Jessica Sutherland
Ohio House District 17
About Jessica Sutherland
Jessica Sutherland was born and raised in and around the towns that comprise District 17 before graduating from Berea High School. In 2006, Jessica earned her BA in Mass Communication with a minor in Marketing from Cleveland State University, where she was also a student athlete and academic scholarship recipient. She attended the University of Southern California for grad school, earning her MFA in 2010, and later studied at UCLA. During and after her education, Jessica worked in the entertainment industry, until she was unexpectedly pulled into poverty alleviation, higher education access, and basic needs advocacy.
Jessica Sutherland is not an incumbent and therefore does not have a rank on the OEA Legislative Scorecard, however her opponent Shane Wilkin holds a low score of 18 on the OEA Legislative Scorecard.
Rating Jessica Sutherland
Rank-and-file OEA members from legislative districts and surrounding school districts screened and endorsed candidates based on their positions and voting records on the following issues:
- Support for fully funding the Fair School Funding Plan to ensure students and educators have the resources they need and to alleviate dependency on local property tax levies
- Stopping book bans, infringing on educators’ academic freedom, censorship, and ensuring the ability of students to receive an inclusive, historically accurate, and truthful education
- Decreasing standardized testing
- Shifting away from the State of Ohio’s report cards being based on testing outcomes
- Stopping state takeovers of school districts due to low standardized test scores
- Preservation of educators’ pensions to ensure a safe, secure retirement so Ohio can attract and retain the educators of tomorrow
- Opposition to privatizing educational services to ensure education positions remain good union jobs
- Support for unions and collective bargaining to ensure educators receive fair contracts and have a voice in the workplace
- Opposition to vouchers and voucher expansion, and support for charter and private school accountability
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Registration Deadline:
Monday, October 7, 2024 – Deadline to register to vote and update registrations in advance of the general election. Boards of Election will be open until 9:00 PM for individuals to drop off registrations or register online at the link below before the deadline:
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