One of my proudest moments on the floor was working as a team to put pressure on the Majority Party so we could expand who was included in the teacher pay raises. In general, our hands-on, vocational students won big during my first term, while our littlest learners were left behind.

I introduced Workforce Pathways, which expanded and better linked career/technical education to current and targeted industries. Portions of my bill were in HB 7071, which passed. We also were able to get the meet the following goals:

If you send me back, not only will I continue to use my previous professional experience to expand career and technical education, but also I will continue to press forward the Early Learning Bill that expands access to early education, and improves the quality of early learning. According to a broad array of stakeholders and scholars, investing in our littlest learners is the type of long term, trickle down investing that will have rippling positive effects for generations to come.

We should start now.