DENVER -- Former state senator Mike Johnston wants to be Colorado’s next governor.
He says he accomplished a lot during his seven years in the legislature, but there are a lot of big challenges still facing the state like education, transportation, affordable housing and even energy.
“I think there are big set of problems facing us,” the Democrat told Anne Trujillo on this week’s Politics Unplugged. “I think it’s going to take someone with a vision to solve that and I have a track record of being able to work across the aisle to do it.”
Johnston says the biggest issues he sees in the future relates to jobs and the economy.
“How do we make sure that people who are coming out of jobs that are going to disappear have a place to go to get the skills they need for the new jobs that are emerging,” he said. “I proposed an idea when we launched called the Colorado Promise which would allow people to get access to skills training or community college for up to two years. They could get access to that with debt free in exchange for them providing some meaningful service to the state. That would be like a National Guard program or civil service program where they could work 10 or 12 weekends a year to earn those skills.”
Politics Unplugged airs Sundays at 4:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Denver7.
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