Yeah, it’s long, but it’s worth watching when you’ve got an hour to spare — probably especially if, like me, education is not your specialty. Because the whole roundtable is only secondarily about what Hillary intends to do to get those votes; it’s almost entirely about how a bunch of teachers and administrators and high school-slash-college students do their best to get the education they need to make a living going forward. (Including a side note that one of Hillary’s first jobs in politics, in the 1970s, was going door to door to find children with disabilities who’d been left out of the educational system entirely, because those who “couldn’t keep up” were considered disposable.) And I hope there are people who’ll watch this and think about how they could use the various strategies discussed (vocational certification, college credit for high schoolers, community colleges, Pell grants & work-study) to improve their kids’ or their own chances. Call me a dreamer!
From the Politico article:
… Taking her place at a folding table with seven students and educators here at Kirkwood Community College, Hillary Clinton re-emerged in Iowa, the first-in-the-nation caucus state where she suffered a painful defeat in 2008, striking economic populist tones and vowing not to take the state for granted…
For Clinton, letting other people do the talking made for a low-risk launch strategy. She took only one question from the press, commenting on her “great drive across the country” and saying that she was having “the best time” and is “running to be the champion for Americans and their families.”…
A more substantive rollout — she promised “very specific policies over the weeks and months ahead” — is expected to begin next month with her first big rally and speech…