We are facing a quiet crisis that will shape this district for a generation: not enough educators are coming into the profession, and too many of the ones we have are leaving. Behind every empty teaching position is a classroom of children who deserve a qualified, supported teacher. This is the issue I know best, and it is one of the central reasons I am running.

I am an educator. I began my career as a classroom teacher and school counselor in Minneapolis Public Schools, worked directly with inner-city youth and families, and now lead a nonprofit education organization. I have seen the system from inside the classroom and from the leadership chair. The teacher shortage is not abstract to me. It is the result of years of treating educators as an afterthought, paying them too little, burning them out, and then wondering why fewer young people choose the profession.

If we want great teachers, we have to make teaching a career worth choosing and worth staying in. In Congress, I will fight to invest in the education pipeline at every stage. That means supporting affordable pathways into teaching, including grants and loan forgiveness for those who commit to our schools, with special attention to recruiting educators who reflect the growing diversity of our communities. It means competitive pay and real support for new teachers so they are not left to sink or swim in their first years.

It also means investing in the schools themselves. I will push for federal funding that reaches classrooms, not just administrators, and that gives schools the resources to reduce class sizes, support students with the greatest needs, and provide the counseling and mental health support that today’s students require. As a former school counselor, I know how much a single caring adult can change a child’s trajectory, and how thinly those supports are stretched right now.

I will also work closely with our school districts and higher education partners, because the strength of our local economy depends on the strength of our schools. A community that invests in its children invests in its own future. When a child gets a strong education, the entire district benefits for decades.

Educate, empower, elevate. That is not a slogan to me. It is what I have spent my life doing. I am running to make sure the next generation of teachers has a reason to walk into the classroom, and the next generation of students has someone there to greet them.