Long-term economic prosperity is only possible through a commitment to ensuring that future generations have access to the best education available. We are seeing this promise broken time and time again, not only by the current administration but over decades as our nation has repeatedly failed to prioritize education and the futures of our children. Greatness demands more, and as a Representative for New York’s 21st Congressional District, I will fight to deliver it.

The starting point of any honest conversation about K–12 education is the federal commitment to the students who need the most help. I support increasing Title I funding to ensure it is finally fully funded. Title I, originally enacted as part of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, was the federal government’s foundational promise that a child’s zip code would not determine the quality of education they receive. For too many years, that commitment has been underfunded and undermined, leaving our most vulnerable students in low-income communities locked out of the American Dream. We must finally fulfill that promise, and we must do the same for students with disabilities. When Congress passed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the federal government committed to covering 40 percent of the additional cost of educating these students. This is another unfulfilled promise, as we have not come close to meeting that commitment, leaving local school districts to absorb the difference. I support increasing IDEA funding to finally fully fund it at the 40 percent level.

Our schools should be palaces that reflect our commitment to our children, not crumbling buildings that demonstrate to children how little we value their education. I support federal funding to modernize and improve public school buildings and facilities. Modern HVAC systems, lead-free water, broadband connectivity, leading educational technology, modern curricula and textbooks, accessible classrooms, and safe playgrounds are not luxuries—they are baseline expectations for any community that values the next generation. Alongside that physical investment, we need to invest in models of schooling that work. The Community Schools model, which integrates academic instruction with health services, mental health care, family engagement, and out-of-school enrichment, has shown measurable success in improving student outcomes and stabilizing communities here in Northern New York. I support steadily increasing federal investment in Community Schools to meet demand and expand this model, particularly in rural areas where a school is often the most important institution in town.

No federal commitment to public education in Northern New York is complete without honoring the United States’ trust and treaty responsibilities to the Mohawk people of Akwesasne. The Akwesasne Mohawk Board of Education serves students across a community that uniquely spans the U.S.–Canada border, delivering language immersion, culturally grounded curriculum from early childhood through secondary school, post-secondary assistance, and the kind of wraparound, community-rooted programming that the rest of the country is only beginning to recognize as a model. I support improving federal funding and support for AMBE and for the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe’s Education Division, including stronger appropriations through the Bureau of Indian Education, Title VI of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the Native American Languages Act, and dedicated facilities and transportation funding that accounts for the unique cross-border realities of Akwesasne. Tribal sovereignty in education is not a courtesy; it is a federal obligation, and Indigenous-led schools deserve a partner in Washington who treats them as such.

Education does not begin at age five. We need to expand early childhood education through programs like Head Start and Early Head Start, ensuring all of our children have access to these proven programs. I support steadily increasing federal investments to help states expand high-quality public universal prekindergarten programs and ensure every child has access to full-day kindergarten. Decades of research are unambiguous: every dollar invested in high-quality early learning returns several times over in improved literacy, higher graduation rates, and stronger lifetime earnings.

At the other end of the K–12 pipeline, we must support pathways that lead directly to good jobs. I support increasing funding for high-quality career and technical education programs that help high school and post-secondary students earn the credentials, degrees, and skills needed to secure in-demand occupations. In Northern New York, where manufacturing, healthcare, the trades, and agriculture remain the backbone of our economy, robust CTE programs are not an alternative to college—they are essential infrastructure for our workforce.

A child cannot learn on an empty stomach, and we cannot ask teachers to compete with hunger. I support providing universal access to healthy meals for all students and ensuring healthy nutrition standards for school meals and snacks, such as those outlined in the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act. Universal meals remove the stigma that has long discouraged eligible families from participating, simplify school administration, and ensure that hunger is not an obstacle to learning. I will oppose any cuts or attempts to block-grant funding for school meals, other child nutrition programs, or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Block-granting these programs is a quiet way to cut them, and freezing federal dollars while costs and need continue to rise leaves children to bear the consequences of Washington’s accounting tricks.

The country is in the middle of a youth mental health crisis, and schools are often the first place where struggles surface and the only place where many children can access help. I support increased federal funding for school-based mental health services, counselors, social workers, and trauma-informed care, particularly in our rural districts where private providers are scarce. Counselors must also be properly trained to support students navigating questions of gender identity and sexual orientation, who face disproportionate mental health challenges and deserve competent, compassionate care. That same investment must extend to the educators we ask to support our children’s wellbeing, and I support ensuring teachers and school staff have access to the mental health resources they need to do this work sustainably.

We must invest in our teachers. Their commitment to this vocation demands not just our respect but real financial support. We need to ensure better pay for teachers, compensation that genuinely reflects the service they provide and the importance of their commitment to educating our youth. I also support federal funding for National Board for Professional Teaching Standards certification, which raises the standard and gives accomplished teachers a recognized credential.

Investing in teachers also means addressing the specific challenge of attracting educators to Northern New York and keeping them here. Rural districts across NY-21 routinely face shortages in special education, mathematics, science, world languages, and career-technical fields, and small districts simply cannot compete on salary alone with suburban or downstate systems. The federal government has powerful tools to help close that gap, and I will work to expand them. I support strengthening and fully funding the Teacher Loan Forgiveness program with higher cancellation caps for educators who teach in rural and high-need schools, and protecting and streamlining Public Service Loan Forgiveness so that teachers actually receive the relief they were promised. I support expanding the TEACH Grant program and creating dedicated, rural-targeted tuition reimbursement so that students from the North Country can afford to become teachers and come home to teach. I support federal funding for “grow your own” pathways that recruit local high school graduates, paraprofessionals, and career-changers into the profession, paired with paid student-teaching residencies so that aspiring teachers are not forced to work unpaid for a semester just to enter the classroom. I support induction and mentoring grants so that new teachers receive structured support during their first three years, when most attrition occurs, and I support federal incentives for housing assistance, broadband access, and relocation stipends in remote districts, because a teacher who cannot find an affordable place to live or a reliable internet connection will not stay, no matter how much they love the work.

Every educator deserves the right to autonomy, within generally accepted standards, to design lessons that provide an accurate, honest, and high-quality education. Politicians do not belong in the classroom dictating the words a teacher may use or the texts a student may read. The same principle applies in higher education: I support preventing federal government interference or intrusion in higher education so that educators and faculty can embrace academic freedom and pursue research without political encroachment. A free society depends on free inquiry, and a country that politicizes its universities will not lead the world in science, medicine, or innovation for long.

We must also be honest about what accountability looks like. The current federal accountability regime relies too heavily on a narrow band of standardized tests that capture a narrow band of student learning. I support removing federal barriers that deter states from replacing standardized tests with innovative types of assessments for federal accountability purposes. Performance assessments, portfolios, capstone projects, and other evidence-based measures can give us a fuller, fairer picture of what students know and can do, and what schools actually need.

I do not support private school vouchers or related privatization schemes that divert public dollars to private schools without the transparency and accountability that public schools are rightly required to meet. Public dollars belong in public schools, accountable to the communities they serve. Voucher programs have repeatedly been shown to drain resources from the districts that need them most while delivering uneven results, and they undermine the constitutional principle that public education is a shared civic project and public good, not a marketplace.

We must continue to ensure our most vulnerable students are not locked out of the American Dream. And I mean all children, regardless of nationality or status. To those who Dream, we must finally remove the never-ending uncertainty and reaffirm our commitment to DACA by making it the law of the land.

Education is the truest expression of what a community believes about its future. In Congress, I will work to ensure that every child in Northern New York and every child across this country, has access to the schools, the teachers, the meals, the facilities, and the opportunities that greatness demands. Anything less is a broken promise, and I am running to keep that promise.