As the mother of three sons and as someone who put herself through college and law school on student loans, Hilary knows the importance of strong public schools and affordable higher education and vocational training.
As Public Lands Commissioner, Hilary manages lands that generate $325 million in annual revenue to fund our public schools, teachers, libraries, and community and technical colleges. She has toured schools throughout our district and state and seen the leaking roofs, the cold portables, inadequate heating systems, and the discrepancy in infrastructure and access to technology. She has championed investments to rebuild and renovate schools, pushed for increased funding for teachers and paraeducators, launched K-12 education programs to prepare our children for critical jobs in the future, and put innovative solutions forward to fund early childhood education and child care. She will continue this work in Congress – because every child deserves access to quality education and a healthy, safe environment to learn with modern equipment.
Hilary has also successfully expanded high school and post-high school education and workforce development and apprenticeship programs in our state, as well as mandated that apprenticeship programs be utilized in large projects on Washington’s public lands. In Congress, she will fight for funding to expand apprenticeship programs and trade education across our district, because they are a crucial pathway to the middle class for so many.
Hilary will work to ensure that teachers and paraeducators are adequately supported and have the tools they need to educate and support our kids and continue on in the teaching profession. And she will take action to help students pursue higher education without being saddled with debt that they cannot afford, including by ensuring that the Pell Grant program is keeping up with increasing tuition costs and supporting legislation to allow student debt to be discharged in bankruptcy.
