When I first ran for office, education was my top priority. As a classroom teacher I saw the realities that our students and staff face on a daily basis and decided enough was enough. I was tired of the running jokes about Nevada education being the top of every bad list and the bottom of every good list. Our children and our community deserved better. Ever since I announced my candidacy in 2021, fixing our public school system has been my guiding star. That work is certainly not finished, but we are making important strides in that direction.

One of the most important things we can do to support public education is to increase funding to our schools. Nevada has traditionally ranked at the bottom of national education funding and it shows in our dilapidated schools and overcrowded classrooms. During the 82^nd Session I made investing in our public schools a top priority and I was proud to help pass the largest increase in the education budget in Nevada history. We allocated a record $2.6 billion more in education funding last session! This has translated into a 26% increase in the Washoe County School District budget and a 20% increase in pay for our hard working teachers and education support professionals across the county. In addition to that investment, we also secured a record $140 million for early childhood education, which is critical in setting our children on a path to success. Our work is far from over and we absolutely need to keep investing in our schools so we can reach optimal funding, but I am proud of what we accomplished on behalf of our public schools last session.

Just as importantly, I helped to stop a reckless scheme by the Governor to siphon away $500 million from our public schools to finance a private school voucher scheme. I have said from the very beginning that I will always defend our public schools and I have done just that. We cannot invest $2.6B more in public education, and then remove $500M from public education to give to private institutions in the same Session. Taking public money out of our already underfunded public schools and handing it to unaccountable private schools hurts our communities. Public education is the great equalizer and the cornerstone of our democracy. I will proudly fight against these voucher schemes every Session, no matter what clever name they may be using at the moment.

In addition to these investments in our schools, I also helped pass legislation to make our schools safer and more welcoming spaces for both educators and students. This included bills meant to protect our students and staff from violent and severely disruptive students by removing those students and providing them with the specialized support they clearly need. Other bills included allowing students to wear cultural regalia at their high school graduation, opting all students into more rigorous curriculum standards, reducing redundant testing, and ensuring staff, students, and families are updated regularly during an emergency event at a school.

I personally sponsored several bills meant to make our teachers more effective and our diplomas more meaningful. These included bills to: 

• Address overcrowded classrooms by reducing class size.
• Make our high school exit exam a true reflection of the skills students need to be successful.
• Remove bureaucratic burdens from teachers’ workload and eliminate redundant paperwork.
• Ensure our curriculum is providing real world skills to our students. 

Not all of these bills made it through the legislative process, but I remain committed to improving our schools and will absolutely continue to advocate for all of these critical issues next session.

Whether you have children in Nevada schools or not, this is an issue that affects all of us. A society cannot continue to function without well-educated citizens to keep it running. We need workers, doctors, teachers, and leaders who are ready to take on the challenges of the future and lead our community into a bright future. That all starts in the classroom and I will continue to fight to ensure they have the resources they need to help our children and our community thrive.

As a history teacher, I know the backbone of the middle class has always been strong unions fighting for the rights of our workers. When I began at the Washoe County School district, the first thing I did was join our teachers union (the Washoe Education Association and Nevada State Education Association) and I have been an active member ever since.  I have always been a fierce advocate for unionization and I continue to push for increased collective bargaining rights in Nevada. 

Additionally, I support a living wage for all Nevadans which is tied to inflation. We must be guided by the fact that there is dignity in all work. The dignity of work must mean just that – that anyone who is willing to work can live a life of dignity in which all of their needs can be met with the paycheck they earn. Unfortunately, due to inflation, every day ordinary Nevadans continue to work harder, for a diminishing paycheck, which is unacceptable. That is why I was proud to support a 20% increase in pay for our state workers and our Washoe educators. Now that we have secured these important wins I will continue to advocate for policies which allow workers to organize to demand fair wages as well as state legislation that ensures our minimum wage is keeping pace with inflation.

For too long our state has been the first to suffer from an economic downturn and the last to recover. Each election, we hear candidates talk about diversification of the economy, but it needs to mean something. We cannot diversify on the backs of our workers and our children. We cannot continue to offer sweetheart deals to corporations and billionaires who rely on lucrative government incentives only to turn around and bring in out of state workers and pay nothing in taxes. We are giving away the resources of our state and receiving nothing in return. We must stop this race to the bottom and instead grow our economy with good paying, union jobs. This is why I have been a staunch opponent of every state giveaway of public dollars to private, multi-billion-dollar corporations, including the most recent giveaway to John Fisher to build a stadium for the Oakland A’s in Las Vegas. On that issue especially, my community made it very clear that they did not want our public dollars handed over to an out of state billionaire for another publicly funded sports stadium and I will continue to make sure their voices are heard in the halls of power.

Instead of these ill-advised corporate giveaways, we should attract businesses here by providing a world class education and creating a stellar workforce for these companies. Even better, we should give Nevadans the tools and resources to create their own small businesses and diversify from within. 

 Housing prices in our community are skyrocketing and ordinary Nevadans are struggling to keep up. Nevadans who have saved up a down payment and have done everything right to purchase their first home are being priced out of the market by corporate investors. These investors, who are often out of state, are outbidding homebuyers in our community by offering cash way over asking price. Then, they turn around and rent out these homes at exorbitant rates. People who want to enter into the housing market simply can’t buy a home and renters are being priced out of their own communities. With these conditions, it is no wonder that homelessness is increasing in our community. This situation is untenable and must stop. 

This is why I supported legislation which would place limits on investors buying up entire neighborhoods and pricing out ordinary Nevadans. I also supported legislation which would cap outrageous rental fees, provide protections for tenants, require more transparency from landlords, protect seniors from exorbitant rent increases and fix our outdated summary eviction process. Unfortunately, every one of these critical housing bills was vetoed by the Governor. Rest assured, I have never backed down from a fight and will absolutely continue to advocate for policies which protect Nevada renters and homeowners and ensure that all of our citizens have a place to call home.

The cost of daycare in our state is exorbitant and the options are far too limited. For too many families it is cheaper for one partner to stay home to care for the children than it is to send them to preschool or daycare. In many cases, the monthly daycare bill costs more than the monthly housing bill! 

We must expand the childcare options in Nevada and we can start by creating universal pre-k across the state. As a teacher I have seen the dramatic impact pre-k can have on the life of a child. Children who have attended quality pre-k programs are given a leg up in life and set up for future success. Conversely, children without access to pre-k instruction too often enter school without prerequisite skills and knowledge and struggle to catch up for the rest of their academic careers. We should also invest in early childhood programs and offer small business supports to quality daycares in our community in order to expand the range of childcare options available. This is why I fought to pass one of the largest investments in early childhood education in state history. I will continue to push this issue until we can finally achieve the dream of universal pre-k and affordable childcare for all of the children of Nevada.

Nevada has been blessed with vast wide-open spaces which remain wild and untouched and we must work to keep them that way. Our public lands must be protected for future generations and we must be good stewards of the land. Development of public lands should not be undertaken without careful study of the environmental impacts and consultation with Native groups whose histories with this land must be honored. Further, any use of our public lands should be in the interest of preserving environments, investing in green energy projects, or increasing recreation to allow more Nevadans to experience its natural wonder.

We must also shift our energy infrastructure to rely entirely on renewable energy and promote the creation of green industries which provide good union jobs. We have all seen the devastation wrought by climate change on our region. From severe drought to devastating wildfires, our way of life is actively being threatened across Nevada. We don’t have to sit by helplessly as we watch climate change wreak havoc on our communities. Nevada can and should be at the forefront of green energy in this country – we are a perfect location for solar and geothermal energy and we need to utilize those resources to their fullest extent. We must become leaders in the green revolution.

As a leading member of the Natural Resources Committee I worked on many environmental issues, including: combatting climate change, stewarding our public lands, protecting our wildlife, and managing our most precious resource: water. I personally sponsored bills meant to improve our soil health and another to improve the safety and efficiency of our household appliances in order to reduce emissions, both of which would help to combat climate change. I have been a champion on these issues, and will continue that work for the duration of my legislative career.

Historically, Nevada has ranked nearly last in access to healthcare, spending on health programs, and doctors and nurses per capita. Too many people in our state cannot afford to see a doctor or get the lifesaving care they need. Even when people have insurance, they can’t get in to see their doctor in a timely manner or find a specialist without going out of state. Mental health statistics are even worse. We must invest in programs which lower the cost of care, increase access to quality, affordable insurance, and incentivize doctors and nurses to enter and stay in the profession here in Nevada. To that end, I supported legislation to incentivize health care providers to work in underserved communities by repaying a portion of their student loans in exchange for their service. I also supported bills which give more power to doctors to prescribe the medication their patients need without insurance companies getting in the way and a bill which would have significantly lowered prescription drug costs for all Nevadans. Unfortunately, this last bill was vetoed by the Governor, who didn’t think lowering prescription drug costs was an issue we should address. 

Thanks to the actions of a radical far right Supreme Court, the right to medical privacy is no longer a guarantee and millions of women no longer have access to abortion care and other healthcare services. It now falls to state leaders to protect the rights of women in their communities and ensure they can access the quality reproductive care that they need and deserve. Nevada is a pro-choice state and the right is codified in state law. To ensure that protection remains absolute, I cosponsored legislation to enshrine the right to reproductive freedom into our state constitution. Reproductive healthcare is a basic human right and I intend to protect and strengthen this fundamental right. 

Moreover, due to the abortion bans implemented in many states, Nevada is likely to become a safe haven state for abortion care in the coming months and years. That is why I also cosponsored legislation which protects anyone seeking abortion services or other reproductive healthcare from punishment in other states.  The state of Nevada should not cooperate with other states who are trying to take away the basic rights of American citizens.

There are many candidates running for office this cycle who want to take away the rights of Nevadans and insert the government into private medical decisions. That is unacceptable. We need a leader who will fend off attacks on our personal freedoms and will ensure that every Nevada woman has the right to decide when, if, and how she wants to start a family. That is why I will never back down in this fight – our basic rights will always be worth defending.