JOBS
The government has the power to shape society & the economy. With power comes responsibility. As such, I believe the government should take an active role in improving equity in our state.
strengthening our state’s economy
I support using every tool available to support small, local businesses, co-ops, & employee-owned businesses. Our state's economy & our individual economies are stronger when money is spent locally & we are our own bosses.
an equitable economy
I support raising the minimum wage, strengthening the Equal Pay for Equal Work Act should it fail to increase equality of pay for work across intersections of gender & race, & strengthen oversight of state contracting processes to ensure fair consideration of POC-owned firms.
developing a green economy
I support making Colorado a hub for the green economy with renewable energy companies that hire locally for good paying jobs that protect the right to form a union & meet licensing, labor, and safety standards.
a workplace free from harassment
I support efforts to study & strengthen protections for employees that meaningfully deter harassment in the workplace.
a strong voice for workers
The ability to organize & collectively bargain is fundamental to preventing the exploitation of workers. I will view legislation through a lens of supporting our workers & supporting our unions.
I will also look to strengthen protections for employees by closing employee classification loopholes that exist in part-time v. full-time hiring practices and contractor v. employee status.
education
The future of our state is only as promising as our students’ future. From pre-k to post-graduate, our goal MUST be to guarantee high-quality education that meets the needs of EVERY student.
equity in Prek-12 education
We have education gaps across Aurora & across our state. I support investment in public, neighborhood schools. Let’s make our schools hubs for the community, because we know a student’s success is determined by much more than what happens in the classroom. Our schools can be an asset to not just our students, but their families as well.
Part of equity is doing what’s needed to balance out inequality. As such, I support efforts to move us toward fully funded pre-k & enhancing opportunities for summer programming.
We must also overhaul SB 10-191 to disconnect testing & teacher evaluations from school funding, make evaluations of students & teachers more holistic & decrease class sizes. This will help us better understand our teachers’ & students’ successes & challenges thereby helping us better set them up for a successful & promising future.
taking care of our teachers
In this same vein, I support efforts that enable teachers to live where they work which means raising teacher pay, looking into subsidized housing for teachers, loan repayment programs & recruitment programs that increase diversity & employ teachers from the school’s neighborhood. And of course this includes supporting teachers’ ability to organize & collectively bargain.
setting up colorado grads for success
Part of equity in education is helping our grads who don’t have the same connections as others to get a foot in the door at good-paying jobs. So, I support incentivizing local businesses to hire Colorado grads, supporting the expansion of trade union apprenticeship programs & their coordination with our schools, supporting the State Board of Education in evaluating curriculum to ensure students are learning the skills & tools needed to thrive in our evolving economy, & expanding loan repayment programs so our grads can go into public service careers without being saddled with debt their whole lives.
Properly fund education
TABOR, Gallagher, and Amendment 23 are hamstringing our state budget. If we want to properly fund education, we must dismantle this constraining infrastructure.
access to higher ed
I believe education is important enough for individuals & society that it should be free for all students. Understanding the challenges to that, we can start with free community college first or with dramatically expanding income-based tuition, but we need to be moving in the direction of universal education. In the meantime, I also support extending free application day to free application week and further investing in community education about community colleges & concurrent enrollment so our high school students can set themselves up for success.
Strengthen cultural competency
Learning cannot happen in a hostile environment. That’s why I support ensuring our curriculum, discipline models, teacher training, & teacher recruitment are imbued with cultural competency to reduce the school to prison pipeline & ensure our students' education instills dignity & pride in all our children. This should also include an increased investment in anti-bullying programs & initiatives.