VOTE411 Voter Guide

Human Trafficking: Missouri is 4th in the nation in the amount of human trafficking happening and I meet people everyday who have been touched by this. Economic Development: We need to bring good paying jobs to Missouri so our kids and their kids will be able to stay here, grow their own families and build great communities. Public Safety: Great communities are safe communities. We need to ensure that our police and fire departments have the resources they need to serve the public well. Education: Our education institutions, both secondary and higher, need to be focused on preparing our students for life and for careers. We need to ensure our secondary schools are preparing students to succeed in a variety of opportunities whether that's continuing higher education institutions or going straight into apprenticeship and trade opportunities.

Human Trafficking: I want to work to support training for law enforcement, health care workers, educators and others on what human trafficking looks like and what they can do to help/rescue victims. Addressing this requires identifiying who needs the training, how much does the training cost, finding the money, and determining how to distribute the funds.

Public education is a top policy for me as I am a retired public educator of 31 years. Education is the greatest economic development investment we can make as a state and for over 20 years we have been reducing the level of funding to public education, from early childhood through higher education. A second policy area is finding an appropriate tax plan that works for most Missourians and not just the top of the income bracket. Taxes, like a budget, reflect our priorities as a state. Developing a tax plan that supports working families, protects seniors while supporting public education, public safety, roads and quality health care is how Missouri can thrive.

My top priority in 2027 is to find avenues to support public education. Whether that is through filing bills of my own or working with a colleague across the aisle who has a bill that supports public education. In the 2026 session there were over 150 different bills filed related to education and as a minority party representative, working on a bill sponsored by a majority party representative may be the best path forward to finding ways to support public education. I would also ask to be a member of the Elementary and Secondary Education Committee as well as the Emerging Issues in Education Committee.

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