Veda on the Issues
High standards for students, teachers, and facilities is critical to success. Schools must be kept in good repair, resources must be available for teachers and students to ensure success, and teachers and students should be held to a high standard to ensure professional and academic success. In turn, this will help lower teacher turnover rates and promote positive relationships between teachers, their students, and their families.
Encouraging community engagement between schools, their students, and the surrounding communities is crucial. It truly takes a village to raise a child, and everyone benefits when teachers and students feel supported by the community.
Families want to know how much is being spent by the school district and what kind of support their child is receiving. By increasing transparency, we can grow stronger relationships between our schools, residents, and those elected to serve.
Seniors are some of our most vulnerable residents, and elected officials must protect them. Seniors must have a right to live as they wish. Ward 7 must increase access to elder care facilities and assisted living facilities for those who require further assistance with everyday tasks, as well as increased resources for those who wish to continue to live independently.
We must ensure a high quality of life for our seniors. Keeping drug prices and the cost of living low while ensuring access for the medical care seniors need to remain independent and healthy is crucial to the collective health of our community.
Ward 7 has long suffered inadequate resources, and the lack of grocery stores is a continuing issue in our communities. The food insecurity much of our Ward suffers leads to other health issues, such as diabetes and obesity, and is creating generations of people suffering from chronic but preventable illnesses. We must make food deserts a thing of the past and give access to high-quality and healthy food to every resident of Ward 7.
It is unacceptable that Ward 7 residents need to leave our Ward to get high-quality emergency healthcare services. Opening a hospital East of the Anacostia River tailored specifically to the needs of our community will save lives, encourage healthier habits, and bring jobs to our Ward.
Washington, DC has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the country, and Ward 7 mothers suffer from this statistic at higher rates than almost everywhere else in the city. No mother should fear for the safety of herself or her baby due to a lack of access to quality prenatal care and birthing facilities. It is imperative that we aggressively address racial and socioeconomic disparities in maternal and infant health.