Meeting Date: Friday January 16th, 2015
Air Date: Monday January 19th, 2015
Nearly one in three working families in the United States and in Oregon has trouble meeting their basic needs. Middle-class families in Oregon are struggling to maintain that status. Women and working families striving to join Oregon’s middle class face more barriers than ever before.
Oregon House Speaker Tina Kotek will talk about an “Opportunity Agenda” to address those issues built on three key platforms: expanding opportunity, rewarding work, and ensuring basic fairness.
Expanding opportunity means strengthening our system of public education that provides a ladder for upward mobility. The opportunity agenda includes ensuring that schools have the resources and teachers to help every child succeed; that college and career training opportunities are affordable; and that working families have access to affordable, high-quality child care and full-day kindergarten to help every child get off to a great start.
Rewarding work means that having a job should be about getting ahead, not simply getting by. Full-time workers should not live in poverty. Workers should have paid time off available when they need to take care of themselves or their family members. Workers should be able to save: for buying a house, for their children’s college, for a secure retirement.
Basic fairness means providing a level playing field that gives everyone a fair shot at prosperity. That includes equal pay for equal work; support for small businesses and budding entrepreneurs; sufficient affordable housing and accessible, high-quality health care in every community.
Kotek represents North and Northeast Portland, Oregon House District 44, in the state legislature. She has focused on encouraging women in leadership, and the Oregon House of Representatives is currently the only legislative chamber in the nation where the three top positions—speaker, speaker pro tempore, and majority leader—are all held by women.
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