Affordable High-Quality Child Care

Vermont led the nation with the 2014 Act 166 providing access to publicly funded prekindergarten education for Vermont students. It’s time to act again as Vermont’s early childhood education system is in crisis. Every child in Vermont deserves to have access to high-quality affordable early childhood education. Although Vermont has made significant investments in early childhood education, we can do more. Early childhood education is a key part of Vermont’s economic development, and we can take this opportunity to become a national model to ensure affordable high-quality child care for all Vermonters.

Free High-Quality Public Education

Education is a powerful driver of prosperity and free public education is one of the necessary foundations of Vermont communities and will provide our youngest Vermonters opportunities to succeed.  A strong public education system is also essential to Vermont’s well-being and will help keep Vermonters engaged and informed which will ultimately improve our social and economic well-being in Vermont.

Affordable Housing

Vermont had been experiencing an affordable housing crisis that has only been exasperated by the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the Vermont Housing Finance Agency, housing prices increased by 19% during the pandemic and are projected to continue to increase making it nearly impossible for working families to own a home. I want to work on creative solutions that will help address our housing crisis including building new affordable housing stock, addressing evictions, and reviewing zoning laws and regulations to promote more housing.

Improving the Social Safety Net and Addressing the “Time Tax”

We need to build better social safety nets for our most vulnerable and create systems of care that help Vermonters through difficult challenges. We also need to simplify state government, making it more user-friendly and accessible for vulnerable Vermonters. State government programs are complex and become administrative burdens with duplicate requirements that often waste countless hours. We need to simplify government systems that are intended to help Vermonters. Applications can be consolidated, systems can be modernized, and services can be coordinated. We also need to look at these systems from the lens of a recipient of the services and evaluate barriers and requirements. Let’s not rely on businesses, charities, and legal-aid groups to perform public administration on behalf of our government. I am committed to working on finding human-centered solutions that will ultimately benefit all of us by creating social safety nets that work to help and protect Vermonters, especially the most vulnerable.