Key Priorities

Housing

While Michaela Kelso has been privileged to always have had housing, she has friends who have not been so lucky.

Why do we have so many unhoused individuals in our region? Not because they chose to live on the streets, (which is how many treat them), not because they are all drug addicts (hint, they are not!), and not because they all have mental health issues. Too often they are just people down on their luck who lost the roof over their head as a result of other circumstances – getting sick, rent increases, unexpected car repairs, etc.

Every person deserves a safe place to live, and data analysis has shown that the most important factor in lowering the number of unhoused individuals is to provide affordable housing. Let's do that!

We need to make building multi-family housing more attractive and less expensive. One way we can do that is by limiting how much land in urban growth areas can be zoned as single-family only. For years urban planners have been spreading the “build up, not out” message, Michaela Kelso intends to listen. As we drive through our district, we can see many apartment projects in progress

We cannot make more land, let’s use what we have responsibly by protecting our natural resources, for the benefit of all.

Healthcare

Healthcare is a Human Right!

Michaela grew up with universal healthcare in Germany. Despite being sick often, her parents never needed to choose between her medical care and other priorities. Now she receives all her care through the VA, at no cost to her, and without her doctor's recommendations being questioned. The way it should be for everyone!

Our current system serves the shareholder over the patient, and every day we can find stories of patients who have suffered due to denials of needed care, are drowning in medical debt, or have had to forego needed care because of the cost.

With the continued loss of rural healthcare providers, it becomes more important than ever to ensure that our rural residents can remain in their homes and communities, while still having reliable access to the areas that have their needed medical services.

While single payer systems in other countries aren't perfect, they are vastly superior to what we have. At the very least our government should regulate the healthcare industry to ensure that patients are protected from outrageous medical bills, that prescribed medications are available and affordable, and that a patient's needs are prioritized over shareholder profit.

Education

We owe it to the next generation to ensure that they are equipped to deal with future crises. For that we need to guarantee them the right to a quality education AND fund it!

Our current way of funding schools is unsustainable and unfair. Students in affluent districts have access to better technology, larger facilities, and a lower student-to-teacher ratio. Our school districts are required to literally beg the voters for funding every time major systems need upgrades, new buildings or new schools are needed, and when subject specific levies expire.

Voters feel justifiably squeezed, and recently this resulted in a number of bond measures and some levies within the county to fail, some of them repeatedly. But rejecting these proposals doesn't eliminate the need for the funds, it just short changes our children's future.

Michaela Kelso will work with school districts, local jurisdictions, and other stakeholders to find a solution to better fund our schools.