Issue Position: Family Values

Issue Position

Political leaders in Montpelier often lament that our young people are leaving the state. At the same time they are slow to act on wages, climate change, and basic rights for working people -- issues young people care deeply about.

After years of fighting for earned sick leave, Vermont became the fifth state to insist that workers have a paid day off when they are sick. I'm proud to have played a role over the decade of advocacy it took to become law.
We still need paid family leave so that young people are attracted to Vermont as a good place to raise children. Right now a mother in Vermont can take six weeks of un-paid time off to care for a new born. Forty miles north of us residents of Quebec are given a year off with about 2/3 pay. I have introduced a modest family leave bill that would give residents 6 weeks of paid leave to care for a newborn or an ailing parent, etc. Now that sick leave is guaranteed to Vermonters I hope this will become the next frontier to strengthen families and empower our work force (especially women who are so often primary care givers).

Affordable higher ed is another problem we face in Vermont. Our state colleges are scraping by while UVM tuition is out of range for too many Vermont families. We are robbing our young people of the opportunity to get ahead. Ask 8th graders if they sense their parents' stress about paying for college and many will say they do. My bet is that these kids recognize there isn't much point in trying hard in high school since their options for college are bleak. We are cheating them and must find a path to making our state college system affordable to every Vermonter.

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