Democrat Erin Frasier is running against Republican incumbent Jim Walsh for Representative of the 19th District. The Daily World sent the following questions to all of the candidates for state representative. Here’s Frasier’s response.

Please briefly describe your professional or personal qualifications for the job:

I am a mother of two who has a strong passion for Southwest Washington, where I was the fourth generation to be raised on a family farm and learned the importance of community and hard work. My husband and I have both dedicated our careers to education, and I spent a decade working at Grays Harbor College, ensuring access to vocational education and supporting individuals and parents who need to be successful and enter a living-wage career.

For the past three years, I have translated those hands-on skills to state and national policy work supporting workers in transition, many of whom are women and mothers, at the state Board for Community and Technical Colleges. I have always been an active community volunteer, serving on boards and commissions including the State’s Interagency Council on Homelessness, the State’s Poverty Reduction Workgroup, a National Safety Net & Skills Policy Advisory Panel, several years with the Dispute Resolution Center of Grays Harbor and Pacific Counties, the Pacific County Economic Development Council. and I helped launch the Teen Advocacy Coalition.

Your occupation: Workforce Education Policy Associate, Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges.

Some rural school districts say the funding mechanism that provided money for teacher raises will leave less money for districts to pay for the same programs they have had in the past. What, if anything, should the Legislature do about that?

I am the mother of two children in public schools, have been a substitute teacher and my husband is a teacher, so this issue is a priority of mine. The Legislature needs to go back and fix the funding mechanisms to ensure it is equitable for all our districts. The current plan has left many districts without enough funding to pay for their experienced teachers and the programs kids depend on, including special education. Yet we must go even further to ensure other supports for children experiencing homelessness, food insecurity or other adversities are available.

Homelessness has become a universal problem and solutions seem beyond local communities. What should the state do to address homelessness?

It has been found that a primary factor for our current levels of homelessness is a lack of housing stock statewide, therefore increasing housing units, not just low-income units, must be a priority. However, in order to truly address the cyclical and intergenerational nature of poverty, we must also invest in wrap-around supports to help people attain stability and move more quickly toward self-sufficiency. If we continue to not address people’s mental health, chemical dependency and other barriers in isolation of their whole situation, we will continue to experience a revolving door of extended public assistance and criminal justice costs. In my work at the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges we look at the big picture and the many challenges facing workers and try to get them on a path to support themselves and their families. We need more of that addressing homelessness.

Rural communities struggle with a shortage of doctors. What can the state do to narrow the gap between rural and urban-area health care?

I have been speaking with voters across our district and access to quality health care is a priority everywhere I go. That’s why I think it is concerning that my opponent voted against a property tax cut that would have benefited a struggling local hospital (HB 2998). We have to ensure that health care providers are being reimbursed at a fair rate so they can afford to keep their doors open in our communities. That will help provide better health care options in our communities and keep living-wage jobs here. However, in order to truly address the cyclical and intergenerational nature of poverty, we must also invest in wrap-around supports to help people attain stability and move more quickly toward self-sufficiency.