According to an article on huffingtonpost.com, more than eight in 10 Americans agree that education is a very important issue. Senior Kristine Novicki is one of them.

As a middle grades education major, she understands that education has been undergoing a lot of change, but said she doesn’t necessarily agree with them.

“I feel like, especially in Ohio, there’s been a lot of changes with the pay, and with the standards,” she said. “And I feel like, with some of those, it’s good to try and make improvements, but a lot of them are bad.”

Novicki said the changes are moving education into a “merit-based pay,” which means it is based on test standards. She said this change is not good, and will detract teachers from what is needed.

“It’s going to deter teachers from going to lower districts that need teachers,” she said.

Among many other changes, Novicki said the new “common core standard” is another bad idea. She said she believes strongly in state rights, and this new standard takes that away.

“And they’re moving to a common core standard, which is common throughout the whole entire United States,” she said. “I disagree with taking the power out of the local and state governments’ hand according to education.”

Novicki said she feels both presidential candidates have different views that could change education. She said that although the presidential election is important, there are more important issues at hand.

“I feel like a lot of the local and state senators is actually more important…” she said. “If you really look at it, Romney and Obama aren’t really that different when it comes to education. Mostly the biggest [issue] is money for higher education, but both of them want to make changes and make it more federal government than state government.”

Education was a big topic discussed during the third presidential debate – as well as the other debates – according to another article on huffingtonpost.com. The article also stated that “Obama supports early childhood programs, funding for K-12 schools, and college affordability,” whereas Romney believes that hiring more teachers will not help the economy.