I am proud to be leading the effort to get rid of lead in the drinking water in all schools across Pennsylvania. I believe every student should have the opportunity to obtain a quality education, regardless of the neighborhood they reside in.

Because I know that our school buildings are falling apart, our teachers are underpaid, and our students lack proper access to mental health resources. All the while, Pennsylvania is 47th in the nation in public education spending. As we continue transitioning to in-person learning while still in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, I believe that all children, teachers, and community residents have the right to feel safe and secure in their school facilities. As a proud product of the Philadelphia public school system, I was privileged to experience the best of our public school system – including Central High School (255!).

I will:

• Fight for additional $9 billion in funding for our schools over the next 7 years, as determined by the Basic Education Funding Commission.
• Advance legislation for a Fair Funding Formula that will significantly increase the amount of funding that the Philadelphia School District receives. PA must abandon its reliance on property taxes to fund its public education – a process that restricts your educational access to your zip code and disproportionately benefits wealthier locations of the commonwealth and hurts poorer ones in our commonwealth.
• Fight to end Toxic Schools and increase school safety. This means working towards and investing in remediation for lead, asbestos, and mold in all school buildings and rebuilding our public school infrastructure. In addition to legislation addressing lead in our schools’ drinking water, I am working on legislation to address asbestos in our schools.
• Support increases in health and educational resources to our schools. Every student deserves an on-site nurse, social worker, and librarian at their school, period. I am working to create and invest in school health centers across the Commonwealth to support both the mental and physical health needs of Pennsylvania students.
• Support the recruitment, hiring, and retention of more Black, Latinx, Asian, LGBTQI, and ESL teachers in all public schools. I will fight for a sizable expansion of teacher-training programs that focus on training more teachers with cultural competency for our state’s increasingly diverse student population. I am pushing for Increasing support for students, as well.