A Congresswoman's Backstory
Montāžas Teksta
- This is the story of my life and my road to Congress. Let's start from the beginning...
- My older brother and I were born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia by our parents. We never had a lot of money to spare but we got by.
- I excelled in school and as I got older, I gained an interest in social justice. I wanted to know more about why certain things happened to certain people.
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- I graduated summa cum laude at my high school and went to Howard University to study business for a year. Then, my life was flipped upside down.
- My mother was diagnosed with cancer and the bills were through the roof. It was hard for my family to find the money to cover her treatment. This opened my eyes. I began to wonder why my family had such trouble with money when both my parents worked hard.
- I moved back home to be closer to my mom and transferred to the University of West Georgia. I also changed my major to political science. After seeing my family struggle to pay bills, I knew I wouldn't want anyone else to go through that.
- When studying political science, I was especially interested in minority disparities. I began to understand why things like redlining and lack of generational wealth made it hard for my families like mine to make money. It came to my attention that if I represented my area in Congress, I could try and change some of these issues. So that's what I set out to do.
- Minority Disparities
- While in college, I became an intern for Lucy McBath who is a Georgian Representative in the House of Reps. She is a part of the Education and Labor Committee. She told me about many legislations she cosponsored that benefited minorities.
- One of the most important legislations she told me about was the 2020 Strength in Diversity Act. This was the act that allowed the Department of Education to put money into diversity programs at schools to eliminate racial isolation. This bill introduced activities and academic programs to get minority students more involved. It also aimed to recruit more teachers in these minority groups to allow the minority students to be even more comfortable.
- H.R. 2639:Strength in Diversity Act
- This legislation was important to me because I could relate to it. The schools I attended as a child had mainly white people. Sometimes I felt lonely and like the school didn't care about the feelings of people like me. If I were in Congress then, I definitely would have voted in favor of this legislation because I would love to know there is something preventing little minority children from feeling how I did.
- Three years after college, I decided to run for the 7th District Representative against the incumbent Rob Woodall. Unfortunately, I didn't win but I didn't give up. I ran against him again two years later and focused my campaign on my passion for children and helping all people feel important. I won this way and became a US representative for Georgia.
- 7th Congressional District
- Now I'm a representative writing my own legislation. I wanted to write a bill that could help further what the 2020 Diversity Act started. My legislation would try to help eliminate the school to prison pipeline that disproportionately affects minority students.
- School to Prison Pipeline
- I wanted to pass this legislation because with all my experience, the school to prison pipeline is an unnecessary barrier that has been holding back minority students. It is rooted in racism so steps to get rid of it should be taken immediately.
- To do this, I wrote to send more funding to the Department of Education. This would be so that at least one counselor and one diversity administrator could be added into schools. There would also be more regulations put on suspensions and other forms of punishments that students can be given for non-violent transgressions.
- With my legislation, instead of giving students immediate punishments, they will be sent to the counselor. The cause of the problem would be addressed using our curriculum and preventative steps would be taken for the future. This will stop the student from missing class for suspension and hopefully prevent them from going down a dangerous path later on in life.
- And that's where I am now! Hopefully my legislation will be passed soon so we see less minority children going to jail after high school, and more getting secure jobs.
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