Democratic Gubernatorial candidate Gina Ginajosa shares her vision of a working class agenda for Texas with the Garland Gazette.
Garland, TX – Gina Hinajosa has been one of the strongest champions of working class Texans, starting with being a civil rights lawyer, then working for the Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, serving on the Austin Independent School District’s school board and is currently representing Texas’ 49th District as she runs for Governor of Texas. A mother of two, one of her top priorities is to improve Texas public schools following a destructive term by current Governor Greg Abbott.
“Greg Abbott has done more to hurt public schools in Texas than any governor in the history of Texas,” Hinoja tells the Garland Gazette. “Public schools are part of our identity, they are enshrined in our Constitution as a state and they are essential for our state and our economy. I’ll give you some examples of what’s happening. For the first time in history, most of the new teachers now are uncertified because certified teachers are leaving the profession in droves. They aren’t supported, they aren’t paid their worth and as a result our kids are often not getting the education they deserve.”
As with so many things in politics, a necessary first step is getting money and cronyism out of the system in order to redirect funds in ways that are more conducive to having strong public schools.
“What I would do is wipe clean all of the vendor contracts that have added up under Greg Abbott because I sit on the public education committee and I see that most of our big bills that we’re allowed to vote on are vendor bills,” Hinojosa details. “Many of those are connected to the governor, donors to the governor, and they have lobbyists who are former Republican legislators who come and grease the wheels to get these things passed. It means we pay more in property taxes and we get less. Schools all across the state are shutting down and teachers aren’t getting paid. I would wipe clean all of those vendor contracts and start fresh by first taking that money and paying our teachers. Texas teachers should be paid amongst the highest in the nation and right now Texas teachers make $10,000 below the national average. We should also have smaller class sizes. Parents and teachers understand that smaller class sizes make a huge difference in their children’s education. We also need to prioritize special education funding, which is the most underfunded program in our schools, and also school safety. Those are our four priorities for transforming education in our state when I am governor. It’s not rocket science; it’s common sense. The problem is that people never got rich paying teachers their worth and as a result it’s not the priority of our governor.”
Also on Ginojosa’s platform is an issue near and dear to the hearts (literally) of many Texans today. Texas ranks among the worst in the United States in terms of healthcare, with 21.6% of adults and 13.6% of children uninsured as of 2024. Both numbers are at or near double the national average, but it happens to be something fairly easily addressed.
“The real low-hanging fruit is to expand Medicaid,” says Hinojosa of a solution that is currently on the Democratic Primary ballot. “We have paid those taxpayer dollars into the federal government as Texans and California is getting more benefits than Texas. We need to pull down more of those federal dollars and we can put a million Texans back on health insurance just by doing that. We also have to do more here, and we are putting together a plan, for instance, to prioritize small business owners. Lots of small business owners really struggle with providing health insurance for employees and for themselves and that limits people’s opportunities to pursue their passion of owning their own business. We also need to reign in insurance companies. We pay more and more and it’s just getting harder to access the doctors that we need and the cost of prescriptions is high and getting higher because insurance companies also create these middleman companies that just take a profit from collections. There are ways we can cut some of these costs by regulating insurance companies better in this state but also expand health insurance access.”
Another important issue for Hinajosa is the growing number of both private prisons and ICE detention centers being built across the state. Even as Republican and Democratic states alike are rejecting the building of million-square-foot warehouses for ICE detainees, Texas is welcoming them with open arms – including a new one going up in Hutchins, just 20 minutes south of Garland.
“What’s driving that is private prison companies,” says Hinojosa. “Since last year, private prison companies are now operating all of these detention facilities. The two biggest private prison companies are CoreCivic and Geo Group. CoreCivic’s biggest investor is BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, and their only goal is to make money for their shareholders. That’s the GeoGroup model, as well. For instance, GeoGroup gave Greg Abbott tens of thousands of dollars, after which he created a new kind of licensing for detention centers that allows for the locking up of little kids and their parents. That’s why Liam Ramos was shipped here, because we’re the only state in the United States of America that does this. The profits go to the corporations, but they are 100% paid for by the taxpayers of Texas. This needs to end. It’s a threat to public safety. These private prison companies have quotas to make money for their shareholders, ICE is supposed to pick up 3,000 people a day for these prisons, and they’re not targeting criminals. In fact, I was talking to the district attorney for Harris County who says he’s got child sex abuse cases he can’t prosecute because the witnesses have been picked up by ICE. They’re supposed to make exceptions for that so we can keep our communities safer, but now that’s not the goal. The goal is to maximize private prison profits.”
These are just a few of the issues that Gina Hinojosa is fighting for on behalf of her constituents, and a vote for her to be the next Governor would put those issues on a bigger stage for a broader conversation. If you agree that they should be, check out Hinojosa’s campaign website to read more about her journey.
The Garland Gazette has reached out to the campaign of Governor Greg Abott, but has not heard back of this writing..
To read our exclusive interview with Texas’ US Senatorial candidate Jasmine Crockett, click here!
