End Death BY Pregnancy
It is gravely unsettling that our state does not recognize medically-necessitated pregnancy termination as a fundamental right to spare a mother from death or injury. I believe women can and should make the private and life-sustaining decision to early terminate a pregnancy in consultation with their healthcare provider. It’s not abortion to spare the life of a mother. It is medical treatment sanctioned by ethics and the healing profession. A society that embraces doctors killing mothers by failing to act is not one that I can tolerate.
Fully Fund Public Education
Public education needs a financial overhaul. Not only is the funding formula too complicated to understand, but our elected leaders fail to recognize the rapidly changing needs of public schools. These needs include, but are not limited to, adjusting budgets for high inflation, ever-changing and increasing technology advancement costs, and unyielding high stakes competitive salaries and benefits. To address these issues, school districts that achieved and maintained a minimum of 95% attendance rate each academic year should be fully funded at 100% for their student attendance. This change will give the best possible chance for financial sustainability of school districts through these unpredictable and evolving times.
Healthcare for All
If ever there was a time in modern history that Texas needs healthcare for all, it’s now! Unfortunately, the correlation between health and wealth is all too real in Texas. Texas remains to be the state with the highest rate of uninsured persons in the nation. Health insurance premiums are too high, out of pocket medical expenses are too expensive, and medical procedures’ cost remains a mystery until the shocking bill arrives. I will advocate to expand Medicaid and establish auto enrollment for the uninsured. All Texans should have immediate access to preventative care, prescription drugs, dental, vision, hearing, mental health, neonatal, and postnatal care.
Justice Involved MeNTAl Health Access
Local jails and state prisons are detaining Texas citizens while failing to timely assess, treat, monitor, and respond to those who are suffering from mental illness. It’s an age-old problem that requires a long overdue solution. Both death by suicide and officer involved negligent homicide of incarcerated citizens with untreated or inadequately treated mental health symptoms are preventable. It’s time we prioritize engaging advocates, family members, community leaders, and mental health professionals to develop solutions. More attention on increasing mental health access to justice involved citizen means less taxpayer dollars paid out to remedy lives loss as a result of mental illness that persist in the justice system.
Ranked Choice Voting
It is no secret that I am a people over party leader, and it is for this reason that I choose to support the Ranked Choice Voting Movement. Capturing the true candidate preferences of THE PEOPLE are long overdue. The political system has abandoned us! It has chosen partisan division over compromise and sensibility to keep us locked in peril. Ranked Choice Voting advances and strengthens the power of democracy. It puts voting power back in the hands of the people. If we are to restore government to its constitutional duty of public service to fellow Texans instead of party allegiance, then making this critical step to incorporate Ranked Choice Voting helps us achieve this end. Not only will Ranked Choice Voting ensure our collective voices are heard, but it will save us money and time. Our true vote for who represents us matters!
Entrepreneurship and Small Business
I have a sense of urgency to rethink the current employment framework which encourages us to go find a “good job”. I will shift the conversation to be about offering “good work” rather than finding a “good job”. I will advocate for employment policy that creates more employment benefits for the 1099 independent contractor to receive health insurance and protection against exploitation for their “good work”. “Good work” recognizes that we live in a shared economy, and those who participate in it have ownership of their expertise and marketable skills to sell to a vast field of employers. It is an outcome-oriented approach that also recognizes that our skills and talents make us free agents with demonstrated capability to provide “good work” and does not limit us to only finding security in regular fulltime employment. I will advocate for free vocational training, increased access to trade schools and 21st century workforce certifications, affordable hands-on business formation technical support, entrepreneurship workshops, accountable small business protégé programs, and accessible small business loans including loans for startup companies. Small businesses and entrepreneurs are crucial to job creation and wealth building.
PrOPERTY TAX Reform
Affordability is an unavoidable challenge for Texas homeowners. Many homeowners are struggling to pay for essentials while being “taxed out of their homes”. Furthermore, more and more homeowners or aspiring to be homeowners do not have children, do not want them, or have children attending school elsewhere. Other homeowners have raised their children to adulthood and desperately need to downgrade their living expenses to manage the challenging costs related to aging. It’s time to detach local school district funding from property taxes. The falsehood about property taxes is that the allocated portion dedicated to local schools goes directly to neighborhood schools and local school districts. It’s the farthest thing from the truth! Counties only serve as a funnel who send school taxes directly to the state. The state of Texas disperses some but not all the funds to the local school district. Discontinuing school taxes bundled with property tax is a necessary and long overdue relief.