All good things must come to an end. Welcome to the final week of Broad + Liberty’s Candidate Spotlight Series!

Each week throughout the election season, we’ve reached out to candidates all across the Commonwealth up for election to public office — an equal number of Democrats and Republicans; incumbents and challengers. We’ve asked one question per week about public policy pressing to you. Those who chose to respond had their answers shared on our website. (Please see a special statement from the editors about unresponsive candidates.)

The twelfth and final installment of our series will focus on the strengths and weaknesses of our public education system. Our candidates for Governor have already weighed in. Let’s see what our candidates for U.S. Senate have to say.

This week’s question: What is the greatest strength and greatest weakness of our public education system, and what will you do when elected to address that weakness?

Mehmet Oz (R)

In my travels across Pennsylvania, I constantly hear the same thing: parents want greater insight and input into their children’s education. They do not want a top-down approach from bureaucrats in Washington that think they know what’s best for their kids — and that is the biggest weakness of our education system. The Department of Education is far too large, often mandating what local and school governments must teach. This is a problem. I will work to redirect funding to go to students. 

The greatest strength of our education system is our teachers — individuals who choose to empower the next generation through education. Right now, our teachers are not getting what they deserve from the federal government and teachers unions.

John Fetterman (D)

The Fetterman campaign chose not to respond.

Broad + Liberty is a nonprofit media endeavor dedicated to sharing voices and stories that are shut out of other media outlets. @BroadAndLiberty