Last week, I had the pleasure of interviewing 34th district state senate candidate Mark Alexander about his views on education. He was a warm, gregarious, and easy to talk to. With five children, four of whom are currently in Montclair public schools, it was quite easy to start a conversation about education in Montclair.

Barista Kids: What is your overall view of education?
Mark Alexander: There are a few things that drive me when I talk about education. The first is my personal involvement in education. I’ve been a professor at Seton Hall Law School for 18 years. I’m also from a family of teachers—my mother and sisters are both university professors and my grandparents were one of the original families who founded Tuskegee University. There’s this ongoing passion of education in my family that’s been passed down so me, and so that’s one perspective I bring to my campaign. Another perspective is I’m a parent. I currently have four kids in the public schools. It’s really important to me, as a dad to think about the kind of education my kids should be getting. And the third thing that really motivates me is that I grew up in a family that was very active in the fight for civil rights. My father worked for Lyndon Johnson and was the lawyer that helped write the civil rights acts.

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