach from the Department of Education.
In Congress, I’ve supported legislation to rein in federal control over education and give power back to parents, states, and local education leaders.