On Friday Jan 30, Representative Kim Schrier came to visit Issaquah High School’s AP Gov Students. This visit was arranged by the AP Gov teacher, Jaci Belur, after Representative Schrier saw a photo that Belur posted of her students watching the House Impeachment hearings when Schrier took the stand. Schrier later contacted Belur over the phone and set up her visit. Congresswoman Shrier began her presentation by summarizing her career in politics up to that point. She expressed how as a freshman member of Congress the whole process was strange and surreal to her. Schrier went on to talk about some ideas and policies she wanted to promote during her time in Congress.

One of the major areas she continually addressed over the course of the visit was healthcare. She expressed how she was pro healthcare reform and believed that “there should be a universal option for people to be able to afford the treatment and medications that they need.”

Another topic she addressed was the current state of the education system. She stated how as a member of the Education Committee in the house one of her main goals was to bring more funding to schools to provide a better education for people from all walks of life, but she also expressed concerns over how the current school system actually goes about teaching kids. She explained how the current school system “encourages teaching to the test and not teaching organically and teachers know how to teach their students, so if standardized testing is not going to be used to give immediate feedback to teachers and to students to show how they can improve then I don’t know if it is serving its purpose.”

Schrier then went on to address some lesser known issues that are plaguing our country, with one of the key issues being infrastructure. She expressed how “we need to think really big on this, like it can’t just be roads and bridges, it’s got to be things like sewer systems and water treatment facilities. Rural broadband is also a big one, and just in general the disparity between urban and rural areas when it comes to things like broadband and access to medical professionals.”

To wrap up  Schrier expressed her plans for the future, and stated how she feels like her “work is not done until children are set up for a good outcome, and that’s nutrition program, housing, and education. I will feel much better about my accomplishments once we get really good bold climate action, and I am enjoying being a voice for women’s health.” As a final bombshell for the visit, Schrier shared the news that Belur will be her guest to the state of the union address.