Kaine Rallies Virginia Students While Allen 'Banking Young People Will Stay Home'

10/05/2012
Richmond, VA -- This morning, the Washington Examiner reported that George Allen and the Virginia GOP have given up trying to explain their failed policies to Virginia students and young people and are instead "banking young people will stay home" in this election.

 

Meanwhile, today on the campus of George Mason University in Fairfax, former governor and U.S. Senate candidate Tim Kaine rallied thousands of students and educators, laying out the ways that students and young people will benefit from the investments in education, talent, and infrastructure that he will champion in the Senate. He also shared his record of championing education in Virginia, reforms and investments made by President Obama, and the power that young people hold in this election.

 

"We have to invest in education to make sure that our nation is the most talented place on earth," said Kaine. "In Virginia, we know what investments in education mean. I worked hard when I was governor with Democrats and Republicans to expand pre-k education, career and technical education, and higher education. Right here on the George Mason campus a higher ed bond package that I worked on helped expand the library and build the new science and technology facility."

 

During his remarks, Kaine also praised innovative programs like Race to the Top and college affordability measures like the extension of Stafford loan rates and the expansion of the Pell Grant program. He also discussed the many ways that young people have been helped by the Affordable Care Act. While Kaine has pledged to improve the ACA if elected, his opponent George Allen has promised to repeal the ACA entirely, taking away important provisions and protections that are already helping young people and their families.

 

Kaine also discussed the important role that students played in the 2008 election and the potential they have for reelecting President Obama and sending Kaine and other Democratic candidates to Congress.

 

"You students stood with the President in an unusual way in 2008. There had always been an effort--if we can just get the student vote to be sizeable, it's gonna really help in the campaign. And yet many campaigns had tried, and yet none had really done it as successfully as the President did and as you did in 2008. And let me just remind you of something. And this is really important. When you stood with the President in 2008, he had a choice to make when he became President. And the choice was this: does he focus on your issues? Or does he focus on other people's issues? And I mean this very sincerely, in virtually everything this president has done, he has put students and young people right at the center of it."

 

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