It’s a new year and a new legislative session. 2021 has already been no less extraordinary. It feels like there’s a ticking time bomb on a speeding bus like in the film, Speed. Even during this interesting start, it is important to remain focused on taking care of our people through distraction, destruction, and devastation.
We continue to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic in our daily lives, while the supply and distribution of vaccines have been limited. In addition to that, coronavirus has brought many inequities to the forefront.
Our schools need resources in order to adequately provide a quality education to our children. Our educators are working in overdrive and need to be compensated justly. Full funding of public education, investment in broadband access and in high-poverty school districts, a teacher pay raise, and funding specialized personnel like school nurses, social workers, therapists, and psychologists will stabilize a foundation for success for educators, students, and our communities.
Our healthcare system is ill equipped for our current circumstances and access to care continues to dwindle. Making coverage accessible to as many residents as possible is crucial to keeping people healthy and safe, and containing the spread of the virus. It is imperative that we expand Medicaid, minimize cuts to health agencies, provide supports for moms that lower maternal mortality, and implement paid leave policies for workers.
Our election system needs to be modernized in a way that continues to promote safety, security, and accessibility. No-excuse absentee voting, online voter registration, early voting, and voter restoration will help to ensure that all Mississippians can make their voices heard at the ballot box.
Our prison system is overcrowded with men and women who have been there too long, are sick, or who shouldn’t be there in the first place. Reforming laws that lead to high incarceration, reentry/parole reform, expungement, and efforts to ban the box will help us achieve true criminal justice.
Our cities and counties are financially strapped and need more resources to address significant infrastructure issues so that roads and bridges are safe to travel and communities are not severely impacted by flooding like we saw last winter.
Working people need a liveable wage and need equitable access to childcare and other workforce supports. We must support essential workers as best we can. We can start by raising the minimum wage and ensuring that child care providers have what they need to return and expand services.
We cannot forget about the severely marginalized mental health and homeless community. It is imperative that cities, counties, and the state work together with agencies to provide the services and housing security this community so desperately needs.
The 2021 legislative session will be relatively short. There will not be enough time to deal with all of the aforementioned issues, but my hope is that we can continue working in a bi-partisan fashion on behalf of all Mississippians and not just a privileged few.
My priorities continue to focus on equity, justice, transparency and accountability in the issue areas of education, elections/voting, healthcare, economic growth/infrastructure, and criminal legal reform. I look forward to crafting and supporting policies alongside my colleagues in a way that moves Mississippi forward within these issues as well as a recovery response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
As we celebrate the raising of a new state flag, our work must be deliberate and intentional to really show that Mississippi is about the business of taking care of her people.
If I can ever be of assistance to you, please don’t hesitate to contact me at electsummers@gmail.com.
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Rep. Summers represents District 68 in the Mississippi House of Representatives, which covers portions of Hinds and Rankin Counties.