She's a mother of six, wife, educator and businesswoman who speaks from her heart on subjects she feels strongly about -- life, education and the family. Her goal is to get government out of peoples' lives.

Her name is Peg Luksik and she is the Constitutional Party candidate for governor.

She described her platform at a recent breakfast meeting at Country Squire restaurant in Marple to 70-plus supporters.

At the top of her agenda is education. She said a recent study shows that 39 percent of Pennsylvania's fourth-graders cannot read.

"This says that the system is not working," she said.

Mrs. Luksik, a certified teacher, said she would require reading programs to be phonics based rather than sight reading used in many school districts.

She notes a program developed by the National Center for Child Development System Instruction in Phonics has been proven in objective studies to improve performance.

She said she doubted the $100 million plan by Gov. Tom Ridge would improve reading skills. She said the plan is a matching funds program so richer districts will get more and poorer districts, less.

And the plan hasn't been validated through research, she said.

Another goal is to stop the state from micromanaging schools.

"The state should set safety nets," she said. The control belongs to the parents.

She advocates educational tax credits which would give parents credit against school taxes for tuition and books. Homeschoolers could take the credit for books, materials and professional fees.

She said individuals and businesses underwriting educational expenses of students in alternative educational institutions would be eligible for tax credits.

Mrs. Luksik said that Ridge's proposed voucher system is expensive to administer and allows the state to limit parental choice.

She said that Ridge's program would require parents to have to fight annually for money to keep the system going and could lead to increased state control on non-public education.

Mrs. Luksik, who has taught in regular and special education classrooms, said that the parents should be able to sit in on any class at any time and they should be able to see the course work that will be taught to their child. She also said that the parent should have the right to say 'yes' or 'no' to their child's participation in a special class, program or field trip.

"It's the Parental Right of Choice of Education," she said, "The right of access and the right of consent."

Mrs. Luksik is against abortion and euthanasia.

"Life is sacred," she said.

She said that the basis of Roe vs. Wade is "viability of the fetus," which according to the court in 1973 was 24 weeks.

"Viability now is 20 weeks," Mrs. Luksik said. "Abortions done after that point are really infanticides and should be immediately outlawed."

She said that Pennsylvania's Abortion Control Act should reflect current medical technology.

Also the abortion industry should be regulated like the other medical industries.

She noted that women seeking abortions aren't given information about the anesthesia, side effects and results as is required in procedures as mundane as dentistry.

Mrs. Luksik said doctor-assisted suicides and euthanasia is increasing. She said she wants legislation upholding the accepted medical definition of death.

She said she would establish a hotline for people to report abuses against seriously ill persons and protect "whistle blowers."

She said that she and her running mate, Jim Clymer, "are committed to restore respect for the sanctity of life and personhood -- that the constitutional rights of all innocent human beings are protected from conception until natural death."

Mrs. Luksik said that central Pennsylvania leads the country in family bankruptcies and the state's high taxes are a major reason for this.

"This is a crime and it has got to stop," she said.

Mrs. Luksik said that the state had a $673 million surplus. She said the money should have been returned to the people to whom it belongs to in the first place

"That's a 14 percent tax cut for everyone," she said.

She noted Ridge rolled the money into new spending.

She also said the state tax code is unnecessarily complicated.

She said the people of the state should be taxed once, either a sales tax or income/earned income tax. She said she would eliminate the inheritance tax and the `C' title tax.

Mrs. Luksik said many state politicians hold their seats for life, use the treasury to advance their career, then pass the seat to a son or daughter, as a member of the ruling class.

Mrs. Luksik of Johnstown and her husband, James, have six children. She received her bachelor's degree in special and elementary education, magnum cum laude, from Clarion University in 1976. She was awarded an honorary doctorate in humanities from Stonehill College in 1997.

She has hosted the Learning Curve, which is about education on NET-TV. She is the founder and chairman of Mom's House, a comprehensive service network for single parents and their children.

She is a two-time gubernatorial candidate. In 1990, she received 46 percent of the vote against the party-endorsed candidate in the GOP primary.

Clymer and his wife, Lois, have five children. He is the senior member of a six attorney general practice law firm in Lancaster.

He has been a Libertarian candidate for state auditor general, executive committee member of U.S. Taxpayers Party, a board member of Conservative National Committee, past president of Religious Roundtable of Pennsylvania, past president of United Pennsylvanians Committee (PAC) and chairman of Pennsylvania Taxpayers Alliance.

He chaired the Bob Smith for State Committee, the Lancaster County Coordinator of Luksik for Governor (1990) and in 1994 the Independent candidate for Lt. Governor (with Peg Luksik).