Joyce Weston: Volinsky has been fighting for public education for over 30 years

To The Daily Sun,

Like many of you, I am concerned about opening our schools in Plymouth without firm guidelines for safety — for the students, the teachers, the maintenance staff, the cafeteria personnel, the bus drivers, and everyone else with school contact. Many schools will struggle to open safely without a guarantee of additional state funding. Governor Sununu's abdication of the state's responsibility in this current crisis continues a long tradition of downshifting costs onto you and me — the local taxpayers. Schools such as ours in Plymouth, where we already have a high property tax rate, will be hardest hit.

I have been following the gubernatorial primary, and while I recognize that we have two good Democratic candidates, it is Andru Volinsky, who has been fighting for sound public education for over 30 years, who I see as the best choice to run against Sununu. As a member of the Executive Council, Volinsky exhibits great control of the issues. In 10 minutes of intense questioning at a recent Executive Council meeting, Andru kept DOE Commissioner Frank Edelblut on the hot seat. Finally, Edelblut admitted that the reopening guidelines were drafted by AIR, a consulting firm that Betsy DeVos put in place, bypassing the comments and recommendations of Sununu’s advisory committee.

Volinsky has a strong command of the issues that affect us here locally. He has our backs. Hope you’ll join me in voting for Volinsky in the primary, September 8.

Rep. Joyce Weston

NH House, Grafton 8

Plymouth