A Fort Wayne educator announced Friday she'll seek the Republican nomination to take on State Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz.
Dawn Wooten, a 33-year resident of Fort Wayne, launched her campaign Friday on a platform of reversing Common Core and returning teacher autonomy to Indiana schools.
MORE | Dawn Wooten 2016 campaign website
Wooten – who claims "more than a decade of teaching experience at the university level, seven years of experience in home schooling in elementary and middle school, and several years of tutoring students from all grade levels and from public, private, parochial, and home school arenas" – is the only candidate so far among either Democrats or Republicans to announce a challenge to incumbent Supt. Glenda Ritz.
"In the time since Ms. Ritz has taken office, there have been no noticeable improvements in public education in Indiana," Wooten says on her campaign website. "While I can appreciate her efforts, there are still dozens of schools that have been graded either as D or F schools and have been so for many years."
Wooten holds a bachelor's degree in English from IU Fort Wayne and a bachelor's of science in business management from Indiana Wesleyan University, as well as a master's degree in English, rhetoric and composition from IU Fort Wayne.
Wooten is listed as an adjunct professor at IUPU Fort Wayne, University of Saint Francis – Fort Wayne and Indiana Tech.
Her website lists previous work experience at Pizza Hut and Papa John's, as well as with True Life Choices, Inc., a now-defunct Fort Wayne non-profit focused on promoting abstinence education.
