Issue Position: Education

Issue Position

I'm a mom of two school-age students and education is our highest priority -- I know this is why people move to East Greenwich. We need someone who can deliver our schools what they need from the state and work with our local leaders collaboratively to help our students succeed. I was a teacher and a student for a long time, so I know how valuable a good teacher can be in a student's life and want to make sure East Greenwich is a school district that attracts high quality educators and administrators. I want to make sure all of our schools across Rhode Island have what they need to provide a first-rate education to our kids. Since being elected two years ago, I have:

Worked with House leadership to add nearly $1 million to the budget for East Greenwich schools

Supported the $5 million East Greenwich school bond for building maintenance and security upgrades

Advocated for the specific needs of special education students struggling with the distance learning imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic

I was a teacher and a student for a long time, so I know how valuable a good teacher can be in a student's life and want to make sure East Greenwich is a school district that attracts high quality educators and administrators. I want to make sure all of our schools across Rhode Island have what they need to provide a first-rate education to our kids.

I was embarrassed that, while I was running in 2018, East Greenwich High School didn't even have a library that its students could access. I was glad that we were able to elect new leaders who worked together to solve these problems.

While in graduate school at URI, I taught Composition, but also spent a year working in Enrollment Services, processing financial aid applications and shepherding families through the often labyrinthine process of figuring out how to pay for college. I saw firsthand there how much debt students sign on to at 18 years old, not realizing the full implications of that decision. I saw how many kids were not really prepared for college, but applied and took out loans because it seemed like the only next step. We need to do better in terms of preparing and educating kids on what a college degree entails. We need to both provide better choices and provide more tools to students and parents to help them make the right choices for their families.

The bottom line is that every child in Rhode Island deserves a first class education. I know how important a good education is to getting a good job or going to graduate school. I also know how important it is in helping people become lifelong readers and thoughtful citizens capable of navigating the technology and critically evaluating the information coming at us -- being able to separate fact from fiction -- in the world we live in now.

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