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Committee
Friends of John Perryman
Campaign Phone
6304146483
Education
BS '84, MD '88, both from the University of Michigan
Personal Pronouns
He/him/his
I will work and fight for the following:
1. Affordability. Most families are one illness or injury away from financial ruin.
2. Making sure everyone can get the health care they need without going broke. As a doctor, I have significant insight into this issue.
3. Revamping our public education funding formula, and stopping the flow of tax dollars to religious and private schools.
4. Providing funding for veterans programs that were cut by Republicans in the state legislature.
5. Protecting our environment, and supporting the transition to renewable energy sources.
6. Helping our farmers as they deal with disastrous federal policies.
7. Attacking the scourge of gun violence, the number one killer of children in our state.
After homelessness, I feel that availability of housing for young people and families just starting out is the most pressing issue. Mortgage rates are not going down anytime soon, and the supply of starter homes is not where it needs to be. I would approach this problem in the following ways.
First, we need to increase the supply of housing. This could be accomplished by helping with infrastructure costs in new developments and working with local governments to relax zoning restrictions. Regulations that are overly burdensome need to be reexamined as well.
To help families afford homes, I would work to provide down payment assistance in the form of a tax credit, increase the minimum wage and support collective bargaining.
I firmly disagree with the idea that politicians can pick their voters. Gerrymandering is a critical problem that leads to extremist candidates getting in office and popular policies not being enacted.
There should be a non-partisan committee responsible for generating maps after the census (and ONLY after the census!). In general, districts should be in geographically contiguous areas, municipalities should not be divided unless necessary for the district size, and partisan leanings or previous voting records must not be used.
The first issue relates to funding. As long as we have open enrollment, the strict link between enrollment and funding needs to be changed.When a student (and their tax dollars) leave a district, the costs don't proportionately decrease. Funding needs to be based on district needs.
The state needs to cover anywhere from 60 to 100% of special education costs.
We need to put all tax dollars going to education into public schools, not private or religious schools.
The second overall issue relates to teachers. We need to pay them more in order to attract and retain the best educators. We must ensure they have the resources and class size to be able to do their job. We need to utilize their expertise in helping to improve our education outcomes.
Local communities should have the final say on these types of projects, but they need accurate and timely information.
First, non-disclosure agreements between corporations and government entities with large projects such as these need to be eliminated.
Second, impacts on infrastructure, water and power usage, pollution and physical impacts on the local environment must be provided to stakeholders in the decision.
Finally, residents need to be protected from increased costs that are caused by the project.