Issue Position: Championing our local schools

Issue Position

As the daughter of a single mother who worked multiple jobs to feed her three kids, education became my "economic opportunity" in my small rural farming community - and like most Washingtonians - access to education became the difference between the chance for an equal playing field or a stacked deck.

I was lucky. I benefited from the Head Start program. I had elementary and secondary school teachers whose classrooms were small enough to afford me individual attention when I went through foster care. I had high school teachers who stepped up when my mother, who had never graduated from high school, didn't know how to help me think about, let alone prepare for an education beyond high school. I had community leaders willing to provide scholarships and a state that invested in grants to send me to a four year school. Those same opportunities are dwindling daily with the increasing cost of education.

We must make certain that education at every level; K-12, short-term training, four year or graduate education, is accessible, affordable and building the workforce to meet the industry jobs of the 21st century to empower economic opportunity for all families in our state.

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