Issue Position: Education

Issue Position

All children deserve the opportunity for a quality education. With today's changing economy, we must ensure that youth, but especially girls and students from low income communities, have access to Science Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) programs, so they can be prepared for the careers of the future.

Our students need to be equipped to succeed in college or for careers that pay a living wage. We must make college affordable instead of saddling young people with burdensome debt.

In the State Assembly, I was proud to earn the PTA's most prestigious recognition, the PTA Golden Oak Service Award, for my work on behalf of children and education. I authored a statewide School Facilities Bond Act providing $1.9 billion for school improvements and construction and won more than $60 million in funding to help low performing schools in Garden Grove, Santa Ana and Anaheim.

I also enacted school safety laws, including stiffer penalties for selling drugs and committing gang-related felonies on school campuses and secured more than $26 million for new building construction at UC Irvine.

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