Michael Folk is a passionate defender of teachers and common-sense education. He draws on his time as a teacher, his conversations with parents, and his experience as a father of five to formulate his opinions.

Parents around the state have expressed concern about the Common Core standards (now known as College & Career Readiness), materials, and tests. Folk strongly opposes Common Core in favor of locally developed standards and tests for children. He also points out waste in the education budget and myths about Common Core.

WV Teachers did not develop “College & Career Readiness” standards, they are “word-for-word” Common Core and they are not “clear and straight-forward.” The program is well known for producing frustration and questionable results (at best).

“I think there is too much of the education industry sucking money out of our education system," he states. "We do not need new math books every (few) years. Math has not changed for the last 75 years...I understand history and literature...But there are a lot of people making money off education that are not teachers, and a lot of times, it comes to testing.”

Folk targets other areas of waste in education, too. The idea to get an electronic device in every child's hands from K-12 is something he does not agree with, either.

"It is developmentally inappropriate for a child, K through third for sure, probably even fourth and fifth grade, to have one," he states. "That line item alone in the state budget is $10-20 million. I would prefer to put that money into teacher salaries. Basics are important. There are several studies out there saying that if they learn to read and write by third grade, their success is pretty much assured.”

Folk believes three to five million dollars can be saved by eliminating Higher Education Policy Council (HEPC). It is a redundancy that can be eliminated from the education bureaucracy.

Folk has also fought for fair pay for teachers.

The 2018 budget he initiated, which became law, funded a 2% raise for teachers in spite of cutting $450 million from the budget.

Michael Folk wants common-sense state support for teachers, students, and parents again. Instead of a nationwide list of standards and tests that cost the state money and time while providing dubious results and frustration all around, he supports reasonable standards and tests devised by West Virginia teachers. Folk will expose and fight those who milk education funds for their own gain, as well.