Michael Shawn Kelly

[email protected] 281-350-0515 www.campaigntexas.com Michael Shawn Kelly has degrees in floriculture and landscape architecture from Texas A&M University. Kelly is the founder and chief architect of Mirror Lakes Design in Spring and has lived in District 150 for more than 35 years with his wife, children and grandchildren.

What do you believe are the biggest challenges facing District 150?

The quality of life, undoubtedly. If you have bought the house where you plan on living, and they build a very cheaply subsidized housing project across from your subdivision, your neighborhood values go down, businesses start falling apart, crime goes up and the school system falls apart. [Also], we keep asking our teachers to do more and more with less and less, and it’s ridiculous. That’s what I’ve seen in 35 years of working with people: If the schools are strong, if the neighborhoods are strong, then everyone has a chance to do well.

How would you respond to these challenges?

All [teachers] really want is to have a class size that’s manageable. They want to have the materials that they need so they’re not digging into their own pockets to buy materials, and they want to have the time to be effective. Right now, we’re not doing any of that through our Legislature. It probably will take more money. But the thing is, we need twice as many teachers, and we need them right now. We need to group the kids according to their learning abilities. [In regard to subsidized housing], that would be a straight-out “no” to how they’re doing it. You have to look into doing it a better way. You actually go ahead and do some grants to our universities here and tell them to come up with some ideas.

Valoree Swanson

[email protected] 832-510-4520 www.valoreeswanson.com Valoree Swanson has lived in the community for 13 years and in Harris County for 36 years. Swanson previously worked in commercial real estate and has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Baylor University.

What do you believe are the biggest challenges facing District 150?

[The biggest challenges are] improving education, improving safety, preserving our quality of life and protecting our constitutional rights.

How would you respond to these challenges?

I will work with the State Board of Education to focus on education and not just test-taking. I will work to block low-income government housing in our communities. I will work to help law enforcement have the manpower and tools they need to keep our streets safe. I will strongly defend our constitutional rights, such as free speech, religious liberty and the Second Amendment.

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Candidates’ responses were edited for space.