Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., visited Albuquerque on Tuesday to call to attention to what he called the shortchanging of education reforms.
Kerry highlighted his education plan to about 100 supporters at Longfellow Elementary School. Numerous local politicians and activist groups were in attendance to show support for Kerry.
"I think (John Kerry's visit) is fantastic," said Miles Nelson, who is campaigning to run against Rep. Heather Wilson for Congress. "I'm glad that the presidential nominee is paying attention to Albuquerque and New Mexico, and we're going to take the state this year. It was too close last time, but it's going to be a sweep this time."
Although education was the focus of the visit, some of Kerry's supporters weighed in on the importance of the senator's environmental record.
"We support John Kerry because he has a 92 percent lifetime rating by the League of Conservation Voters in terms of his environmental voting record," Maggie Toulouse said. "Whereas George Bush, on the other hand, is the only president to ever receive an F on his environmental initiative during his term in office, and we want to get him out of there."
Of course, not all in attendance agreed. Albuquerque resident Priscilla Giveris said she supports Bush for a number of reasons.
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"He's for the child that cannot speak for himself," Giveris said. "There are more people who can get homes in the nation than there ever have been before, and it's because of all the things he put into effect. They must be pretty good. Otherwise, Kerry wouldn't have voted for his programs several times before he said no. Frankly, I just believe Kerry flip-flops too much."
During the speech, Kerry covered a number of topics from the shortcomings of the No Child Left Behind Act to the war in Iraq and the importance of a bilingual education. Kerry said every child in America should know two languages, and called teaching the most important profession in the United States.
"We have a huge challenge ahead of us," Kerry said. "Almost 30 percent of our children are dropping out of high school and 50 percent in the Hispanic community. This is unacceptable - unacceptable in any country, but unacceptable particularly in the United States of America where we all know education is the gateway to everything."
Kerry said education is the key to becoming a full citizen of the United States, and called for an end to discrimination and issues of drug use and unemployment. He said the best way to do this is to invest in education, and that fully funding the No Child Left Behind Act is a step in the right direction.
"As everybody knows, the promise of No Child Left Behind has been broken," Kerry said. "The promise is not only the money. The promise was the real reforms in the efforts within the schools to provide smaller class size, so that a teacher can relate to children one-on-one, know their name, be able to guide them and talk to them, intervene in their interpersonal issues and help to be able to transform themselves into the future of America."
