Biography
I have been a high school English teacher at Hazen Union School for the last 11 years, where I am also the President of the Orleans Southwest Education Association. I served on the Glover Select Board from 2021-2024. I am also a contributing writer to the Barton Chronicle. I live in West Glover with my husband and young children.
Candidate occupation
Public High School English Teacher
Why are you running for office?
I was first approached by outgoing Representative Katherine Sims to run for office because she is now running for State Senator. She appreciated my work on the Glover Select Board as an involved citizen and a working mother like herself. After much careful consideration, I agreed to run because I love the Northeast Kingdom and I want to ensure that it remains unchanged and affordable for my own children to raise their families here too. I grew up in the NEK and appreciate our small-town ways of life and our sense of community. I realize that the area is feeling much less affordable to people than it used to, housing is harder to acquire, and our region is changing. Some of the changes are great, such as more acceptance and diversity and faster access to the outside world, and some are changes we need to protect the NEK from, such as more frequent natural disasters, declining populations in our schools, teacher shortages, and the cost of living and running small businesses, just to name a few. I know this will be hard work, but I am of the mindset that someone needs to be willing to say yes to it, and so I did.
Issues in brief
Do you believe Vermonters are better off now than they were 10 years ago?
No
Do you believe Vermont needs a new education funding formula?
Yes
Do you support imposing new taxes on the wealthiest Vermonters?
Yes
Do you support the establishment of overdose prevention centers?
Yes
Do you support a ban on flavored tobacco products?
No answer
Do you support increasing penalties for property crimes such as shoplifting?
No answer
Do you believe Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election?
Yes
Issues in depth
What would you do to help grow Vermont’s economy?
As a select board member, I helped local farmers to acquire grants that would allow them to diversify in a competitive agricultural market and would continue to support other small businesses in similar ways. I would also support legislation that created more job opportunities, both in-person and remotely, and legislation that would allow more young parents to afford early childcare that would enable them to be able to work, which would help both them personally and provide a more reliable workforce for our businesses. I think Vermont could be doing more to grow its agritourism economy as well.
What changes, if any, would you make to the way Vermont funds its schools?
I support an income-based approach that puts more responsibility on the state’s wealthiest citizens and eases the burden on landowners. As a resident of the Northeast Kingdom, I think that the current approach unfairly targets people in rural areas, such as farmers, who are often more land-wealthy than cash-wealthy.
Is Vermont doing enough, too much or not enough to address climate change? Please explain.
Given the floods of last summer, I think that we need be more strategic about building back in a more resilient way that will allow residents and small-business owners to withstand future natural disasters, which appear to be occurring with more frequency. We also need to make it easier for people to navigate the confusing and extensive paperwork that they face in the wake of these disasters, when they are often weary and traumatized and asking for help. I think that Vermont has done a good job in addressing many goals related to clean energy. However, if we want more people driving electric cars, we need to make them more affordable and robust for our dirt roads, and have charging stations become the norm in all town and village centers.
Is Vermont doing enough, too much or not enough to regulate gun ownership? Please explain.
I don’t know. This is a really complex topic. As a resident of the Northeast Kingdom, I appreciate and respect hunting culture and believe that all law-abiding citizens should have access to firearms. However, as a woman and a teacher, I am hyper-aware of the tragedies that are caused by firearms. People can say “guns don’t shoot people, people shoot people” all they want, but the fact remains that women in the U.S are twenty-one times more likely to die from gun violence than women in other high-income countries, and so I’m glad that the Supreme Court is upholding this week as I write this a law that bans people with domestic violence restraining orders from holding guns. I am uncomfortable with how often I have had to watch children participate in lock-down drills to know what they have to do to survive if someone enters their school with a gun, and I would do just about anything to stop any more school shootings. I believe in 2nd Amendment rights as strongly as anyone, but I am not sure if I believe that they supersede without any caveats a child’s human right to grow up and not die because they went to school that day. I think gun safety conversations are a conversation worth continuing.
What would you do to help ease Vermont’s housing crisis?
I have been visiting housing forums in my community this summer and have been hearing some great ideas. Some include buying empty or abandoned houses and renovating them into multi-family dwellings, or doing the same with undeveloped land near town centers. Other ideas include creating incentives and financial aid for people to build Accessory Dwelling Units on owner-occupied properties. Some feedback from residents surveyed about this latter idea is that Vermont landlord and tenant laws may need to be re-evaluated before they would be comfortable renting, which is something to consider. Habitat for Humanity and Vermont Rural Edge are two groups working hard right now to address community housing problems and create building projects in a way that could that share budgeting and architectural costs across communities. These types of partnerships are critical in meeting housing needs.
How would you address rising homelessness in Vermont?
Obviously we need to consider options for both temporary and semi-permanent shelter, especially in the winter when people can (and do) freeze to death. But to fully address the issue of homelessness means to consider systemic problems and look at the root causes. This includes better access to mental health services, substance abuse services, affordable housing, jobs, and adult education that would allow people to work towards better lives in a more permanent and sustainable way. Homeless also includes lack of access to healthy food, and we all know that healthy food is a healthcare issue. It’s wrong to consider all of these issues, such as homelessness, mental health, healthcare, addiction, and food access independently, as they are all so connected.
What would you do to increase access to health care services for Vermonters?
I would support and increase the work that so many great people are already working towards, such as telehealth, home healthcare access and transportation for elderly or disabled Vermonters. We also need to lower the cost of prescription medications. However, one factor that I think is not talked about enough is that we also need to invest in more preventative care and healthy lifestyle options so that Vermonters can rely less on responsive healthcare needs after they are already sick.
Financial disclosure
Candidates for state and legislative offices are required to submit a financial disclosure when filing to run. These disclosures include each source, but not the amount, of personal income of each candidate, and of their spouse or domestic partner, that singly or jointly totals more than $5,000 for the previous 12 months. The information provided is an opportunity for voters to learn about candidates’ potential conflicts of interest.
You can find Harple’s financial disclosure here.
Disclaimer
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