Funding Schools

• Fully funding our schools means holding the state accountable to implementing Pennsylvania’s fair funding formula and ensuring every district receives the resources it deserves. But funding is about more than budgets, it’s about giving teachers the support they need to focus on teaching and ensuring students have access to counselors and social workers who can address their mental health needs. When schools are properly resourced, students feel supported, proud of their communities, and hopeful about their future.

  Having counselors and social workers that understand local concerns and stress factors our young people face is especially important at this time. Recent studies have shown that over one third (37%) of Pennsylvania students have indicated feeling depressed, and it is time that we adequately address this.

  This is done by working with fellow representatives in Harrisburg to advocate for increased funding while ensuring that public dollars stay in public schools, meaning I will not vote for private school vouchers or tax credit programs.

  Maintenance, infrastructural improvements, and utilities are main reasons for why it is so costly to operate school districts. This is why I will fight for more immediate investing for infrastructural improvements to school facilities before repair costs increase in years to come. I also hope to help expand the Solar for Schools Program to help districts save on energy costs and potentially invest those funds into more counselors and other staff our students need to be successful.

Affordability Crisis

• Philadelphia is facing a growing affordability crisis, and the question we must ask is: how do we invest in our neighborhoods without pushing longtime residents out? Affordability isn’t just about building more housing, it’s about building housing that people who have lived in these communities their entire lives can actually afford. It also means supporting renters with pathways to stability and homeownership. Strong communities are built when residents can stay, grow, and benefit from the investments happening around them.

  A minimum wage increase in Pennsylvania is long overdue, and of all of our neighboring states, we are the only one who continues to match the federal rate of $7.25 an hour. I will fight for a livable minimum wage that is indexed to account for inflation. As someone who used to work in the service industry, I would eliminate the tipped minimum wage of $2.83 an hour and ensure that workers of all industries make a living wage.

  With regards to housing, we want to ensure that long-term residents can afford to stay in Pennsylvania, while also welcoming the population boom we are seeing in some Philly neighborhoods and suburbs. A large investment (like the Governor’s Housing Action Plan) will allow residents to preserve and modernize their homes, and build thousands of more housing units to avoid hitting a projected shortfall of 185,000 homes by 2035. This needs to be partnered with stronger tenant protections to avoid fear of landlord retaliation, and rent stabilization legislation to ensure that rent increases do not outpace the inflation we are seeing during this cost of living crisis.

  Prevention in Public Safety

• Public safety concerns can include mass incarceration, traffic fatalities, or ICE terrorizing our communities. While the challenges may look different, the solution must begin with prevention. We cannot police our way out of every problem. True public safety means investing in the conditions that allow communities to thrive with safe streets, youth programs, well-resourced neighborhoods, and opportunities that reduce violence before it begins. When we focus on prevention, we create safer blocks, stronger communities, and a district where everyone can feel secure.

  Our prison system should not be how we deal with our residents suffering from drug addiction or behavioral health conditions. As president of NASW PA, I was part of the advocacy group for the implementation of the 988 crisis hotline in our commonwealth. This connects callers experiencing suicidal thoughts, or any behavioral or mental health need to crisis response professionals who can provide them with adequate resources. I also believe that we need to expand successful models like the Bucks County Co-Responder Program, which allows for a social worker to be paired with a police officer when responding to these matters to help divert people away from the criminal justice system in order to receive proper care.

  I want the 195th District, and Philadelphia more broadly, to be one of the safest places for cyclists. Pennsylvania sets up a significant barrier to this by currently not allowing protected bike lanes on state routes. Once signed into law, I look forward to forming task forces with local agencies and community groups to properly implement them across the district.

  I commend the work that Philadelphia City Council has done with their ICE Out legislation, and the work of activists across the 195th who have made our communities safer by conducting “Know Your Rights” trainings. We have more work to do at the state level. Upon entering Harrisburg, I will fight for legislation that prohibits ICE from making arrests on or near commonwealth owned facilities, ends data sharing between the PA Department of Corrections and federal immigration agencies, and ensures that all local law enforcement agencies end any 287(g) agreements with ICE.