School funding is flawed. Public schools are the heart and soul of our communities in rural and urban areas. Revenue controls, voucher experiments, local referenda, and cuts to revenue sharing have left schools starved of resources during times of increasing student needs. It's time to build a funding formula that supports our schools.
Workers have been stripped of their voice in public schools as well as other public employers in Wisconsin, resulting in a churn of employees. Half of newly hired teachers leave districts within five years. It’s time to repeal Act 10 and bring stability to our educator workforce.
Other key issues are women’s health care rights, affordable health care access for all, child care, elder care, and mental health care. We must expand Medicaid. Clean water, sustainable agriculture, support for rural small businesses, and broadband access in rural communities are other important concerns.
As an experienced teacher and public education advocate, I will bring my skills to these issues to rebuild our funding system and restore worker voice. I’m a good listener and will engage with others to find solutions around common values to move Wisconsin forward.
Affordable housing is a number issue one right now. Young people especially are having a difficult time finding a home to purchase, much less an affordable place to rent. The cost of building, developing related infrastructure such as roads, zoning restrictions, local opposition, and other factors have made development difficult even as mortgage rates have increased. Across the state it varies, but in some areas it has become hard for workers to find places to live, which means that employers have difficulty attracting and hiring workers.
I would consider legislative efforts to help subsidize renovating older homes or unused retail properties, help builders with infrastructure costs for sustainable residential communities, or incentivize developers to build worker and high quality lower income rental properties. I think there are solutions if communities work together around common values.
Women have the right to control what happens to their own bodies, including any and all reproductive health care, IVF, abortion, and contraception. I believe this should be stated clearly in Wisconsin law and I will advocate for it. Likewise, we need to prove access to health care including mental health care to all people in Wisconsin. It’s time Wisconsin accepts federal dollars and expands Medicaid rather than sending our federal dollars to other states.
The first thing we need to do is improve our funding formula to improve and increase funding to our schools in general. We also need to repeal Act 10 and bring back educator voices. Teachers are professionals who know a great deal about how to manage student learning. Next, we need to fully fund special education funding. Currently it is reimbursed at a rate of 33%, which means it is largely competing with other school district funds and remains one of the fastest growing components of a school budget. If that sounds crazy, well, it is.
As a former special education teacher myself, I know what a difference it makes for kids to have someone in their corner at school. I sometimes saw the change occur before my eyes. It takes time and special attention to help a student grow and thrive, and that means it takes people and resources. That’s what makes the difference. That’s what improves outcomes.
We need a non-partisan process that ensures no consideration is given to party. Rather, community should be the guiding principle. Maps should not be drawn by legislators whose inclination is to choose voters who are likely to re-elect them, as the parties in power in 2011 did. No way, let’s not do that again, regardless who is in power in 2031. Let’s go out of our way to agree on a process to make district maps that focus on our natural communities across the state. Voters choose their legislators. Legislators should not choose their voters. We can listen to experts, study other states, learn, and create a fair process.
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