Paul's Priorities

• Affordability! - We are currently in a major affordability crisis that is affecting most people. We need to support Minnesotans to be able to afford food, housing, education, and child care. Every job should have a living wage. No exceptions. We also need to take steps to provide a path back to housing and employment for the growing population of unhoused and/or unemployed folks in this state.
• Education! - Due to systemic changes decades ago, today's high school graduates are less well-prepared for the world, and falling reading and mathematics scores illustrate this wide gap. We also hear about the teacher shortage. In reality, it's a lack of proper pay, benefits, and expectations for teaching. We can't expect people with a Master's degree (or equivalent) and certification requirements to work unpaid overtime and be underpaid and undersupported for their work at the same time. No teacher should be paying for their own classroom supplies! We need to raise teacher pay, shrink class sizes, and reduce administrative overhead.
• Equality! - There has been a sustained effort from wealthy media owners to demonize and ostracize various groups based solely on their inherent characteristics. They attempt to shift the blame for all the ills of society onto the least powerful and smallest groups, in order to distract us from the reality that the people who own everything create and reinforce the system that works against the rest of us and protects their privilege. We need to take significant action to force the businesses and wealth individuals who benefit so much from our infrastructure, institutions, and workforce to pay their fair share to support them.
• Accountability! - We have seen many examples of law enforcement exceeding the bounds of their authority and violating civil liberties and fundamental human rights. We need to reform how we investigate and prosecute these 'few bad apples' and require officers to be trained in deescalation instead of escalation, and require them to be state certified and personally insured. Minnesotans demand justice for those harmed or killed by both state and federal law enforcement.