On The Issues
Education:
Children of all ages and from all zip codes deserve access to a safe, equitable, and robust public education.
I firmly believe that prioritizing our children's future is paramount. That's why I'm advocating for:
Prioritizing our children’s future at a young age. High-quality early childhood education provides students with a strong start in life during critical ages of early child development. Improving access and equity in early childhood education uplifts families and levels the playing field for all children to enter kindergarten prepared to succeed.
Funding our schools and keeping kids in school: Ensuring adequate funding for our public schools and directing resources toward programs that benefit our children and adolescents. School funding should be equitable, based on the needs of students, rather than determined by property values. In addition, we need to keep our kids in school by addressing the issue of excessive reliance on school discipline and curtail the discriminate use of suspension in schools, safeguarding our children from unjust punishment and exclusion from the learning environment. Harsh school discipline disproportionately contributes to learning loss for children of color and those with learning difficulties.
Making higher education affordable and accessible: I will fight to make NYS public colleges tuition-free. Every individual should have the opportunity to access quality higher education at a public institution, irrespective of their financial circumstances.
Housing:
Everyone deserves safe, stable, and affordable housing.
We are in the middle of a housing crisis. Rents, evictions, homelessness, housing shortages, and home prices are at a level high in New York State. We need real solutions for our dire housing crisis that fight for working families to stay in their homes and construct additional affordable housing.
Housing is a human right, and I see the effects of the housing crisis daily. As a public defender and council member, I witness the impact of our housing crisis and disinvestment in communities when they materialize in different ways in my own courtrooms and in my Ward.
I will fight to deliver affordable housing for all. Since my entrance into public service, I have have been a strong advocate for tenant rights. As a Common Council Member, I have been a fearless defender of tenant rights, and fought to increase home ownership, and a living wage. I have fought for a right-to-counsel program for tenants facing eviction in housing court, increased the inclusionary zoning set-aside for new development and substantial redevelopment in the City of Albany to increase our CIty’s supply of affordable housing, and expanded awareness about rental housing habitability by establishing an open code violation database.
Public Safety:
Everyone deserves to feel safe in our district and we increase public safety by investing in our communities and diversion programs that address the root causes of crime.
Our criminal justice system is broken. As a public defender, I see firsthand the negative impacts our criminal justice system has on the community and its most vulnerable members. Individuals struggling from homelessness, inadequate mental health treatment, and poverty wind up in my courtrooms at alarming rates for crimes, when diversion efforts could prevent this. We are failing and incarcerating our most vulnerable members of society.
Proven track record of criminal justice reform work. Since my entrance into public service, I have advocated strongly on criminal justice and community safety reform rooted in investing in the community. As a Common Council Member, I have passed legislation codifying the relationship between the Public Safety Commissioner and Albany Community Police Review Board, fought for increased funding for the City’s police oversight board, launched a first of its kind street outreach team, that combines social workers, physical health specialists, and case workers to create a team to house the chronically street unhoused and divert individuals from the criminal justice system, and have fought to create an Albany-specific city program that will respond to 911 calls with trauma-informed EMT/social workers.
Reimagining criminal justice and community safety. I firmly believe we must end this cycle and practice of mass incarceration. I was pleased to see bail reform legislation passed in the 2019 state budget, and I have not supported the continued rollbacks. New York should not have a financial litmus test for those that have been accused of a crime. Simply put: one is innocent until proven guilty. In addition, I will fight for funding for holistic, diversion programs that address the root causes of crime. I was also pleased to see the passage of Clean Slate in June of 2023. Individuals who commit a crime and later pay their debt to society should not be perpetually burdened by a criminal record. Having a criminal record impedes one's ability to obtain housing, secure work, and participate fully in our society. We cannot expect successful rehabilitation without providing individuals re-entering their communities with a safe and stable way forward that is not encumbered by their past. This act made our economy stronger and our communities safer.
Workers’ Rights:
We must stand in solidarity with workers and the organized labor movement at every opportunity.
Union background: My drive for public service is rooted in union values. My parents are both proud former members of PEF who work for the State. My earliest memories are of the annual PEF picnics, accompanying my parents to union office meetings, and attending legislative events at the Capitol fighting against budget cuts.
Pro-union record as Council Member: I have a proven track record of authoring and championing bills advancing union and labor rights and causes. The 109th Assembly District is a union district, and we must stand in solidarity to protect our workers and prevent rollbacks of hard earned victories from the Labor Movement from corporate greed.
Legislating with union values as an Assemblymember: I will continue to fight fiercely for great paying union jobs and to protect workers’ rights to organize and strike.
Abortion Rights:
We must fiercely protect women’s autonomy over their bodies and equitable access to comprehensive reproductive healthcare.
Women’s bodies are under attack in the halls of Congress, state legislatures, and our nation’s courts. I strongly believe in a woman’s right to choose and everyone’s right to access the full and complete range of comprehensive reproductive healthcare.
I support policy measures that promote access to safe, comprehensive reproductive health care, including contraception and abortion, and that remove barriers for all people in getting the health care they need.
Environmental Justice:
Climate change is the most pressing threat of our generation that we must address through policy influenced by diverse perspectives and direct action.
As a result of climate change, New York State faces the risks of increasingly poor air quality, decreased drinking water quantity and quality, decreased lake levels, and farming impacts.
The risks of climate change are amplified in low-income and BIPOC communities. I firmly believe in the Environmental Justice Movement that seeks to examine and rectify the discriminatory and exclusionary policies of racial segregation and redlining that have affected the quality of life in our BIPOC communities. BIPOC neighborhoods are disproportionately located in areas with a concentration of environmental hazards, such as landfills, sewage treatment sites, and other environmental pollutants, resulting in degraded air quality, contaminated soil, poor water quality, and food deserts.
Everyone deserves access to an equitable quality of life wherever they live and to have a say in shaping policies that directly impact their lives.
We must address the inequities in the neighborhoods that have borne the brunt of erosive environmental policy decisions. I will work tirelessly in support of policies that promote transparency, stakeholder-involvement, and a clean and healthy environment for all New Yorkers.