Protecting senior citizens and educating youth.

Those are the top priorities for Tom Price, the Independence Party candidate for the District 27A House of Representatives seat.

Price, 56, lives between Alden and Freeborn in Carlston Township, and will face off against incumbent Rep. Shannon Savick, DFL-Wells, and Peggy Bennett, R-Albert Lea, in the Nov. 4 general election.

A refrigeration mechanic for the Minnesota Department of Administration, Price presently works at the Minnesota Capitol.

He is a licensed elementary and middle school teacher and spent the last seven out of nine years teaching at Gerard Academy and Pacelli Catholic School, both in Austin.

He is a licensed electrician and real estate broker and has been married to his wife, Tami, for 21 years. They have two children, Jacob and Jessica.

Price said his well-rounded life experiences make him a good candidate for office.

With two teaching licenses, he said he knows about education concerns, and from his time working in St. Paul, he said he has seen the spending and inefficiencies that take place on the state level.

Price said he thinks the state needs to “get its house in order” and focus on priorities.

“I believe if we educate all of our Minnesota citizens who want an education, then business and industry will move to Minnesota because they won’t have to import their workers and their employees,” he said. “They will already be here.”

He said he thinks the state should provide low-interest educational loans to fill in the gaps between loans given out by the federal government for people interested in furthering their education.

In with those priorities are growing jobs, infrastructure, roads and bridges.

Regarding bullying, Price said he thinks the biggest problem is ignorance.

“They don’t know how to recognize it,” he said. “They don’t know enough about it.”

He said he thinks teachers should be required to incorporate information about bullying into their lessons as part of the education standards.

Price said another one of his top priorities if elected is to rectify the flooding issues in Albert Lea.

“That would be something I would want to get accomplished in the first year,” he said.

He has been sharing his message via the Freeborn County fair, parades and the radio. In his spare time he enjoys riding his motorcycle. He also raises horses.