- Bring Balance and Fiscal Responsibility to Dover!
For too long there’s been one party rule in Dover. It’s time for new leadership with new ideas focusing on improving the State’s fiscal responsibility, proper education for our children, and individual prosperity for our community.
This state has had a total budget surplus of roughly $3 billion over the last two years! That money belongs to the taxpayers and should be returned to the people in the form of tax breaks and investments in public infrastructure to improve things that matter, like roads & traffic control systems, as well as bolstering our power grid.
- Improving Education
Our future depends on our children. And our children depend on sound education to lead happy and successful lives. As your State Representative, I will work hard to improve the standards and quality of our children’s education at all levels and ensure the funding necessary for our schools to achieve their mission of educating students, as well as providing mental health resources to directly address the emotional wellbeing of students.
I believe parent participation is integral to the education process, and I strongly support parents’ rights, school choice, and encouraging parents and teachers to work together to provide excellent education.
Curriculum should be age-appropriate and based on fundamental subjects including reading, writing, and language proficiency. Back to the basics of teaching mathematics, science, World and US history, and civics. As a parent, I insist on proper education, not indoctrination.
Starting in first grade I feel students should learn English as well as Spanish to acclimate to the evolving population and promote a united society.
I support improving teachers’ salaries to attract highly qualified educators, while insisting on accountability with job security and promotions based more on job performance, and less on tenure.
Home-Ec, wood & metal shop, and Ag. courses should be brought back to high school, and students should be required to take a personal finance course and career counseling before they graduate.
Additionally, I would like to see an increase in vocational and trade schools as alternatives to the college or university route to give young adults multiple roads to success.
- Public Safety
You can count on me to support adequate funding for law enforcement. Our men and women in uniform, whom we entrust with the authority and responsibility of enforcing and upholding our laws, have an incredibly important role in our society. I believe our officers should have the best technical and tactical equipment necessary for all potential scenarios to effectively serve the community and its citizens.
I will advocate for and support mandatory career-long training for all law enforcement officers to ensure proficiency with every tool available to them. To promote good decision-making by those we entrust to police our neighborhoods, this regular continuing education would include specific courses to study and review procedures, ethics, citizen rights, and of course the local laws they are charged with enforcing. Regular tactical training utilizing all the equipment available to officers in the field to reinforce muscle memory and reduce instances of human error under pressure. Self-defense and aggressor submission courses to promote safety for both the officer and the subject when confronted with combative situations where an officer may be forced to engage in a physical altercation. Regular courses on human communication and de-escalation psychology to improve an officer’s chance to prevent a combative situation in the first place. Officers need to know exactly when to use force, the appropriate amount of force for any given situation, and when words and reasoning can win the day.
I will also support officer accountability to ensure public trust in our officers and continuously work towards improving public relations. I think every officer should have two cameras on their person while on duty in the field. In addition to body cams already widely implemented, each officer should wear head-mounted cameras as well to capture each officer’s exact perspective and “see what the officer sees”. Whether it be mounted on glasses or headwear, this video data will provide useful evidence to help convict criminals and maintain officer accountability.
Most importantly, I support strong enforcement of existing laws and prosecution of those who break those laws in the courts. Keeping criminals off the street once they have committed crimes is in the best interest of the community at large. Low bail or no bail for crimes, particularly violent offenses, is unacceptable.