The sixth of seven children, Julie was born on the San Carlos Apache reservation in Arizona and raised in the borderlands of south Texas. Her mom, Gloria, was an elementary school teacher and her dad, Mario, was a rancher. Together, they taught Julie the value of hard work, honesty, and the importance of lifting as we climb. Julie’s organizing career began while a student at Yale University. In 2005, she organized a 58-member coalition of working-class families, unions, community organizations, and environmental activists to ensure that tax dollars were spent on affordable housing, a clean environment, and jobs that paid a living wage.
My mom was born and raised in rural Gardner, Colorado, and she dropped out of high school, but never stopped learning. Mom obtained her GED, went to Adams State and became the first in her family to graduate from college, and instilled in her kids the power of education as a first-grade teacher. I graduated from Yale thanks to my mom’s encouragement
Our Colorado economy is booming, but our state’s education system is ranked at the bottom. We must fund preschool and kindergarten to ensure every child is prepared for success. Let’s actually fund our K-12 education system, so that we no longer have half the school districts in the state operating on four-day school weeks. Our state university and community college systems are a treasure – and we must ensure they are affordable, because Colorado’s youth deserve access to training in the skills our 21st century economy needs, but without incurring a lifetime of debt.