Voter Guide: Cecile Perez (D)

• Career
  • Mental Health Professional
  • Progressing towards a Bachelor's degree in Environmental Engineering
• Personal Information:
  • I am a mental health professional and advocate, human parent, cat parent, and active member of my community. I love the outdoors, and I enjoy camping, hiking, and swimming in this great state of abundant natural beauty. I stay involved in my community in District 32 because I care about the people. I want everyone to thrive and have a chance at upward mobility. I have spent 16 years of my life living in rural areas, 10 of which have been in Idaho legislative District 32. I also lived in the heart of Idaho Falls for nine years. I have drawn from those experiences to better serve people in this area. I am a third-generation Chicane and queer person. 
• What issues do you feel are important and what would you do if elected?: 
  • First and foremost, school choice vouchers are harmful to public education. School choice vouchers take funds away from public schools. Public schools offer children with disabilities programs that privately funded schools can't. Moving towards privatizing our children's schools is dangerous, as education is a great equalizer in society and gives every child the chance to thrive. Children don't have a choice in their backgrounds, and public schooling empowers them to have a choice in their future. I would advocate against school choice vouchers. I would also propose that we pull away from funding individual districts with property taxes, as the quality of schools in less wealthy districts is affected by this. I would also advocate that we better fund public education.
    
    Second, I want to protect Medicaid expansion. Ever since the citizens of Idaho voted it in, Republican legislators have tried to repeal it. Medicaid expansion saves lives. We forget that Medicaid expansion helps many working Idahoans that simply fall in the gap. In the past, it saved my life because there are life-saving treatments I would not have been able to access without Medicaid. Additionally, Medicaid empowers people with health, which can lead to independence and productivity.
    
• Website: https://www.perezforidaho.com/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61563062883036
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/perezforidaho/

Interview transcript:

I decided to run because I care about my community.

And I think that voters need to see we have another choice. And that the incumbent should not go unchallenged. And I want to serve. I think being a leader is about serving.

And so sorry about back to your roots to Idaho. What about this community made you want to run?

I'm an active member of my community, and I care about the people. And I want to preserve the land and natural resources here. And that's what made me want to run.

That leads up to our next question. What are some of your values and priorities? if you were to be elected, what would you like to do?

One of the things I would advocate against, well, that's kind of an oxymoron, I would speak out against the school voucher program because I think that these type of programs are expensive, and they siphon funds away from public schools. And unfortunately, they often go towards families that are already economically privileged, and, in a private school, they don't have the kind of resources that they would have in a public school for disabled students.

So, I think it's a dangerous move to move towards privatizing our schools. And I think public schooling empowers kids to have a choice in their futures and thrive.

You also mentioned natural resources. Can you explain a little bit more about that?

I support clean energy and I also think we should preserve our public lands.

How so?

We should just make sure that they don't become privatized and used for moneymaking schemes.

what is your stance on water? That's a that's a big topic of discussion in the community here.

Yeah, definitely. So the community is definitely been buzzing about the water curtailment issue. So my take on that, I agree that it's a serious problem for farmers, and we need to fix it for them.

I do think that as far as the legislature doing anything about that, that they should be careful to not assume they know more than some of the experts that have been dealing with water management issues for a long time in Idaho. And I think it would be wise for us to serve as mediators in this situation. If I were to be in that position and only apply decision making after consulting with the experts and speaking with the people. So yeah, I think Idaho's farmers deserve better. And the water issue in Idaho has complicated moving parts. Both things can be true at the same time. So we can find a solution that really works for it.

And, I know we've touched on some topics already, but, what are some things that you are hearing from the community, like what do you hear, the community talking about and what would you plan to do about to address those kind of issues, those kind of topics?

I think that people have been talking a lot about immigration from the southern border, and they talk about it in different ways.

And for me, I need to come out and say, when there's harmful rhetoric and, xenophobia being spread, that I do want to come out and say, that this is not okay. I do think that things like the noncitizens issue on the ballot are redundant and do unfortunately spread that fear of immigrants. I think it's important to note that immigrants, including undocumented immigrants, are less likely to be incarcerated in prisons, convicted of crimes, or arrested than native-born people in the US.

So, when people say they're bringing in crimes, so when people say they're bringing in crime, that's not true. They're not a drain on society. They use significantly fewer social welfare programs than native-born people in the US. And, 80, 80.2% of the fentanyl that comes in at US ports of entry comes in with U.S. citizens.

 And, 88% of the total fentanyl coming in comes in at those ports of entry. So, you can't really say immigrants are bringing in drugs either. So, that's something that I've noticed has become kind of a hot topic that I wanted to speak up on.

Also another thing, I think, that affordable housing and fair wages are really important to have in order to empower people in Idaho.

And so to kind of wrap and wrap around here. so what are the main values that you stand on running for this position?

Well, definitely I, I'm against the school voucher programs, and I think it's important that we support public education. Another thing that I'm really big on is that everyone deserves to have a chance to thrive, no matter who they are or where they come from.

I believe that securing health care for people is important because, everyday people, if they don't have the empowerment that having their health and well-being gives them, they can't they can't be contributors. They can't give to their communities in some way. So, also is, you know, along that vein of people thriving, I kind of want to circle back to the fair wages and affordable housing. You know, if people don't have fair wages where they can be paid, what they're really working for, and instead, wealthy CEOs and shareholders make all the money, that isn't a truly thriving economy, if a lot of people can't afford the basics.

 So, yeah. and then the last thing for me would be protecting our land and natural resources.