Priorities
As a longtime resident of our district, I share the same core values as you. I have seen through both disagreement and celebration, unity has always been our strength. TOGETHER we learn from each other, we stand, we share and we build a strong successful community.
My primary areas of focus are:
Education
“Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.” Malcolm X
Education is the core building block of our community, State and Nation. No country has ever prospered without an educated populous. The Arizona Republican legislature is currently working feverishly to undermine the value of our education. Arizona, the 48th state in the US, still ranks 48th in education.
We are losing quality teachers due to drastic and indefensible cuts in funding for our schools and teachers’ salaries.
The 1980’s addition to Arizona’s constitution (Aggregate Expenditure Limitations for all school districts) is outdated and does not reflect the growth in our State. These limitations must be increased to keep our public schools open past the March 1st deadline.
In our country and in our State of Arizona, quality education should not be designed by zip codes. LD11 represents too many of those underserved zip codes.
Infrastructure
Infrastructure is everything that we need to function, from home to school to roads to hospitals to first responders and so much more.
We need 21st century world-class infrastructure. As in the days of President Dwight D Eisenhower, our infrastructure needs a brand-new overhaul.
Infrastructure is not just roads, firetrucks, police, sidewalks, bridges, and electricity. Also included are affordable housing, quality drinking water, access to healthcare for all Arizonans, clean air, and statewide internet access for students, businesses, and the new normal at-home workers.
Education is also part of the infrastructure. With an improved education system, Science, Technology, Engineering, Art & Mathematics (STEAM) and partnering with the tech industries our youth workforce will be ready.
We also need to make sure that we are a part of the Clean Energy revolution. Looking at the horizon of the South Phoenix skyline, I see pollution. According to the EPA’s daily pollution advisory, that pollution is all over the valley. Approximately 8% of the population of metropolitan Phoenix have asthma and ranks in the top 5 of the US cities for Asthma-related death. An ASU study, “Central Arizona – Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research” conducted in a low-income, Latino neighborhood found that 16% of children under 19 years old suffer from Asthma and other lung conditions directly caused by pollution. Clean energy is one giant step towards clean air.
Homelessness is growing in our city, state, and nation. The victims of homelessness live daily under inhumane conditions. I will work with city, county, and state governments to help eradicate this epidemic. It cannot be only a government effort; however, we need to have our communities involved. I will be with you!
In addition, I will work diligently with state, county, local governments, and civic organizations to ensure the Federal dollars that are coming to our state from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act will be fairly distributed to our LD.
Workers’ Right to Organize
“The People united will never be defeated.” Cesar Chavez, American Labor Leader and Civil Rights Activist
Collective bargaining is the process of united workers organizing as Unions of Employees. Unions or Unionization reached its peak in the United States following World War II in1945. This was the birth of America’s middle class. Organized labor brought equality to the workforce reducing racial and gender employment opportunities and wage disparities. Unions help to win passage of progressive policies and legislation at the Federal, State, and the Local levels. Collective Bargaining is non-exclusionary. Unionized workers are all on a level playing field. When Unions are strong, they set wage standards for entire industries and occupations. This benefits all workers, not just unionized workers. Collective Bargaining reduces income inequality for all wage earners by making sure all Americans and not just the wealthy elite share in the benefits of their labor.
Unions ensure a better quality of life for employees through Collective Bargaining contracts. Included in the agreements are salaries, safe workplaces, healthcare and retirement benefits. Additionally, there are paid holidays, overtime pay, and various other paid time off such as vacations. Cooperation between employers and employees is contractually demanded through Collective Bargaining resulting in employees being held to certain work standards and higher employee productivity.
Non-union or Right to Work States in the US are able to hire on an at-will status and the employees can be fired at the pleasure of employers which effectively offers no real JOB SECURITY. Currently, in the US there are 28 non-union States; Arizona is a Right to Work State. Where Unions are weak, wealthy corporations and their allies are more successful in pushing through policies and legislation that favors employers. However, when employment is high and wages are competitive, both industry and the workforce thrive.
“Depressing wage growth in the US for middle earners and wage inequity over the past four decades is the erosion of collective bargaining. The share of workers covered by collective bargaining fell from 27% in 1979 to just 11.6% in 2019. When Union membership was at its highest rate, there was less income inequality which has continued to increase as Unions have been decreased.” – The Economic Policy Institute (Lawrence Mishel, 4.8.21)
In Arizona and around the nation there is a renaissance of unionization.
I am a fervent believer and a staunch supporter of workers’ right to organize.
Public Safety
Public safety is the welfare and security promised to every citizen of this great nation. The purpose of public safety professionals is to protect citizens, communities, and organizations from dangers and threats. This includes Firefighters, Police, First Responders, Emergency Management teams, and our Military.
There is divisiveness and constant controversy over what public safety is and in particular policing. The controversy has grown over decades and the divisiveness has broadened to a point where the discussion has become impossible. The attempted discussions are failing because everyone has taken their position and separated into separate corners. The one thing we can all agree on is the need for police reform and bringing our PD into the 21st century.
My vision of 21st century policing is the use of technologies and specialized training. It will also require legislation to ensure that public safety and technology do not violate our Constitutional rights and ensure equality.
I am very passionate about this. Both my grandfather and great-grandfather were policemen.
In 1853, the first fully paid professional fire department in our country was established in Cincinnati, Ohio. American firefighters are among the best in the world. They have grown with the times and the new technologies. These men and women run into danger to protect lives and property.
As your representative, I will work to support our firefighters and all first responders to ensure competitive salaries and healthcare benefits as well as provide the advanced equipment needed in their jobs.
Voting Rights
“Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Governed.” 1776 Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson.
Following the establishment and ratification of the United States Constitution, most US States
disenfranchised all but White male property owners from the electorate. Following the 1850’s quasi male sufferage movement, all White males including those who did not own property were given both the right to vote and to run for office by 1860.
The 1867 & 1868 Reconstruction Acts gave former enslaved males the right to vote. A series of laws were immediately passed in the States to counter the Acts. Inhumane tactics including lynchings were utilized to prevent the newly freed men from full citizenship.
After decades of struggle, the 19th amendment was ratified in 1920 giving ALL WOMEN the right to vote. White women alone benefited.
Ironically, in 1924 the Snyder Act admitted Native Americans born in the US to “full citizenship”. It took over 40 years for all 50 States to comply. Arizona’s Supreme Court struck down the provision keeping These People, the Original Americans in our State from voting. In other States, the tactics used against other non-White voters were utilized including violence and deaths. The struggles continued resulting in the Civil Rights Movement and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Asian Americans were protected under the Act. Latinos were not immediately included in this 1965 Act. It was not until a decade later, with the 1975 extension of the Voting Rights Act, Latinos finally got the right to vote.
The States, with Arizona’s Republican legislators leading the charge are again attempting to enact laws denying marginalized communities, the working poor, and students the right to vote.
We Are the GOVERNED!
Americans of all ethnic backgrounds MUST come together to protect this most precious right of our DEMOCRACY.
As your elected State Representative, I will fight to protect our right to decide how we will be governed.
In 1863, referring to the deaths of 3155 soldiers at the Civil War battleground in Gettysburg, President Abraham Lincoln states:
“These dead shall not have died in vain – that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government, Of the People, By the People, For the people – Shall not perish from this earth.”