Mayor of Charlestown Treva Hodges (left) facilitated the questions to Indiana House of Representative candidates Jennifer David (Dist. 66), Ross Thomas (Dist 59) and Trish Whitcomb (Dist. 69) during the Rural Summit held in Scottsburg Thursday.
by Olivia P. Tucker
Times Reporter
A Rural Summit was held Thursday, Aug. 15, at the Scott County YMCA for Democratic candidates for the Indiana House to speak to voters about issues that could improve the way of life for Southern Indiana. The topics that House District 66 Candidate Jennifer David and House District 69 Candidate Trish Whitcomb touched upon were education, cost of living, the housing crisis in Southern Indiana, local government services for property tax relief and working with Republican representatives for the betterment of Indiana.
David’s district includes a portion of Scott County; Whitcomb’s district encompasses portions of Scott, Jackson and Washington Counties.
David said on education that she would like to be able to contribute to younger education and would push for funding for preschool. She noted that the current legislature voted to decrease funding for preschools in the Scott County school systems.
As a former educator, Whitcomb expressed concerns about what she has seen for the funding of the public schools is a “travesty”, that funding that should be going to the education of Southern Indiana public schools is going to the rich families in Indianapolis to send their children to private schools, shee said. She also explained that if 3rd graders do not read at a 3rd grade level with standardized testing the student will be held back and she felt that is wrong to young students, especially with the age a child has to go to school is seven.