The children of North Carolina are the future of North Carolina. Students, public schools, and our teachers have been underrepresented for far too long. Our state constitution promises that every child in our state has a right and privilege to an appropriately funded public education, and representatives have broken and ignored that promise. By using taxpayer money to divest from our public education system in favor of school voucher programs, our children become the victims of adult’s bad decisions. Privatizing education is not the answer. It’s time that we compensate our teachers like the professionals that they are. We must invest in our public school buildings as if we care about the students passing through their doors. It’s time to raise our per-pupil spending to a level that ensures that every student is given everything they need to be successful, no matter their zip code.
Every child in North Carolina deserves to have fair and equal access to a free and high-quality public education. The importance of ensuring that our public education system is supported and adequately funded on every level necessary and ensuring that it’s being treated as one of our top priorities cannot be overstated. The children within our local communities are the future of Eastern North Carolina, and they deserve the very best shot at success when pursuing jobs or higher education after graduation. We must work to deliver meaningful investments and deliberate support to all North Carolina students, educators, and schools, and it’s important that we maintain modern facilities and provide students access to the tools they need to succeed. By providing educators with salaries and incentives that reflect their immense worth within our communities, prioritizing their desperate need for increased support staff, and then filling those positions with qualified professionals who can help them, we will strengthen our ability to not only retain our current valued educators but also attract new talent who will want to join us along the way. When elected leaders use our public schools to further divide our communities along racial and political lines, our children and educators suffer the most. Our state constitution mandates that all North Carolina students are provided with the skills needed to succeed. We must demand leadership who will fight to protect our children’s constitutional right to a quality education.
Our votes are our voice in determining the future of our communities and our country. Free and fair elections are the very heartbeat and foundation of our democracy & they are but one part of what makes America truly great. Voting is the very best tool that we can use to enact change regarding local, state, and federal issues that affect nearly every facet of our lives. Ever-changing election laws, racially discriminatory voting barriers, and widespread unchecked disinformation, though, have created unnecessary challenges for many North Carolina voters. The protection of our democracy should not be a partisan issue. The many decades of racially discriminatory and partisan gerrymandering of our electoral districts must end. Electoral districts should be drawn fairly and impartially. Our state house district and all North Carolinians, deserve representation that will advocate for fairly drawn maps and independent redistricting reform. Voters should feel confident in their ability to choose their representatives. Politicians, however, should not have the unfair advantage of choosing their voters with maps drawn heavily in their favor in an attempt to keep them in power. Fairly drawn maps and laws passed in an effort to strongly protect every eligible voter’s right to the ballot box would go far in helping every North Carolinian feel as though their vote will be the powerful tool for change and accountability that it was always meant to be.
Every person should have complete and total control over their bodies and healthcare decisions. Every woman, including trans-identified individuals, should have access to prenatal and postnatal care and appropriate counseling, as well as access to information and counseling regarding all choices related to pregnancies. A person’s decisions regarding pregnancy should be their own choice and not that of the government. The focus should be on preventing unintended pregnancies and reducing the need for abortion through increasing access to family planning services, access to affordable birth control – including emergency contraception – and providing comprehensive age-appropriate sex education. Abortion must always be safe, legal, and accessible to all North Carolinians. The North Carolina General Assembly must codify people’s rights to reproductive freedom and bodily autonomy.
We are better and stronger when we are united. We all have a responsibility to our families and our communities. When all members of our communities feel respected, treated equally, and included despite race, including all of our Black, Brown, and white neighbors, despite gender, despite differences in religious beliefs, and sexual orientation, unity and trust grow. Working as a community to shape our shared society with genuine intentional inclusivity, and with everyone’s best interests at heart, we build coalitions that bring and move us forward together. Our district deserves compassionate leadership that strives to not only understand the issues that leave some of our neighbors behind or feeling as though they’ve been forgotten by our government but will also use their representation to advocate for and deliver practical solutions that help to sustain our forward momentum and close the chaotic gaps of division that weaken us. While there are some who believe that highlighting some of our worst moments of the past is our deliberate efforts to cast blame or shame upon white members of our community, it’s incredibly important that we address the legacy of slavery, segregation, and racism that we have in North Carolina. When we learn from past mistakes and reconcile with the history of them, we know and do better - together. We all must demand leaders who acknowledge, respect and fight for the freedoms we all deserve as Americans. Our true freedom comes from having equal and protected access to the opportunities that promote our freedom to thrive.
I'm not a career politician. We need grassroots energy to flip this district.
I need you.
Running for office is not something I had in mind. But, we are at a cross roads in North Carolina. Decency and common sense approaches to tackling our kitchen table issues are what is going to bring progress to rural North Carolina. I get it, times are tough. All I'm asking for is $5, $10, or whatever you can spare to help us fight for what is right. I'm not accepting any corporate PAC money, this campaign will be funded by the people who send me to Raleigh.
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Paid for by Frances Lakey for North Carolina.