Liz Manziano, born and raised in West Chester Pennsylvania, graduated from West Chester East High School before moving to Philadelphia to complete a bachelor’s degree in communication at Temple University. Upon graduation, she worked as the Production Coordinator for the Jewish Exponent, and eventually moved to New York City to work for Martha Stewart Magazine as a Print Production Manager.
She moved back to Southeastern Pennsylvania because she had a two-year-old son becacuse she “wanted to be able to be outdoors [with her son] without being in a crowded public space.”
Manziano recently met over the telephone to discuss her views about public education, and some of the institution’s strengths and flaws.
Q: Please describe your current position?
A: I am a marketing manager, so basically what I do now is I actually create marketing literature and website and email content for a global scientific supplier.
Our company, Avantor, sells scientific supplies and we sell to a global market”, she continued. So I’m in charge of marketing and privately labeling both our own equipment, as well as consulting services.
Q: Where are they located?
A: Radnor, Pennsylvania.
Q: Will you be voting in the upcoming election on November 3rd?
A: Yes.
Q: And who will you be voting for?
A: Trump.
Q: What is an important topic that you will consider when going to vote?
A: The public education system, as well as college education.
Q: What is the single best thing about public primary education in this country?
A: One of the best things is that it’s locally controlled. Everyone’s property taxes pay for the education, and that way the community gets to decide what happens to the schools in their own towns.
Q: What is your biggest criticism of k-12 public education?
A: I feel like there’s not a lot of diversity of opinions of the teachers, staff, and administrators.
One view point is being over represented, and some children feel like they can’t express their views. I’m all for diversity of skin, skin color doesn’t mean anything, but diversity of opinions is even more important.
Q: What is the single best thing about college level education?
A: I think the education is so much more than what you learn in a textbook.
There’s a famous quote that I love “try not to let college get in the way of your education”. What they meant was that you’re going to learn about math, science, history, but you’re also going to learn how to be on your own, about friends, independence. College is so much more than the academic part.
Q: What is your biggest criticism of college education?
A: Freedom of speech is even more restrictive than high school. The staff and teachers are so politically aligned that if someone is Republican, they are afraid to admit it. It’s extremely liberal and the kids are only getting one point of view, and they don’t have the freedom of speech to express a different point of view.
Q: Did you always think this way? How have your views changed and evolved over the course of your life?
A: You know I’ve thought about this, I was like most kids in high school, I had no political views whatsoever.
My boyfriend at the time asked me if my parents were Democrat or Republican and I just said Democrat because I felt like I had to answer. In college I was the same way, and it wasn’t until my first job that I started to really have an opinion.
How did I get this opinion, I’m not sure how it formed. In college I remember buying the New York Times, and I went to the park and started reading the paper and thought what the hell, this is so biased.
Q: Do you have anything else to add about public education that has not already been discussed?
A: Being the parent of a child who is in public education and who maybe will decide to go to college. I’m very concerned. You know I’m going to let him pick his school, but I’m concerned. I thought about a creating list of “how committed to free speech is this college”, and then there will be a rating for each university.
Alex Johnson 