PHOENIX (AP) — Kari Lake, a former television anchor leading the GOP field in the campaign for governor of Arizona, called Thursday for higher teacher salaries and an expansion of teacher choice options. school for parents.

Lake also called for bans on mask mandates, COVID-19 vaccine requirements, and teaching critical race theory, though the GOP-controlled legislature has already passed limits on masks and masks. race-based education in schools.

Lake outlined her plans to transform education and elevate the role of parents, an issue that has animated Republican candidates across the country ahead of the 2022 election.

“When I’m governor, there will be no more COVID shutdowns, no more masks on the faces of our beautiful children, and we won’t require our children to get vaccinated,” Lake said.

Lake, who has often insulted reporters and accused them of bias while avoiding questions, softened his combative tone while answering questions from a mix of reporters and his supporters.

Lake said she would push to expand the state’s many options for parents who choose not to send their children to their neighborhood public school, including charter schools, vouchers for private schools and home schooling.

Voters in 2018 rejected an expansion of the state’s school voucher program, but Lake said she was confident they would see it differently now.

Lake said teachers are underpaid but dismissed the explanation offered by most education advocates: underfunded schools. Instead, she claimed school administrators raised their own salaries at the expense of teachers. She said she would push for an annual bonus of at least $5,000 that would bypass districts and go directly to educators.

His plan would also promote vocational education, eliminate the standardized AzMERIT test, and ban sex education before fifth grade.

Lake said she wouldn’t require students or teachers to get vaccinated against COVID-19, but neither would she move to eliminate vaccine requirements that were in place long before the coronavirus outbreak.

She called her plan an “ambitious policy guide” that would require cooperation with the Legislative Assembly and others to implement.

“I’m not a dictator,” Lake said. “I can’t force all of this.”

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