PRIORITIES
The Republican Party of Texas (RPT) puts out a list of priorities decided upon by representatives to the state convention. These should be every Republican legislator's top list of priorities and they will be mine. To learn more about them, visit the RPT website.The following are my top priorities.
Goal #1: Education
KILL THE BILL
Republicans are very divided on the school
voucher bill that was passed without voter
approval. In my opinion, Abbott pressured
legislators to pass it. My top priority is
education reform and this includes repealing
the voucher bill. For starters, I don't trust the
legislature to not start requiring private and
homeschool families to be subject to state
mandated curriculum and testing. I also feel
that the families who would benefit the most
from getting their children out of low
performing schools, won't be able to afford
the extra funds to pay for private school. My
youngest received a partial scholarship to
attend Bishop Lynch his senior year. We still
had to come up with $900 a month to cover
the cost. That was a brutal year even though
we were making a modest income. If parents
are working two - three jobs just to make ends
meet, how are they going to afford the extra
funds for private school?!
No Child Gets Ahead
In 2013, 2014, and 2023, I ran for school board
in Richardson. My husband and I raised two
gifted boys and I was a special education sub
so we knew first hand the schools were not
meeting the needs of our special populations.
Through those first runs, even though I didn't
win, change was evoked. Audits of the gifted
and talented program and special education
programs were done. RISD now has gifted
services for secondary level students! (Pre-AP
and AP courses are not G/T!) I would like to
take it a step farther now at the legislative
level and require school districts to offer G/T
magnet schools (in districts large enough to
have enough students) that require testing to
be admitted, or for smaller districts to have
specific classes for G/T students to attend all
day every day. The Texas education code
actually states that gifted students should be
clustered together for learning. Because of
my advocacy, I was awarded Parent of the
Year by the Texas Association for Gifted and
Talented (TAGT).
AXE THE STAAR
I also feel state testing needs to be eliminated.
School districts should go back to a classical
education, keeping politics out of the
classroom (with the exception of history and
government classes). We also need to get back
to teaching with pencil, pen, paper, and
textbooks. Research has proven that writing
notes vs typing them, leads to better
retention. School districts should create their
curriculum and then give unit and end of
course exams to determine mastery.
Say NO! to Taxpayer
Funded Lobbying
While the legislature can't eliminate
organizations such as TASA and TASB, we can
eliminate taxpayer funded lobbying. If
superintendents and school board members
want to join these organizations, they need to
do so on their own dime. We can, however,
eliminate either the TEA or SBOE or possibly
even both! Return the power to the ISDs.
Remember the I stands for INDEPENDENT.
Let's Get Classical!
Technology is the bane of my existence! My eyes are dried out from starring at a screen all day, my neck and shoulders hurt from typing on a computer, and my TMJ hurts so bad it sends sharp pains down my ear! I'm a fully developed woman and this is what tech has done to me. I can only imagine what it's doing to our children. Studies have proven that getting back to pencil, paper, & textbooks are proven pedagogy to improve a student's retention, not to mention their health. There is no need for Chromebooks in the elementary and possibly jr high levels. Our teachers need to get back to teaching and stop relying on computers to teach. If we are relying on technology to teach, we don't need certified teachers, we just need moderators. Give the power back to teachers!
OTHER GOALS & PRIORITIES
While educational advocacy has always been my forte', life experiences have given me a wealth of knowledge. I have contacts in insurance, finance, health care and many other areas lined up ready to help advise me in this role and I will not be swayed by big PAC monies representing their self interests. The following are just a few areas of concern to me.
ELECTIONS
We all know election integrity is a concern. When I sent out my text campaign, I received so many return texts saying that people had moved, yet
they're still showing up in our databases. We also had the issue with democrats voting in the Republican primary in '24, just to try and block Trump from being on the November ballot. That move listed them as weak Republicans. We must change voter registrations so that voters are required to claim a party. They cannot be allowed to vote in a different primary unless they change their registration.
Another money saving idea would be to reduce the number of early voting locations. Why do we need locations within two to three miles of each other. Do we seriously think people can't drive the extra mile to go vote? We also need to do away with county wide voting. It only opens us up to more potential for fraud.
Next, we should consider the possibility of combining our partisan and non partisan elections. Voter fatigue is a real thing every two years. In 2026, for example, there was a special election held in January. Primaries in March, municipals in May, primary runoffs in May, potentially a municipalrunoff at the end of June, and then partisan elections in November. Every election costs taxpayers over $200,000 - $300,000 per county per election! Multiply that by 254 counties in Texas and that's quite a savings!
SENIOR CITIZENS
In October of 2023, my mom went in for a routine brain tumor removal which actually caused a blood clot and stroke. She ended up in the ICU for two and a half weeks, a regular room for a week and then off to skilled nursing for rehab.
She improved enough to move into a rehab hospital, but after no improvement over the three weeks, they moved her back into a different skilled nursing center since the original one was
full. Two months later Medicare said she wasn't improving enough to stay any longer so we would have to pay out of pocket (to the tune of $8,000 a month!) Having a fantastic massage therapist here in Dallas, I decided to bring her from Shreveport to Richardson for therapy. She was bedridden when she arrived Easter Sunday. Through massage therapy, home health PT & OT, and an awesome care giver, we were able to get
her walking with a walker!
What I learned from that experience is that nursing homes are understaffed and only give patients their therapy during their scheduled time. The rest of the day, my mom was left either in her bed or in a wheelchair. Had they tried to
take her to the restroom throughout the day she would have gained strength in her legs and arms and her muscles would not have atrophied (her right leg was stuck at a 45* angle and she couldn't
straighten it out.) Nursing homes are
understaffed because the aides who do the bulk of the work are under paid and the owners' wallets just get fatter. The same can be said about insurance company CEOs and boards of directors.
I will be reaching out to these industries (not the executives, but the laymen who are in the trenches) to learn more about how the legislature can help!
MEDICAL FREEDOMS
Covid was an eye opening experience for
me. A vaccine was rushed through and
pushed on us and now we're suffering the consequences. Well, big pharma isn't! So many of our loved ones are now
experiencing the repercussions of those
vaccines. Along with our other
constitutional freedoms, medical freedoms should be a part of the
constitution. I shouldn't have to give a
reason or even get an exemption to not
get or make my child get a vaccine. I never get a flu shot and I've never had the Covid shot. I rarely ever wore a mask. I joined groups and learned more about these vaccines. I had no idea (because I didn't really start caring much about them until the government wanted to force this on me and my family) that there is an act from 1984 that lets the manufacturers (big pharma) off the hook due to complications from getting vaccines. In other words, if you have any complications from getting a vaccine, you cannot sue the manufacturer! Never again will I get a vaccine and I hope
to God when I have grandchldren, my kids will hold off on them.
TERM LIMITS
A growing issue in Texas politics is that our legislators become complacent when they are in office too long. Another issue is that since we don't pay our legislators (they only get $7500 while in session, plus per diem and this has been their same pay since the 1970s!). This is not or should not be a volunteer job because while they are not in session, they should be holding office hours and meeting with constituents. This will also allow younger candidates the opportunity to run. As it is now, our representatives make exorbitant salaries sitting on boards or are independently wealthy and don't need to work. Paying them a modest salary would open up the candidate pool and could encourage more people to run. Priority TWO will be term limits and establishing a modest salary for legislators.
AUDIT THE BUDGET
President Trump started the year off with a bang and created the DOGE committee to uncover wasteful spending within the government. I feel every state should do this along with municipalities to determine the wasteful government spending. I also think bond issuance has gotten out of control and we need to have a way for cities and school districts to set aside funds for capital improvement projects to eliminate unnecessary interest payments on these exorbitant bonds. Tax payers are not an open wallet and government needs to learn to live within it's means. Priority
THREE will be to examine and audit the budget.
BONDS
Bond issuance has become out of control thereby costing tax payers billions ofdollars in interest payments. We need to put a moratorium on bond issuance and instead allow municipalities and school districts to save monies for capital projects (to be spent with voter approval) thereby saving taxpayers billions in bond interest. Who takes out a 20 year loan on a computer that will be obsolete in 3 years?