Balance and Fairness
We need balance and fairness in Olympia. Along with people reaching across the aisle to each other to get things accomplished.
Education
An excellent school and Community College system will provide a strong foundation for our State’s future.
Those two children at the top of the page are my grandchildren.--they live here and will eventually be attending public schools--improving education is a "big deal" for me.
In our District over half of the children are in private schools, the School District's budget grows every year while the enrollment is shrinking. It is time to follow our State Constitution and make fully funded education our first priority. As a real estate agent the first thing I hear from people wanting to relocate here is "I want to be in a "top school." All of our schools should be "top schools."
I would like to see us seek out schools that have found ways to be successful and emulate them. I recently spoke with Dr. Bob McLaughlin, (he is running for State House Rep. in the 14th Legislative District) a retired school superintendent and currently a high school principal that lives in Yakima. He has dealt with many students that have English as their second language. "Dr. Bob" as his students call him, got outside of the box regarding reading and found a program that worked for them--the Read Right program. The Union Gap School District went from 20% passing the WASL to 83.4% passing.
According to Dee Tadlock, Ph.D. (Developer of Read Right) "Read Right is a reading intervention program as well as a language acquisition program. We work with all categories of students--ELL,special education, title 1, non-labeled students, and even advanced placement students who are spending far too much time on homework due to inefficient reading skills. Our results far exceed expectations as defined by the US Department of Education."
When so many children attend private schools it hurts our schools and our communities. The school and community should be a place to get together and support each other. I recently interviewed the principal of B.F. Day Elementary, Susan McCloskey. She said their school is a "family school." They have family dinners and encourage parents to donate 15 hours per year to the class. That can be in the form of participating in field trips or coming to school to have lunch with their child. She said she would like business owners to help by letting employees off of work so that they can do this.
Education is the key to success and I want every single child to have access to quality education and a "top school." That means that each school needs to be adequately funded and that the teachers need to be paid adequately so that they stay.
I recently read an article in The Seattle Times by Don Nielsen entitled "Constraints make it hard for schools superintendent to make positive changes." Nielsen talks about a number of constraints Superintendent Goodloe-Johnson has to work under and recommends that we need to ask our Governor and Legislature to pass new laws or eliminate existing laws that "handcuff our superintendent and her management team." I am all for this!
A friend emailed me a link to an article in the IBDeditorials.com, entitled "The Toughest Test?" It is about how the Alain Leroy Locke High School in the Watts area of Los Angeles has now been taken over by Green Dot Public Schools (a nonprofit group that operates a dozen smaller charter schools in L.A). The have started their program this summer and the atmosphere is "orderly and few of the students are challenging the new rules."
L.A. does give some public money to charter schools and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation contributed some funds. "Green Dot, run by Rock-the-Vote founder Steve Barr, said that the Gateses and other reform-focused philanthropists would jump at the chance to help any public school like Locke that is trying something that works. So money is no excuse." (This may be one of those successes in schools that Olympia should take a look at.)
There is a lot to be done in this effort to improving education. We need smaller classes sizes; we need to hold teachers and administrators accountable for the education our children receive; and we need less bureaucracy.
Transportation
We need choice and affordable transportation. It is time to put the best solutions for congestion into action.
The "congestion by design" that the "powers-that-be" have been working towards just stinks! What congestion is doing is making more green house gas, forcing people to spend more money for gasoline and placing people in the position of not wanting to come into the city and, thereby, hurting businesses, events and Seattle's wonderful culture.
One of our major issues is the Alaskan Way Viaduct--which I would like to see repaired! If it cannot be repaired, it needs to rebuilt with the same capacity and with drivers being able to go 50 mph. So much commerce begins with the Port of Seattle and needs to get to Ballard and beyond. Many businesses would be irreparably harmed if there was down-time on 99 (Aurora). We cannot afford to do without it at this time—and we do not need to if we start listening to the engineers that have the voter’s interest at heart rather than the politicians.
We do need to put everything on the table. We need to be practical and work with what we have. This is Seattle, we are constrained by water and a lot of our commerce takes place at the Port. Our choices are limited and we need to keep things moving.
One of my opponents thinks we can have a surface street solution—I really don’t think that is a viable choice.
Another concern of the 36th Legislative District is that no effort is being made to replace the Magnolia Bridge or to provide alternate access to Magnolia--this needs to be moved up on the list of priorities.
Mass transit is important but we also need to improve our roads for both cars and buses. And we need something to stop the governance confusion between Sound Transit, Metro, Washington DOT so that we can coordinate a strategic integrated transportation plan.
We should dedicate transportation-related sales tax revenue to road construction and maintenance, exempt road construction materials from sales taxes to stop the unconstitutional transfer of motor fuel revenue to the general fund.
Property Tax Reform
Too many people are worried about being taxed out of their home. I would like to see property taxes follow the market down, not just up.
Taxes
We need to reform property taxes--too many people are worried about being taxed out of their homes. I am also opposed to a State Income Tax! Both of my opponents want it. The Washington Policy Center has a new booklet out and there is a very interesting chapter on tax policy. It says: Recommendation
1) Avoid enacting a state income tax. A state income tax would have a negative effect on the Washington economy. Comparisons among states show that income taxes reduce state competitiveness, add cost and complexity to the tax code, and reduce the incentive for people to work, save and invest. The absence of an income tax is one of the few clear advantages Washington’s business climate has over those of other states.
Before you vote please take the time to read their information.
Fiscal Responsibility
As a business owner, I know that fiscal responsibility is critical. The same should apply to state government. On this, WE MUST TAKE A STAND. With the state’s deficit larger than ever and the need for supporting local and statewide infrastructure, economic, and education projects more important than ever we must support and endorse fiscal responsibility.
EnergyA friend was telling me about an article he had read about mini nuclear reactors so I found information on it. "Mini Reactors Show Promise for Clean Nuclear Power's Future," by Phaedra Hise, published in Popular Mechanics on July 15, 2008. They talk about NuScale Power that has been developed by the engineering department at Oregon State. The containment unit is 14 ft. The whole unit sits below ground and can be manufactured cheaply. Each 45-megawatt electrical unit would generate enough power for about 45,000 homes.
A few weeks ago I rode over to Spokane with another friend and while driving in eastern Washington he asked why can't we put windmills in the area between the freeways here? It is something to consider.
Also I found an article about classes for electric vehicle workshops. These were at South Seattle Community College in the Continuing Education Department at West Seattle. This particular class was taught in June but maybe they are scheduling more.
We need to get the price of electricity down!
Clean Environment and Protecting Health
Cleaning up Puget Sound is project that will need all of us working together to accomplish. Clean air and preserving our open spaces will keep the promise of a vital Northwest alive for our children.
As I was campaigning last night, I met two wonderful women (Jan Hollingsworth and Karen Bowman) they are both nurses and very involved and interested in things like "Pollution in People." We shared a glass of wine and they gave me many resources and contacts to check out. I will give you web addresses when I have a little more time.
Public Safety
I am very much in line with Dino Rossi's views in this area--they are:
Providing safe communities to live and raise a family
I believe you should feel safe in your community, and our state must drastically improve the way it protects people. We must keep violent felons off the street, give law enforcement the tools they need to succeed and protect our children from sex offenders.
Stopping the early release of violent felons- The early release of felons has led to the deaths of three law enforcement officers and attacks on other citizens.
- This will not happen under my watch, and I will end the practice of early release for violent felons.
Helping community correction officers
- Overworked community correction officers have been asking for more resources to monitor offenders who have served their terms and been released.
- I will give them the tools they need to do their jobs and keep our neighborhoods safe.
Tracking sex offenders
- Require all sex offenders to register their DNA with the state.
- Increase penalties for sex offenders who fail to register their address and expand community notification of all sex offenders who fail to register.
- Require sex offenders to register their e-mail addresses and monitor their online activities.
- Ensure that when sex offenders are in this state illegally, upon completing their sentences they are immediately released to federal authorities for deportation.
- Require all Level 3 (most dangerous) sex offenders to be outfitted with real time GPS technology.
Prisons
- I would like to take a look at the high mandatory sentencing for marijuana--to me some of those people are not a danger to society and we should think about reducing those sentences.
- I would like to see a tier system for prisoners.
- I want to find success stories from other prisons and utilize those ideas.
- I would like to see prisons becoming more self-sustaining
- I want white collar criminals hit where it hurts them most--in the pocket book!
- With the number of violent prisoners on the rise, we must take steps now to keep them in prison and keep our communities safe.
- Maybe it is time to legalize Marijuana--I have always been opposed to this but if we could have laws in place to step hard on underage usage and strictly uphold driving while under the influence laws we would be able to tax the grower's revenue and have a sales tax. It should still be prohibited for someone to grow their own. This would, in my view, end a great deal of criminal activity and save a lot of money and time in court costs and police activity.
Farmers Markets
It has been brought to my attention that our Farmers Markets need the support of the Legislature. I have visited every Farmers Market in my District and they are very well attended. One of their issues is having the ability to sell fresh poultry at the Market. We need to support that!
Social Issues
I am pro-choice. It is not something I would have wanted for myself, but no one has the right to tell a woman that she cannot make that choice for herself--it is a private matter. Sometime ago I took the survey to get an endorsement from NARAL Pro-Choice Washington. I did answer all of the questions in line with their views and the woman that spoke with me told me that she would need to find out if I could be endorsed also, since NARAL had already done a dual endorsement for my opponents. Well, they would not endorse me also. And you know what--they have not endorsed one Republican even though we may have our views right in line with theirs. I just thought you should know.
I am for marriage equality. It took me 19 years to find my second husband--someone that was a "good match" (unfortunately he died in a terrible accident six years ago). My feeling is that when someone is fortunate enough to find a partner that they love and feel they want to make that "life committment" to--who has the right to say that they cannot? This is also no one else's business to interfere. If you are married or thinking about it--how would you like it if someone told you that you cannot marry the person of your own choice.
Just One More Thing
I used to be an "Independent" did you ever say to yourself "I wish there was a party that was the best of both worlds?" Many people have asked "With the views you have, why are you not a Democrat?" Because with all of my issues is the requirement for fiscal responsibility. I also believe that smaller government is better and that we should help people to help themselves. Responsibility for oneself should be each persons goal (if they are able physically and mentally able to do so).
