Taking a new look at education by focusing on different teaching methods is important to candidate Charles Connolly, a retired Iowa State professor.

Connolly is the Reform Party candidate for the State House of Representatives for the 61st District. He said his support for education is strong because of his experience in the field.

“We have new ways of teaching today that revolutionize the learning process,” Connolly said.

These revolutionary programs include accelerated learning. As a professor, accelerated learning allowed him to finish his courses before midterm and gave his students a higher quality education, he said.

These new methods are necessary, he said, because approaches to teaching are the same as they were 50 years ago.

Although computers have entered the picture, teaching has mostly been in the lecture hall format, Connolly said.

Connolly also said education is hindered by its bureaucratic system. “We need to apply what’s happening in business to education.”

Connolly supports an effort to give $3,000 scholarships to students who wish to attend private schools rather than public schools.

Public schools tend to have a higher dropout rate and fewer of their graduates attend college, he said. Because public education is costing more and reaping fewer benefits, he said America is paying more and getting less out of education.

For college students, Connolly thinks financing college should be more like the G.I. Bill. The G.I. Bill is a program in which students’ college educations are paid for in return for serving in the U.S. military. Because some students are not paying back their student loans, they should get financial aid in return for a service they provide, Connolly said.

He believes an increasing loan default rate has prompted some students into thinking they do not have to pay back their student loans. With programs like the G.I. Bill, the government does not lose any money and students earn their aid, he said. “I think we should explore something…like a G.I. Bill.”

In the business realm, Connolly would like to ease the tax burden on Iowa businesses.

He said the state has some of the highest taxes which in turn discourages many businesses from developing in Iowa. It also encourages them to leave, he said.

Connolly cited Gateway 2000, a computer company that began in Sioux City. Due to the taxes in Iowa, he said the growing company moved across the border to North Sioux City, S.D.

The former professor does not favor large hog lot confinement operations that create spillage and threaten ground water. Ground water is a “precious commodity in the state of Iowa.”

Connolly’s district is smaller in size than the other districts in Ames, but it also has the largest population of Iowa State students, he said. “We hope students get out and vote.”