Education
B.A. Education, Biology major, Spanish minor
Work experience
15 years public school teacher in TN, AZ, IN. 5 years Outdoor Education Supervisor/Natural Resources Manager, Lake County, IN Park Department. 5 years teaching assistant, Biology department, Purdue University NW. Quality control laboratory tech, 3 years.
I am running for this office to stop the voucher program that would take millions of our public tax dollars (up to a billion or more) and give them to private schools rather than to the public schools that need them. We are currently at the bottom, 45th in the nation, on education funding. We shouldn't give our public tax dollars to private schools that can discriminate against students, indoctrinate any way they want, and are demonstrably not producing better results than our great, but underfunded, public schools.
I'm also running to fight for Medicaid expansion, the lack of which has left 300,000 Tennesseans uninsured and cost the state over $22 billion.
I will also fight for women's rights, LGBTQ rights and to address climate change.
First is education funding which needs to increase and should be directed solely to public schools, not private.
We need to finally, after many years, accept the federal funding to expand Medicaid for the health of the individuals and the community.
We must repeal the severe and cruel ban on abortion and protect the right to determine one's own reproduction and healthcare.
We need to stop the corporate cronyism that resulted in a massive tax cut/refund for corporations and instead direct tax cuts to working people.
We must address crime with common sense gun laws, drug laws, and options besides incarceration. Tennessee incarcerates more people than most countries and states, at great cost, but profit to private prison corporations.
We need stringent permit process that includes background check, training and a waiting period.
Private transfer of guns should be subject to the same process.
We need strong safe storage laws that apply to both homes and vehicles.
We need to expand availability of mental health counseling and training in conflict resolution, especially in our schools. Along with increased mental health access, we need to respond to warning signs about individuals who threaten gun violence or homicidal/suicidal thoughts, especially when referred by people close to the individual who may be in personal danger themselves. It should be possible, through a judicial process, to remove weapons from the individual until it is clear that any threat has resolved.
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