TAA 2020 Spring Primaries Endorsements

Posted on Posted in Political, Voting Guides

The TAA endorses two candidates in this year’s primary election for the legislative branch of the state government: Nada Elmikashfi for Senate District 26 and Nicki Vander Meulen for Assembly District 76. Both Nada and Nicki’s platforms are shaped by their values, which best align with TAA’s. Below are some key points of their platforms (not exhaustive!). While they are categorized by issue, both Nada and Nicki make clear how all issues are interconnected and must be addressed together. To see their full platforms, check out Nada’s and Nicki’s platform pages.

Education:

Nada:

  • Reverse cuts on K-12 and UW System funding
  • Push to fulfill state promises to ELL and Special Education students
  • Raise teacher’s pay
  • Pay student teachers and create teacher preparation programs
  • Retroactively forgive student debt
  • In-state tuition for undocumented students
  • End school voucher program, end high stakes testing
  • Refund the Arts and re-establish Arts programming as central to curricula
  • Support educational support professionals.

Nicki:

  • Increase public school funding
  • End state vouchers
  • Reverse UW system budget cuts
  • Funding for racial equity programs and hiring practices
  • Further Special Education funding to public schools

Public Health, Disability Justice, and COVID-19 Response:

Nada:

  • Medicare and BadgerCare for all and Medicaid Expansion
  • Immediate compassionate release for all prisoners
  • Reproductive Justice: expand abortion rights and access; contraceptive equity; comprehensive sex education in public institutions
  • Protection of LGBTQIA+ Youth
  • Expand Medical Amnesty to underage drinkers
  • Decriminalize marijuana and release all inmates held on non-violent marijuana charges

Nicki:

  • Eliminate subminimum wages for those with disabilities
  • Expand Medicaid and BadgerCare to all and ensure they fully cover the care and treatment for those with disabilities, mental health, and rehabilitation needs
  • Build and rehabilitate accessible housing
  • Repeal abortion prohibition and other restrictions on reproductive choice
  • Provide rent, mortgage, and debt relief during the pandemic
  • Increase benefits available to Wisconsinites during pandemic

Racial Justice:

Nada:

  • Defund and demilitarize the police across Wisconsin
  • Invest in alternatives to police, public education, and other social programs
  • End: Qualified Immunity for police officers; for-profit policing; police arrest quotas; prison gerrymandering
  • Create community control over the police
  • Expand “No Cops in Schools” to all Wisconsin
  • Abolish Prison Labor
  • Ensure all incarcerated people’s right to vote
  • End Cash Bail
  • Push for Fair Maps

Nicki:

  • Require racial equity analysis of administrative rules
  • Require racial equity training for state employees
  • Legalize marijuana, release all people incarcerated for nonviolent marijuana offenses, and expunge their records
  • End cash bail
  • Increase funding for public defender system
  • Increase funding for Treatment and diversion programs who those who deal with addiction, mental health challenges, or have disabilities
  • Guarantee Representation for Civil Cases, such as for evictions
  • Close Lincoln Hills, the juvenile corrections facility
  • Harm reduction for those incarcerated via better social services and health services
  • Push for Fair Maps and Fair Elections

Labor and Housing:

Nada:

  • Repeal Act 10 and “Right to Work”
  • Raise minimum wage to $15 and eliminate tipped minimum and subminimum wages
  • Unemployment reform
  • Fight wage theft
  • Demands cancellation of rent and moratorium on mortgage payments during pandemic
  • Push for: increased affordable housing and stronger tenant protections
  • Will fight Senate Bill 440

Nicki:

  • Repeal Act 10
  • Raise minimum wage to $15 and eliminate subminimum wages for those with disabilities
  • Fair tax code and repeal corporation giveaways
  • Abolish the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC)
  • Restore local control to raise wages, protect tenants, and so on
  • Enforce Fair Housing standards
  • Expand state affordable housing trust fund
  • Fund grants for small businesses and nonprofits during the pandemic

Climate Justice:

Nada:

  • Supports a Green New Deal
  • Declare a Climate Emergency in Wisconsin
  • Push for carbon free policymaking, to be carbon free by 2030
  • Create mandatory K-12 statewide curriculum addressing the climate crisis and core curriculum for all UW-System students
  • Empower and pay direct reparations to First Nations communities
  • No F-35s, which involve chemical runoff in our water and soil

Nicki:

  • Restore and Respect Tribal Sovereignty
  • Supports a Green New Deal
  • Ensure protection of water resources
  • Work with local and tribal governments to establish disaster mitigation plans