Hillary appeared with Senators Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken yesterday in Minneapolis.
At the AFT
Convention in Minneapolis on Monday, Hillary Clinton reiterated her
commitment to ensure every child receives a world-class education,
regardless of their ZIP code. Clinton pledged to partner with teachers
in the White House to repair our crumbling schools, invest in training
and support for our educators, and provide every student in America the
opportunity to learn computer science.
Clinton argued that
Donald Trump is unfit to serve as president. Trump wants to "largely"
eliminate the Department of Education, believes we invest too much in
public education, and selected a running mate who slashed funding for
schools that served Indiana’s most vulnerable students. As Clinton said,
"Neither Mike Pence nor Donald Trump should be anywhere near our
children's education"
Clinton's remarks, as transcribed, are below:
“Hello! Hello, AFT!
My goodness, I was listening in the back and I heard Randi at the end
of her remarks say, ‘And I’ve known her for 25 years.’ Wow, it’s been
fun, hasn’t it? Gone by fast.
Well, I’m thrilled to be here, and it is only fitting that AFT
is celebrating your centennial right here in Minnesota, a state with a
proud tradition of public service and great public education.I am
thrilled that former Vice President Walter Mondale is here with us. He
was one of my earliest inspirations, and I am always grateful for his
life of service. And I also want to say a word about Governor Wendell
Anderson. My thoughts and prayers are with his family, friends, and the
countless people whose lives he touched. Minnesota has a great
tradition of electing terrific public servants. And I am so proud to be
here with this state’s dynamic duo. You got a preview, a taste of the
combination that Amy and Al represent, but I can tell you that the two
senators from Minnesota are among the greatest that Minnesota has ever
sent to Washington, and among the greatest to have ever served in the
United States Senate. And I just said exactly what they told me to say.
I’ve known Al a long time. He handed me this slip of paper on the way
in. But no, I consider them both great friends and I am so excited
about being able to work with them again starting next January 2017.And
Randi, thank you for that introduction, but much more than that, thanks
for standing up to injustice in all of its forms. As Randi said
earlier, these have been difficult days for our country and the world.
Just over a week ago, Philando Castile died in a police incident outside
St. Paul.”\
AUDIENCE MEMBERS: “Hands up, don’t shoot. Hands up, don’t shoot. Hands up, don’t shoot.”
HILLARY CLINTON: “And
I just had the great honor – the great honor and the great privilege of
meeting with his mother and meeting with two of his uncles and his
sister. And I had heard a lot about Phil, because that is what they
call him. And I share – I share the urgency and the commitment to
actually address these issues.
But let me tell you, my friends,
let me tell you, we cannot let this madness continue. A lot of people
are still in pain right here, including his courageous family, his
coworkers and students at the St. Paul public schools. And to our AFT
brothers and sisters in the Twin Cities who knew him as a fellow
educator who cared deeply about this community and its children, his
mother was telling me how he never wanted to miss a day of work. He
drove 30 miles from their home in Minneapolis to the school where he
worked. Nothing could stop him from being there. And his death, his
loss is ours as well. Our country has been confronted – our country has
been confronted with tragedy too many times recently, hasn’t it? From
St. Paul to Orlando, from Dallas to Baton Rouge, where we saw three
police officers murdered yesterday in an apparent ambush. This hate,
this violence cannot stand. Killing police officers is a crime against
us all. There can be no justification, no looking the other way, and
this must end. And it can. It can be true both that we need law
enforcement and that we need to improve law enforcement to get back – to
get back to the fundamental principle that everyone in every community
benefits when there is respect for the law and everyone is respected by
the law.
The service and sacrifice of your fellow public employees
is crucial to keeping our communities safe, and these murders threaten
the painful, essential work we have to do as a nation. And for many of
the people in this room, that work includes explaining these incidents
to our children. Something you’ve had to do more and more this past
year. So to every single AFT member, I say thank you.
Thank you for caring for all of our children no matter what they look like, where they come from, or who they are.
And
thank you for being one of the essential partners in everything we’ve
got to do to move our country in the right direction. Thank you for
fighting to reform our broken campaign finance system. I will stand
with you and propose a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens
United. Thank you. Thank you for fighting to defend and improve the
Affordable Care Act – and I will work with you to keep pushing for
universal health care coverage. Most of all, thank you for a century of
fighting for fairness and opportunity – the teachers, paraprofessionals,
school-related personnel, the nurses, and public service employees of AFT.
I
know that you have some of the hardest, most important jobs in the
world. And I want to say right from the outset that I’m with you. When I
am president, you will have a partner in the White House and you will
always have a seat at the table. Because just like you, I get up every
day and I ask, how can we do better for America’s kids? I am committed
to making sure every child in this country receives a world-class
education with good schools and good teachers, no matter what ZIP code
they live in. And I know that starts with supporting parents to be their
child’s first teachers. And expanding access to high-quality childcare
and universal preschool for every single child.
I know that means
repairing our crumbling schools and investing in training and support
for our educators, because when we invest in education, we invest in our
country’s future. And you know what? We also then invest in a
stronger economy. Some of you may know that these issues aren’t new to
me. My first job out of law school was working for the Children’s
Defense Fund. I went door to door in New Bedford, Massachusetts,
talking with families whose kids had disabilities that made it hard or
impossible for them to go to school. Our work helped convince Congress
to guarantee access to education for all students. And years later,
when my husband was governor of Arkansas, he put me in charge of working
to improve our schools, and we held hearings in every county and we
came up with a plan, then we fought hard to raise standards and get
schools more resources and to get teachers the raises they deserved,
which was the highest increase of any state in the country at that time.
So,
you see, along with my personal experience, I carry these lessons. If
we work together, we can give schools and educators the resources you
need to succeed. My plan to strengthen public education comes down to
TLC: teaching, learning, and community. America is asking more of our
educators than ever before. Some of you heard the impassioned plea from
the police chief in Dallas when he said our society is asking so much
more of our police to deal with so many problems. Well, it’s true of
our teachers and our educators as well.
We look to you to fill in
gaps that we, as a country, have neglected, like helping low-income
kids, English-language learners, kids with disabilities thrive. And we
ask you to help right wrongs, from poverty and homelessness to the
legacy of racial inequities stretching back centuries. We ask so much
of you and we don’t give you enough in return. As president, I will
launch a national campaign to modernize and elevate the profession of
teaching. I want all educators, at every stage of your careers, to know
you’ll be able to keep learning, improving and innovating. And we also
need to be serious about raising wages for teachers and support staff.
Anyone who works full-time in America should be able to earn a living
wage without taking second and third jobs just to get by.
And the
last thing a teacher needs when you’re just starting out is a mountain
of student debt. When I’m president, future students won’t have to
borrow a dime to attend public colleges or universities. For families
making less than $125,000 a year, we will eliminate tuition at public
colleges and universities altogether. And for the millions who already
have student debt, you will be able to refinance your student loans so
you never have to pay more than you can afford. And if you go into
public service, which includes teaching, any remaining debt will be
forgiven after 10 years.
Now, we need to make college more
affordable, but we can’t cut costs at the expense of talented, committed
educators at colleges across the country, including adjunct faculty
members. (Cheers and applause.) They also deserve to be treated with
dignity and respect, and to have a strong voice with a union. If we are
serious about supporting educators, we need to support unions. And I
will fight back against attacks on working families in America, and I
will defend your right to organize and bargain collectively, and we will
not stand for attempts to privatize public services.
Now, here’s
what I know. I know these things can only be done with you in
partnership. So I’m asking you, asking educators across the country, to
work with me; asking you to advise me and to hold me accountable; to
keep advocating for your students, your profession, and your
communities. Because together, we are stronger, and we can produce
results if we get up every single day, make up our minds we’re going to
keep working to achieve the goals that I have set out.
The second
piece of TLC is learning. We need to educate our children for the
future, not the past. We want our children to be creators, innovators,
entrepreneurs, critical thinkers who can collaborate and communicate
within their communities and around the world. That means we need to be
reaching together for new heights, not rehashing old arguments. It’s
time to stop focusing only on, quote, ‘failing schools.’ Let’s focus on
all of our great schools too. When schools get it right, let’s
replicate their practices across America. There’s a lot we can learn
from each other, and I intend to make sure that we have the best
research, the best evidence, no matter where it comes from – that you
then can put to work on behalf of your students.
So yes, we are
going to do everything possible to work with schools across America.
I’ve been in a lot of those schools. I used to have what I called the
Chelsea test. Now I’ve got the Charlotte test. And that test is pretty
simple. Would I want my daughter, and now my granddaughter, and soon my
grandson, to go to school here? I’ll tell you what. I have walked into
a lot of schools where I said, boy, would I be happy – would I be happy
to have the most important child in the world to me attend here. But
I’ve also walked into schools where literally the building is falling
down, where you can see the holes in the ceiling, where you can see the
mold, where you walk into a library and there’s not a single book and
there certainly is not a computer. We can’t tolerate that. We can’t
let any one of America’s precious children – I don’t care who they are –
attend a school that shows we don’t care about them.
And that’s
why we are not going to go in the direction of letting people on the
outside foist for-profit schools on our kids. We are going to continue
to oppose vouchers that drain resources from public schools and
undermine their ability to provide the education our children deserve.
Where there are public charter schools, we will learn from them. But
what we’re interested in is making sure that every child in our country
has the chance to attend a great public school. And I believe part of
that rests on working together to find the right balance on testing.
Now,
look, you know; you’re the experts. Tests can provide critical
information to teachers and parents to find out how kids are doing, how
schools are doing to help them improve. But when you are forced to
teach to a test, our children miss out on some of the most valuable
experiences they can gain in a classroom during their school years. I
personally have no time for these so-called education wars. It’s time
for those of us who believe in public education to sit at one table,
around it together, and listen to you – the teachers and support
paraprofessionals who actually are with our kids all day long.
And
let’s start making decisions about what’s best for our kids not in
accordance with some entrenched ideology. Consider this: Right now,
there are more than half a million open jobs that require computing
skills across the country, in every major industry. But you know the
majority of our schools don't offer computer science. That's partly
because there's a shortage of computer science teachers, it's partly
because our educators don't have the time or resources to learn how to
integrate digital tools into their curriculum. And we can do something
about that. And on top of it, more than 70 percent of teachers assign
homework that requires broadband access, but more than 5 million
children don't have it. We're just taking this digital divide and
making it a huge problem in the lives of 5 million kids. And we can do
something about that.
As president, I will be your partner to take
on these challenges. We're going to make sure every child in America
has the opportunity to learn computer science. We're going to work to
close the homework gap by making every student has broadband access that
they can use to do their homework. So let's use all the tools at our
disposal, including technology, to give kids an education that will meet
the skills needed for the jobs we're producing.
And finally,
there's C in TLC, community. So much of what happens inside your
classroom is determined by what happens outside. Too many of our public
school students are living in poverty. For the first time ever, it's a
majority. 51 percent. That's on all of us. But you see students
coming to school hungry or exhausted from a long night in a shelter. So
many kids have the weight of the world on their little shoulders. And
we need to tackle all the problems holding our kids back. And we need
to do it together.
I've had so many meetings and conversations
with teachers, it just breaks my heart, as they tell me about kids who
come to school in the dead of winter, no coat on their back. Come to
school unable to even look in their teacher’s face because of what just
happened at home or on the way to school. Go home from school dodging
gangs trying to recruit them. That's a stain on all of us. Let's
create more community schools. More partnerships between schools,
social services, and nonprofit organizations. Let's pledge that we're
going to give children who need it the mental health services that they
deserve.
And you should not have to be from a wealthy family to
join a soccer team or have access to extracurricular activities that can
develop your confidence and your feeling that you are an important
person in the world in the eyes of those who are looking at you. So
we're going to have to work together. There is no choice. From the
community level all the way to the White House. That's just one of the
many reasons why this election is it so important. I'll tell you what.
If I weren't running against him, I would ask Randy to invite me here
so I could rail against him.
Because it's no surprise, my friends,
that Donald Trump has a very different take on all of this. He has
said that America spends too much on education. This is coming from
someone who wants to give millionaires a free trillion dollar tax cut
over the next decade. At least. I'd like to hear him explain that to
parents in Detroit, where students are trying to learn in crumbling,
rodent infested classrooms. He wants to, and I quote, ‘largely
eliminate the Department of Education.’ But he says maybe he'll leave
some tentacles out there, whatever that means.
Now look, that
agency may not always get it right, but it provides support for vital
programs, from pre-K to Pell grants, and crucial resources to help low
income students, students with disabilities, and English-language
learners. So Donald Trump would leave our most vulnerable students to
fend for themselves. If you want to know what kind of president Donald
Trump will be, just look at who he's chosen as his running mate. A Tea
Party politician who has worked to undermine the rights of women,
workers, LGBT Americans, and immigrants.
Mike Pence is one of the
most extreme vice presidential picks in a generation. And he's one of
the most hostile politicians in America when it comes to public
education. As governor of Indiana, he cut millions from higher
education while he was giving huge tax cuts to corporations. He turned
away millions of federal dollars that could have expanded access to
preschool for low income children, and slashed funding for schools that
served Indiana's most vulnerable students. Neither Mike Pence nor
Donald Trump should be anywhere near our children's education.
And
one more thing. Parents and educators across America are already
worried about what they're calling the Trump effect, with bullying and
harassment on the rise in our schools. Last week, a mother in Wisconsin
wrote me a letter saying that her adopted son had turned to her and
said, if Trump becomes president, he’s going to make me go back to
Ethiopia. That's the kind of fear Donald Trump is creating in the heart
of a 10 year old boy. What do our children think when he calls women
pigs, or mocks a reporter with a disability? Or when he talks about
banning one and a half billion Muslims from entering our country? What
do our kids take away from his racist attack against a federal judge, or
when he encourages his supporters to punch protesters in the face? You
wouldn't tolerate that kind of behavior in your home or in your
classroom. How can we stand for it from someone running to be president
of the United States?
Well, we know America’s a bighearted,
fair-minded country, and that with your help, we're going to continue to
stress to our kids this is one nation, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all. Not just for people who look a certain way, or worship
a certain way. We're stronger when every child has the chance to live
up to his or her full potential. And public education gives our kids
that chance. So that's why I'm counting on you. I'm counting on the AFT.
I'm counting on the American public to make sure as many people as
possible get registered to vote, get educated, and get mobilized.
Today
I announced a nationwide effort by my campaign to get more than 3
million Americans to register and commit to vote in November. We would
love your help. Please go to Hillaryclinton.com/vote to get involved.
And then let's keep going. Let's keep making our case, working for
better schools, more resources, more support, to give all of our kids
the chance that they deserve. With your help, we're going to make sure
we get to work on that agenda together, because we're going to make sure
we don't turn our country over to Donald Trump. Let's go win in
November. Thank you all very, very much.”
