Mark Burrows’ Platform

Health Care: A Basic Right

You shouldn’t have to choose between getting health care and putting food on your table.  Privatization has made health care more expensive, less accessible, and often located outside our communities. In rural areas like ours, the care you need could be over an hour away.

• In our district, many are uninsured and don’t get the health care they need.
• A fifth of residents are on Medicaid.
• Simply put, we’re paying more, but getting less.

I’ll fight to protect the expansion of Medicare coverage, which helps so many. Privatized health services, which are vital to our rural communities, must deliver the services they promised. And we have to get serious about ensuring affordable healthcare for everyone.

Economic Growth and Opportunity

We have more public lands than any other NC house district, which limits some development, but creates unique economic opportunities. The Blue Ridge Mountains of NC District 119 define who we are and how we’ve developed.

• Hurricane Helene taught us a valuable lesson: our infrastructure was inadequate.  Our water, sewer and power lines were badly damaged. Hospital services were impacted, and phones didn’t work.
  
• Following the devastation of Hurricane Helene, it’s more important than ever to invest in infrastructure to promote economic growth in our region.
  
• We need to protect our unique natural resources and the environment while promoting business opportunities that will help create much needed jobs.

We need to encourage smart economic growth that preserves the unique nature of WNC and plays to our strengths. I will work to get funding to make our infrastructure more resilient, and to repair the extensive damage from Helene. With my years of experience in economic development, I know how to balance recreation, conservation and job creation.

Saving Our Schools

We used to have one of the strongest public education systems in the country. Now our school facilities are deteriorating, our teachers are poorly paid, key positions are empty and students are struggling. We have to invest in our public schools – and our children’s future.

• We now rank 38th in the U.S. for teacher pay, 45th in beginning teacher pay, and retirement benefits have been slashed.
• Teachers are retiring early or moving to states where they are appreciated, and where salaries and working conditions are better.
• Students are under enormous stress, and we’re not doing enough to help them navigate a complicated world.
• Private schools have their place, but there is often little accountability. They don’t have to provide meals or transportation, or services to the disabled.
• All of our kids deserve a good start by adequately funding early childhood education, the most important window in all human development. Every family should have access to Early Childhood education that’s affordable.

North Carolina public schools have long been the glue that has held our communities together and driven the state’s past economic success. Shifting state funds to private schools vouchers just makes it harder for public schools to do their jobs. Resources matter for our public schools, and we must provide enough money to educate and retain top notch educators in all subjects and all grade levels and maintain facilities and school environments.