Duckworth Responds to Governor's Address at Imperiled Chicago State

Statement

Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate Tammy Duckworth provided a response to Governor Rauner's state of the state address today, linking the Governor's extreme agenda that has public universities all around the state taking emergency measures to account for funding shortfalls, to Senator Mark Kirk's abysmal record on making college affordable for working class families.

Excerpted remarks as prepared for delivery:

Here at Chicago State, operations may shut down within a month. Think about that. This institution is a gateway to opportunity and a better life for some of Chicago's most disadvantaged kids. It's a place of refuge at a time when nearly half of this city's young African American men aren't working or in school -- which was the finding of a study released just this week. And because of the stubbornness of the Governor, it's a month away from shutting its doors to these kids. We can't punish kids like this.

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The thing is, this isn't an accident. This is the situation that Republican ideologues like Governor Rauner and, yes, Mark Kirk, have created. It's what they want.

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Senator Kirk voted against Elizabeth Warren's bill to allow more than 25 million Americans to refinance their student loans at a lower rate, in some cases cutting those rates in half to reflect today's lower interest rates. At a time when student loan debt is skyrocketing and becoming a bigger burden for more and more families, this is the right thing to do. But Mark Kirk opposed it.

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Senator Kirk ridiculed another proposal I support: President Obama's plan to offer free community college to kids who get good grades. He said we shouldn't be "giving away things for free." I'm surprised he'd say that about educating our kids, and I'm curious whether he thinks the same about the GI Bill, which expanded access to education and opportunity for millions of Americans, including my dad. In point of fact for Senator Kirk, for every dollar spent on behalf of American GIs who served in World War II, ten dollars of economic growth was created. That's not a giveaway, it's an investment.

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Senator Kirk has also voted time and again to cut Pell Grants. Let me tell you, as one of the few members of Congress who's still paying off student loans -- and as someone who
attended college through a combination of Pell Grants, student loans and lots of waitressing -- I couldn't disagree more strongly with Senator Kirk.

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Once we decide that it's okay to stop investing in our people, the fabric of this state we love begins to fray. The policies and priorities of Bruce Rauner and Mark Kirk are doing just that: Governor Rauner and Senator Kirk believe public universities and helping working and middle-class people afford college are giveaways. In their way of thinking, the GI Bill, which paid for college for millions of Americans must have been a giveaway, too. I believe affordable four-year colleges like Chicago State and free community college for those who earn it are an in investment in America, not a giveaway.

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