Priorities
Healthcare
In her years as a family practice physician, Dr. Mann found herself seeing patients who were struggling to pay for their medications, and their insurance. Each day, she spent more and more time arguing on the phone with insurance companies to make sure they would pay for her patients’ necessary treatments, and less time helping more patients.
It was these struggles that first propelled her to seek elected office. She brings medical and public health expertise from Mayo Clinic and Johns Hopkins University, respectively.
Dr. Mann believes health care is a human right, and that access to your doctor should not be a financial burden. She will continue on working to expand access to affordable healthcare to all Minnesotans and will continue to fight for reproductive justice.
“I want to bring my medical training, experience, and expertise to the table. We’re seeing rising health care costs, while experiencing poorer health care outcomes. We need to do better.”
– Dr. Alice Mann
Public Safety
This includes encouraging relationship building between community members and law enforcement and incorporating a public health approach to addressing crime. Taking a cue from her colleague Rep. Ruth Richardson, Dr. Mann also believes policing can be done with the community, and not to the community.
We need to address conditions that lead to increases in crime, such as: access to education, crumbling social services, lack of affordable housing, and insufficient mental health resources. We must work to ensure that our local public safety professionals have the tools they need to effectively carry out their duties safely, in both the long and short term.
We need to continue to address the racial disparities within our public safety system.
Education
“All of our children need to receive that same gift. How can we say we are giving our children the best opportunity we can if we are underfunding our public schools? Every child in Minnesota deserves a quality education, ” Mann said.
If the state does not adequately fund public education, the bill gets passed down to our local residents through voter-approved referenda.
Our state registers some of the largest achievement gaps in the country. We need to dedicate our work to closing these gaps — those are children that are falling through the cracks of our education system. The best investment we can make is in the education of our children.
Minnesota needs to step up as a state, and ensure that public education is fully funded: that students with special needs receive needed services, that educators are properly compensated, and that programs are widely available to all of our children.
Environment
Minnesota is home to some of the most picturesque and well-known lands in the country. We need to protect our lakes and wetlands, as they provide so much of our way of life. We need to reduce our dependence on plastic, and reduce our carbon footprint.
Our state can spur investment in green energy and climate-positive solutions, in order to give the best Minnesota we can to our future generations.
Racial Justice
We need to have uncomfortable conversations, and learn from one another. We need to listen to those who are directly impacted. We cannot silently let our neighbors live in pain anymore. We must realize that we all have different lived experiences. We cannot do better, if we do not know better.