Education is a public good: it changes lives, it lifts people out of poverty, and it is the root of our good economy.

Priority 1

Make College Affordable

I expanded free tuition and made textbooks free — so thousands of local students start college without a bill.

Our free tuition program has a plain name: First Time + Full Time = Free Tuition, or FT3. It covers students enrolling full-time for the first time, and I've spent eight years growing it — because a bill shouldn't be the reason a neighbor never starts.

Affordability isn't just tuition. It's the whole cost of showing up: books, food, transportation, childcare, and the support it takes to finish. I know what that support means — the dyslexia help I got at DVC is why I finished. Counselors, food pantries, the college clothing drive, and emergency grants keep a hard month from ending a college career.

Next term, I'll protect free college through the tough budget years ahead, because affordability shouldn't depend on the economy having a good year.

• Grow free tuition beyond first-time, full-time students — the part-time working parent deserves the same shot.
• Free textbooks as the default, not the exception, in every program we can.
• Protect the support it takes to finish — counselors, food pantries, childcare help, and emergency grants — even in lean budget years.
• Keep every student welcome — whoever you are and whatever your story, you get what you need to learn safely and finish.
• Fight in Sacramento and Washington, D.C. for the funding that keeps "free" free.

Priority 2

Deliver good jobs for our students

I won the agreement that puts district students, local residents, and veterans first in line for good union construction careers, and expanded training programs where a certificate means a paycheck.

A diploma should lead to a paycheck that supports a family. Good jobs — with fair wages, safety, and the protection of a union contract — are how working families get ahead, and how whole neighborhoods rise together. Our 2021 project labor agreement shows what that looks like in practice: campuses built by local residents, some of them our own graduates.

Those building projects are where good jobs and modern classrooms meet. Students deserve labs and training facilities that are safe, accessible, and equipped for the jobs they're preparing to do — and when the district builds them, our students and neighbors should be the ones on the job.

The next decade of that work runs straight through our classrooms. When the Marathon refinery in Martinez idled in 2020, more than 700 of our neighbors lost their jobs almost overnight — and new technology is changing office work just as fast. Whatever the future of work looks like here, Contra Costa workers deserve to be trained for it.

Next term: more pathways from our classrooms to careers that can support a family here.

• Career pathways that pay: nursing, EMS, early childhood education, construction, culinary, automotive — programs that lead straight to work.
• Reskilling in months, not years: short, stackable credentials with evening, weekend, and online options for working adults.
• Keep up with a changing workplace: update programs for jobs being reshaped by AI and new technology — without abandoning the workers whose jobs are changing.
• A retraining hub for energy workers: the trades of the transition — electrical, EV and battery tech, grid work — with credit for the skills a 20-year refinery operator already has.
• Keep the labor agreement's promise: every district construction dollar keeps creating good local jobs.

Priority 3

Stable leadership that fights for all students

When a $2 million shortfall hit, I cut administrative overhead — not classrooms, not counselors. Balanced budgets, open books, no drama.

Experience matters when the stakes are this high. For eight years I've worked with students, employees, and community partners to steady this board and answer to the public — cutting overhead and politics, never classrooms or student supports.

Back on track means every dollar accounted for, including construction and maintenance. Voters said no to the facilities bond this June, and I heard the message clearly: be transparent, put the most urgent safety work first, use existing dollars responsibly, and earn public trust before asking families to invest more.

And this fight is bigger than one district. Education is a public good — it changes lives, it lifts people out of poverty, and it is the root of our good economy. Our students come to us from our public schools, so I'll keep being a champion for public education at every level.

Next term, I'll keep it that way: students first, politics last.

• Cut administrative overhead: outside legal spending is down from more than $2 million a year to about $200,000 — money that goes back toward students and classrooms.
• A steady hand: helped stabilize board leadership after a period of dysfunction — elected Board President by my colleagues in December 2019 and December 2023.
• Show every dollar: publish a plain-English annual report on every construction and maintenance dollar; keep independent audits and the citizens' oversight committee front and center.
• Put safety first, transparently: rank safety-critical campus projects publicly and fund the most urgent through existing capital funds and state matches.
• Stay on top of deferred maintenance — fix the roof before it fails, because emergencies always cost more than upkeep.
• Grow enrollment to grow revenue: dual enrollment with every K–12 district, adult re-entry pathways, and eliminating career-program waitlists — while securing every available state dollar.
• A statewide platform: a seat on the statewide community college trustees board means a bigger voice fighting for our local colleges' funding.