Education and Support Teachers

-Teachers should be given better salaries and be able to unionize. Teachers should be properly compensated for all the hard work that they do. Many teachers pay out of pocket for their supplies due to lack of funding from the schools. Some teachers will go out of state to teach because they can make more money. We need to make sure that our teacher’s can stay local and directly help their community.

Our legislatures say that they value education and teacher’s but their policies and actions clearly say the opposite. The legislature has continuous attacked teachers and have tried to restrict the ability of teacher unions to gain more collective bargaining. The teacher strike a few years ago showed the power that their union had and the huge amount of community support. We need more funding for teacher support such as classroom aides, more access to computers and a stable internet connection, and funding for social services such as guidance counselors.

West Virginia routinely rates lowest or one of the lowest for grade proficiency scores in the entire country. We are doing our children and students a great disservice to their future and to the future of West Virginia. Having strong math and reading skills are essential to a strong work force and many of our students graduate without being able to perform these positions correctly and safely.

We need to stop focusing on banning books, and getting kids interested in reading in the first place.

Environmental Justice

Protection of our natural beauty and promoting green energy policies. We have let the coal and gas industries flood our politicians coffers and flood our water and land with poisonous and toxic chemicals. These chemicals ingested by our community and cause major health problems that continue to affect families long after the pollution has corrupted the ecosystem. We need to be passing laws that enforce people over profit. There are many lobbyists, especially in the coal industry, that have pushed for more coal production, even though production has been declining steadily for decades. West Virginia has a long history with coal and providing power to the country, but it has come at a great humanitarian and environmental cost. Many of the methods today for obtaining coal involve destructive practices such as mountain top removal. Many of these practices are mechanized as well, which reduces the need for humans, and therefore jobs. This dismisses the notion that coal will bring better jobs to the area. Right now, the push by lobbyists and corporations arefor gas and oil pipelines. The Mountain Valley Pipeline is a project that if approved, wouldl run right through our area and will put the entire area they intend to build in massive danger. There have already been documented accounts and pictures of sections of the completed pipeline already leaking contaminants and continuing to rust.

We also need green energy jobs that come from wind, solar and hydro. West Virginia has the natural resources to help ensure more green jobs that are well paid and local. Coal is not the future, and it is time we move past that fact. We need ways to power the state and country in ways that are beneficial for everyone and that are sustainable for the next generations.

Criminal Justice Reform

Our prisons are overcrowded and in horrible conditions and are very costly taxpayers each year. West Virginia incarceration rates have risen sharply in the last decade. The racial disparity in West Virginia is also very high. African-Americans are 3.5x more than whites to be incarcerated. One out of 36 black males in West Virginia is in prison. The Black population of WV is 3.5% but accounts for 11.7% percent of the state’s prison population. The number of women in prison has also skyrocketed as well. The number of women in prison in West Virginia has increased 13 fold over the last four decades. This has led to a massive overcrowding problem and sanitation issues. Many women have to pay for their own sanitary products in prison as well, with many inmates not being able to afford any commission to purchase what they need. It cost West Virginia taxpayers about $32,000 per inmate a year. When you multiply that number by the 6,000 prisoners, the cost is roughly $192 Million per year. That is money that can and should be going to help provide inmates prevent the high recidivism rate. We need to invest more money into helping inmates who have substance abuse or addiction issues. We incarcerate a huge number of people that need mental health and codependency issues instead of helping them with recovery and rehabilitation.

There have also been reports in the last few years of several inmates dying in custody. Many of the conditions of the prisons are unsanitary and unsafe. There have been over 14 inmate deaths in the last couple years in West Virginia. Investigations have shown some causes to be due to horrid conditions, rampant violence and inadequate medical services. Many of the staff are non properly trained and are overworked, leading to more negligence.

LGBT+ Rights

-Protect our youth from hateful and destructive policies. Many of the policies that have been passed or are in session this year are focused on laws that are destructive to LGBT+ community. Many of these laws are specifically attack Trans youth and their safety and rights. Some of these laws include banning therapy for Trans youth and banning LGBT performances and anything the legislature deems as “obscene.” These laws are used to exclude vulnerable people and will allow more discrimination. These laws are also a way for politicians to stoke up fears in the culture war, which are a distraction and take away time and effort from legislation that could be helping build people up, rather than tear them down. We should be embracing and welcoming to everyone if we want West Virginia to succeed in the future. Our state is losing huge numbers of young people every year because they move out of state. Many of these young people are part of the LGBT community and do not feel welcome in thier areas due to these unncecesary and hurtful laws. If we really want to make an investment in our future and the next generations, it is imperative that we have people want to stay in the state and feel that they can not just live here by thrive as well. This will hurt our economy and our investments in the state by making many prospective people not want to move or due business here.

Reproductive Rights

-Protections for bodily autonomy. With the fall of Roe v. Wade, many of our lawmakers have taken this as a mandate and have passed even more restrictive laws against safe and legal abortions. In 2022, the only abortion clinic in the state was forced to close after the Supreme Court allowed states to decide their own laws. Many people in this state already had to travel several hours for Abortion procedures, but now they will have to travel even further and out of state to obtain the same services. Many of these laws are written and passed only by Men, many do not have any medical schooling as they discuss the abortion procedure and process. The lawmakers are mostly all conservative, and run on platforms of freedoms, yet they do not value civil freedoms when it comes to Abortion. Many voters turned out for the 2022 mid-terms with much of the focus being on anger toward the overturn of Roe v Wade. It was a catalyst for many voters to become more politically active and engaged and led to many Republican held seats flipping for Democrats.

Many organizations such as Planned Parenthood, provide many types of medical services to women that would be inaccessible monetarily or otherwise. These are crucial to so many members of the community who rely on Planned Parenthood and others to receive the care they need. We need to stop criminalizing women who having autonomy of their body. It is a personal decision that should not be allowed to be up to the courts. It is invasive and unnecessary and destroys the notion of protecting our freedoms and civil liberties.

Healthcare Access

-Healthcare is a right, not a privilege. Many people in West Virginia still lack affordable healthcare. West Virginia was one of the states that benefited the most from the passage of the Affordable Care Act. However, even with the big increase of people signing up for Medicaid and Medicare, many people are still left struggling. It just takes one trip to the hospital or ER to bankrupt people. This should not be allowed. We must take care of our community, and provide care for those who need it. There are many obstacles to accessing healthcare in this state, including costs. Even with insurance, there are only a few places to get medical care that will accept most insurance. The distance between some of the health facilities, especially mental health, can be very difficult for people who have to drive far. We need more facilities that can also address addiction and substance abuse issues, especially with Opioids. We are still in a crises and we need to address it head first. There are many programs and centers that we could install that would help focus on the specific needs of people with a history of opioid use. One example would be to set up more clean needle exchange locations, which have been proven to help reduce the infection rate for IV users. Many times people who have addiction issues become entrenched in the justice system, with many spending time in jail and prison. We need to stop crominalizing people and start having more rehabilitation centers and places with counseling. Many of these people that have substance abuse and addiction are diagnosed with co-occuring mental health disorders, including depression, anxiety, and trauma. Throwing them in jail makes it impossible for people to get the help they need when they are in a crises. If they are charged with felonies, they lose are cut off from so many jobs that would help them financially and lead to a more stable life. With the loss of income and opportunities many people are left to fall back into the cycle that brought them there in the first place.