   
| ISSUESI’m proud to call Cobb County my home and I know that our communities of Smyrna, Marietta, and Vinings are great places to live, work, and raise a family. But we have challenges, too. From my conversations across the district, it is clear that the most important issues facing our community are jobs, education, and transportation. As our State Representative I’ll fight to make our kids’ schools the best they can be, cut our daily commute time to work, and bring more good jobs with good benefits back home. Below are my plans to overcome our challenges and make the most of our opportunities in these critical areas. I welcome your ideas and questions. Education There is nothing more important to our State’s future than making sure our kids have the best schools possible. As a proud graduate of Georgia public schools and the first person in my family to graduate from college, I know firsthand the difference a good education can make in the life of a child. Our top priority must be making our kids’ schools the very best they can be. This means investing the time and dollars necessary to ensure every Georgia child has the education necessary to succeed. We must treat educators like the professionals they are; provide more aide to teachers, including paraprofessionals, graduation coaches, and counselors; decrease class sizes; and never put education funding on the chopping block. Furloughs, layoffs, a shorter school year, and larger classes are absolutely the wrong priorities. I will fight against any actions like these in the future and will work to restore the cuts. Transportation If Georgia is to continue as the economic center of the South, we must invest in responsible transportation to end the gridlock we face each day or we will continue to see good businesses choose to take their jobs to other states. We simply cannot afford to keep playing political games and continue business as usual when it comes to our transportation systems, or we will be left behind. We must invest in light rail and other mass transit options throughout the Metro area, and we must connect the rest of the State to Atlanta. Jobs I believe that improving our education and transportation systems will attract more good jobs with good benefits to our community and Georgia as a whole. In the short term, we should work with local governments to develop incentives and showcase the talent and work ethic of hardworking Georgians to attract good jobs with good benefits. It is important for government, chambers of commerce, and unions to work together with small businesses to grow and protect jobs. The recent economic downtown has left us with tough choices on how to provide for our needs. Shortsighted cuts to education and taking the easy way out on transportation improvements are not the answer. We must educate our children and invest in our transportation infrastructure in good times and bad. The ripple effects of recent cuts will cost us jobs in the long run, and we cannot afford to be so shortsighted. |