A retired Webster County educator served his local school system for three decades and is now looking to serve all of Kentucky’s House District 12.
Alan Lossner is running on the Democratic ticket and doesn’t have an opponent in May’s primary election. He’ll be facing the winner of the hotly contested District 12 GOP primary, which features incumbent Rep. Jim Gooch and – thanks to a recent redistricting – current District 4 Rep. Lynn Bechler, in fall’s general election. District 12 now includes Crittenden, McLean, Webster and Union counties.
Lossner says his proactive, “man of action” mentality dates back to his time in the school system, where he worked as a teacher, principal and administrator.
“Going back to my early days and working as a teacher and an educator, I take my job seriously, I've always taken them seriously,” Lossner said. “I know how to get things done, and I know how to use the system to help other people advance.”
He’s motivated to pass bills that help people using his experience as a school administrator to back his actions, especially since he says schools are in crisis.
“If I'm elected, I'm going to do all I can to help teachers and public schools,” Lossner said.
Some of Lossner’s ideas to help schools and teachers include salary raises, signing bonuses, defined retirement plans and collective bargaining in the form of a union. He also wants to do more to provide students and educators with mental health support.
“There needs to be an [effort] put towards hiring more psychologists for schools,” Lossner said. “There needs to be more, better access for mental health services for social workers [and] health workers … because people are at their snapping point.”
Lossner said the more people help each other with their mental health, the better off society will be.
He also supports free state-funded preschool across Kentucky, better Narcan supplies for all counties, the formation of conviction integrity units, free community college and an end to the efforts to fund and support charter schools.
He said he knows how to work with people and develop actionable plans. Lossner thinks this will help him make a difference.
“There's just a lot of planning that's involved with accomplishing goals in improvement plans,” Lossner said. “I've had a lot of experience with putting those together for our school district, and actualizing those plans, actually putting them into practice and implementing different programs.”
The 2022 primary elections will take place on May 17. Learn more about races in the region in our Primary Election Voter Guide.
