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Education
Investing in education is the most important investment we can make.
To win the future, we have to win the race to educate our children.
Over the years, I’ve had the chance to work on education from many perspectives – first, as a school nurse and educator, then as a parent, and now as a Member of Congress.
I’m committed to ensuring that our schools offer strong, high quality education programs. I’ve consistently fought to provide local schools the federal funding and support they need to educate our children. I’ve also worked to make college more widely-accessible and affordable.
Our children deserve an education system that prepares them to be competitive in the global economy. To accomplish this goal, I’ll continue to champion efforts that help our students, educators, and parents succeed so that we are cultivating our nation’s future leaders and innovators.
My Priorities
- Ensuring that Head Start and other early childhood education programs have the tools and resources to fully prepare young children and families for the next steps in education
- Replacing No Child Left Behind Act with a new law that moves education away from a “one-size fits all” approach to one that provides greater flexibility for schools to innovate and improve results for their students
- Provide schools with federal funding to make energy-efficient upgrades
- Working with school districts and local agriculture to provide our students with healthy meals and snacks that include fruits and vegetables
- Addressing the rising cost of a college education
- Expanding college readiness programs, graduate study opportunities, and vocational education programs
My Accomplishments
- Helped pass into law legislation that saves over 250 teaching jobs on the Central Coast because of state and local budget cuts
- Voted to cut interest rates on federal student loans, increase Pell Grants, and simplify the student aid application process
- Authored and passed legislation that provides funds for school-based health clinics to provide easily accessible, high-quality preventative health care, mental health service, and social services to students.
- Worked on legislation to address the critical shortage of students pursuing careers in the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) subjects
- Introduced legislation to create new education programs that provide schools and organizations with funds to support environment-based education