Brewster McCracken for Austin Mayor

COMMUNITY

Ensure That Austin Provides Opportunities For ALL Its Citizens

In Austin, we want everyone to be included and to have the same opportunities. That’s part of our core values.
To restore the promise of Austin as a community accessible to everyone, including the less fortunate, we should:

Commit to a 21st Century Careers Initiative

Temple, TX has repurposed an abandoned semiconductor plant into a health care job training lab that prepares high school and community college students for careers in healthcare and biotech.  During the severe late-1980’s recession in Austin, we created a job training program as part of the SEMATECH effort.  That visionary initiative prepared community college and high school students for good manufacturing jobs.

We can do it again.  We have a responsibility to try.  By committing to a 21st Century Careers Initiative, we can prepare Austinites for green collar and health care job opportunities.  And we can create 25,000 green collar and health care jobs locally, just as we created 25,000 high tech manufacturing jobs through SEMATECH.

Create an Austin Endowment for Opportunity

This would be modeled on funds created by California’s Stem Cell bonds and Dell, Inc.’s commitment to investing in people in emerging countries.  (Through California’s stem cell bonds, the State of California receives royalties on all patented medical advances funded through the bonds.) This endowment could fund public investments in health care, affordable housing, open space acquisition and other public interest areas prioritized by the community.