(WGHP) -- Maurice “Mo” Green has not been a county schools superintendent for a few years, but some of the issues he dealt with when he ran the state’s third-largest school system in Guilford County remain, and he now wants to run the state’s public school system to see if he can rectify them. “We are at a place where we are OK but not really as great as we need to be with reading as an example,” Green said. “I’m talking about the national assessment of educational progress as opposed to ... our own sort of state assessments, but even those would suggest there is room for improvement.” Some Republicans are pushing for more school resource officers in schools. They want maybe even two in each public school. Green, the Democratic nominee for superintendent of public instruction, says that may be more than is necessary with precious resources. “I don’t know if there needs to be an SRO necessarily in every school,” Green said. “There are certainly things that are deeply concerning. One would certainly be this sense of we’ve got to have two SROs in every one of our schools, almost suggesting that our schools have reached a point that they are so unsafe that we’ve got to have two SROs there, and I think that is not an accurate depiction of what’s going on. I certainly think that our schools are, for the large part, very safe places. This is a place where if we had more school psychologists and counselors and the like working with our students ... we could have continued and increased safety in our schools. That’s not to diminish the importance of SROs.” Some educators have also expressed a need to have to police what they say for concern that statements may be taken out of context or thought to be offensive. “I revere educators, and what that means is that I think they are part of a noble profession. They are doing amazing and transformative work, and they need to hear that constantly from folks like myself,” Green said. He believes teachers shouldn’t fear addressing subjects with students. “Certainly, hear them out and hopefully encourage others to hear our educators as well. Often times, what’s being lifted up as things they can or cannot say really are moving us away from doing the wonderful work that they are able to do, which is simply to educate our students," Green said. See more from Green in this Your Local Election Headquarters report from Bob Buckley.