Vision
Ensuring our children receive the best life possible is not only our moral duty, it is also the constitutional duty of the State of Michigan. However, 22% of children in our state live in poverty; an increase of 15% from 9 years ago. Tom, the product of public schools and the son of union teachers and employees of the public school system, believes that every child should have access to a high-quality, free, local public education. He will work to help reduce Lansing interference, bringing the power back to the people. He will make sure that families are put first in education, and that schools can serve as community resources for all. He will also be a fighter to help bring at-risk youth from Trouble to Trade. Together, we can create a 21st Century education system that will give all children in our community, regardless of their location or class, a top-rate education and the tools to succeed in life.
Policies
- Tom will fight to return all public schools back to the people, where they belong, and to abolish the undemocratic, unconstitutional Emergency Manager law.
- Tom will sponsor a resolution calling on the State Of Michigan to pledge to end child poverty in the state by 2030
- Tom will push to end the over-testing of our students and allow teachers to focus on expanding students’ horizons rather than being constrained to teach to a test.
- Tom will oppose all expansions of charters, and will work to implement a ‘cap-and-close’ law, limiting the number of charters and closing the underperforming ones .
- Tom will lead the fight in Lansing to return adequate funding to our public schools through working to reform the Foundation Allowance funding formula and ‘hold harmless’ provisions so that urban districts can receive the same funding as wealthy suburban districts.
- Tom has been a passionate fighter to make sure public school employees are treated fairly, and he will continue to work to increase teacher pay, protect benefits, and defend teacher tenure.
- With nearly 71% of 4th graders not reading at grade level, Tom will coordinate with innovative groups throughout the state, such as the Reading Now Network, to scale improvements in process for literacy education to help improve reading and writing scores for all Michigan students.
- Tom will work to raise teacher pay and ensure that high-performing educators get recognition for their hard-work.
- Tom will continue the fight for mandatory testing of school and daycare water for contaminants such as lead.
- Tom will work to make community college universally available to all in the state, free of charge.
- Tom will work with other members of the legislature and the state’s congressional delegation to restore funding to childcare subsidies for families near or below the poverty line, pushing for a doubling of funds to restore coverage to 2007 levels.