Patrick Duvendeck

Education
​A strong education system in the county is key to preparing our kids and grandkids for opportunities to make their future one that can be better and let them find their full potential. It is how they will become prepared for college or jobs. For the third year in a row, Michigan’s budget included increased state funding for K-12 education, as well as funding for early childhood education and higher education. We need to get input from those in the classroom to help solve our education issues. Reviving of the economy and bringing jobs to Genesee County is what will really help to provide a robust funding and increased students to the educational systems here.

Jobs and the Economy
The most pressing issue facing Genesee County is the economy and jobs. While there are some positive growth in jobs the health care fields in the area and positive things like Michigan State bringing some of its Med school facilities here we need to find ways to accelerate other types of job growth in the area. We need to leverage the strengths of our higher education facilities and human resources and low cost business property to attract new businesses to Genesee County. We need to facilitate educational institutions like Kettering, U of M – Flint, Baker College, Mott CC and others to establish collaborative partnerships with business to assure the proper training to prepare people for jobs in those businesses and internship opportunities for students to get real on the job training, [sic] We need to bring together the fragmented efforts in the area for job retraining to be sure we are getting people ready for existing jobs.

Public Safety & Safe Neighborhoods
We need to follow through fixing the water problem in Flint and stop making it a political issue. We need to continue to fight crime in the area as well. Certainly the poor economy and lack of jobs has exacerbated this issue but we also have other systemic issues that contribute to it as well. We need more resources to combat crime in the area as well developing innovative methods of doing so. Reviving the economy in the area will help to bring money for these kinds of resources. In the long term we need to find ways to strengthen families and help people take back their neighborhoods. We need to reform entitlement systems to give people a hand up to get back on their feet and provide incentives and facilitate them to find and take advantage of opportunities to help them get good jobs and be able to make a better life and future for themselves and their families.^[9]