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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Vice President
For Immediate Release July 29, 2012


REMARKS BY VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN
AND DR. BIDEN
TO THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS 2012 CONVENTION

Cobo Center
Detroit, Michigan


4:15 P.M. EDT


DR. BIDEN: Good afternoon, everyone. It's great to be here with the American Federation of Teachers. (Applause.) I love being in a room with so many fellow educators. For those who don't know me, I've been a teacher for longer than I care to admit. As Randi said, I've taught as a reading specialist in public high schools, and I've tutored at-risk teens in a psychiatric hospital in my home state of Delaware. And for the last 18 years, I've been a community college teacher, and I still continue to teach, and Randi said adjunct, but it's full-time at a community college, at Northern Virginia Community College. (Applause.)

I remember when the President and the Vice President were elected four years ago. And as I was thinking about how to approach my role as Second Lady, I knew one thing for sure: I knew that I would continue to find a way to teach because being a teacher is not what I do, it's who I am. (Applause.)

I know all of you understand that. Like you I see every day how important education is in the lives of all Americans. I see how a good education can put kids on a path to success. For me there is no greater feeling than when a student grasps the concept I am trying to teach. I see them get it, and I know that it's not just the knowledge that they're getting. It's a sense of confidence in themselves that will make a real difference in their lives.

I also know from experience that while teaching is rewarding, it is also challenging. The President and the Vice President truly understand this, as well. They have been teachers -- both of them -- and they know that a great school starts with great teachers. (Applause.)

And that's why they're working hard to support education, to support teachers and to provide renewed leadership in our schools. So I want to thank you for being here today. Thank you for the work that you do in your classrooms every day, and thank you for the support of this administration. (Applause.)

You're building a brighter future for your students and for our entire country, so thank you so much. And now I'd like to introduce an advocate, a man who has always been a supporter of teachers and education, my husband, our Vice President, Joe Biden. (Applause.)

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Hello, AFT!

AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Thank you, thank you, thank you. As my mother would say, God love you. (Laughter.)

Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Joe Biden and I'm in love with a teacher. (Applause.) And I think you know now why I'm in love with a teacher.

AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you. Thank you very much. I understand that the "Dean," John Dingell is in the house. (Applause.) Congressman John Dingell, who is just incredible. John, it's great to be -- thanks for the passport into your state. I understand also my good friend Sandy Levin is here -- (applause) -- a great supporter of teachers. And Dale Kildee is here. Dale. I think Dan is going to be able to do the job, but he's got some big shoes to fill. Congratulations for all you've done.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Detroit. (Applause.) As a famous American said, it's only halftime in America, and Detroit is going to lead us back. (Applause.)

Ladies and gentlemen, I want you to know because I'm required to call her professor now, Jill is now a full professor at her community college. (Applause.) By the way, not a joke, we travel -- Jill, occasionally, when she's able to, travels around the world with me. I've traveled over 600,000 miles since becoming Vice President, and she's come everywhere from Iraq with me to everywhere else around the world. And I finally -- only teachers will fully understand this, I tell her, Jill, please, don't walk off the plane with that God-awful big, ugly bag with 300 papers in your bag, walking off. (Laughter and applause.) I swear to God. Ask anybody including the military aides, on every flight, it's papers, papers; every car, papers, papers, papers. (Applause.) She's wise enough -- and who says you all don't work all the time? (Laughter.) I can attest to the fact it's not left in the classroom.

Ladies and gentlemen, it's great to be here with Randi. I think Randi is one of the straightest, best, dedicated professionals I've ever worked with in my life, and, boy, does she represent you well. (Applause.)

And you never have to wonder -- thing I like about her, you never have to wonder what she thinks. I think that's why we get along. (Laughter.) I have sort of a bad reputation like that too. (Applause.)

And I want to thank the AFT. And I mean this sincerely, I'm going to speak to it a little bit here, but I want to be deadly earnest here, I wanted -- we wanted our granddaughter to come with us because she hears us talk about you. And I mean this sincerely. She hears us talk about you. And I wanted her to come and see -- I wanted her to come and see several thousand members of a profession, a profession that has necessarily unionized because otherwise you don't get a fair shot. And I wanted her to see what it looks to see a room, auditorium filled with so many people dedicated to making sure that she and all the kids her age get an education. (Applause.)

And that's what I want to talk to you about for a few minutes this afternoon. I want to talk to you about what this should be all about, what should we be focused on. We should be focusing on Maisy and everyone her age all across America. That's what you guys are all about, and that's what it's all about for all of us up here.

I -- several years ago -- actually more than several, 20 years ago, thought about leaving public life and not running again. And I thought I wanted to be a law school professor. And so as an interim, I accepted one of several jobs offered. I taught a three-credit course. And I teach it on Saturday mornings so there would be no conflict, an advanced course in constitutional law. And I taught it for 20 years, and the subject matter doesn't change a lot, but what I learned, and I mean this sincerely, until somebody tries teaching, they shouldn't think they know. (Applause.)

And I didn't have to deal with the circumstance and the problems and all the society's ills and problems that are brought into your classroom. I was dealing with people who paid an awful lot of money because they wanted to join a profession, and they were there -- and they were all there, and by the time they got to me, they were almost all seniors. But the point I wanted to make is I took it very, very seriously like you did. And literally no matter what time I finished doing whatever I had to do on Friday night, I would spend two to three hours preparing for class; or I would get up the next morning and spend that time. I don't think people fully understand how much goes into your profession. (Applause.)

And you know -- what we see when we look at you, Barack and I and Jill and Michelle is we see educators. We see professionals. We see teachers. We see public servants, who are under full-blown assault today. Governor Romney's plan for public --

AUDIENCE MEMBER: (Inaudible.)

THE VICE PRESIDENT: No, I want to be serious -- I understand your frustration, but I want to be as straightforward as I can, and as objective as I can. And I realize my objectivity is in question. I'm running for Vice President of the United States. (Laughter.) But I really mean this, I think it's time -- I think it's time, and we're going to try our best to make sure the public understands what the fundamental choices are and what it means for the United States of America beyond Barack and Joe Biden and Governor Romney and whomever he picks. It's so much bigger. It's so much bigger than the three of us thus far.

Governor Romney's plan for public education is straightforward. He says let's the states use all the Title I dollars to boost enrollment in private schools and alternative schools, and basically the effect is to strip you of your voice. He characterizes you -- and his allies, they characterize you as only caring about yourselves, but the fact of the matter is, I don't think they know you. I don't think he knows you. They're not -- you're not in this fight just because of your job. You're in this fight for the same reason Jill is. I noticed sort of the guttural response she got when she said that a teacher is who I am. None of you decided that when you were going through college, I really want to go out and be a teacher because I can really make a lot of money. (Laughter.) I want to go out there because I'll get to live in the big house. I want to go out there and teach. I want to go out there and teach because I'll get such recognition in the community. (Laughter.)

You're out there to teach because somebody -- somebody -- some teacher, some teacher lit a spark in you. Some teacher did something for you that made you understand that you had something in you that you may be able to pass it on.

I kid Jill, during Christmas vacations, when we were home, and we were shopping in the mall, this was long before we became Vice President and Second Lady, we'd walk down the mall -- the malls in Delaware, and you'd hear, yo-ho. Everybody would be waving. And my instinct was to wave back. No, no, not you, Mrs. Biden. (Laughter.) Mrs. Biden. No, I'm serious. You all know what I'm talking about. You all know what I'm talking about because the only sort of remuneration you guys really get is seeing that light go on. The only remuneration you really get is seeing that kid coming up to you at 24 and 25 years old, and say, Mrs. Jones, Mrs. Smith, I want to thank you. You made a difference in my life. (Applause.) You're the reason why I'm doing okay. You're the one who made me believe. You made me believe in me, Mr. Jones. You made me what I am today. That's why you do this. (Applause.) That's why you do this. It's not for any other reason.

You're the same people who go out there and take care of elderly patients in hospitals and nursing homes during the day, and then you go home and you take care of your elderly mother and father or your father or mother when you go home. (Applause.)

And when that parent -- when that parent doesn't show up after the last bus has left, when that parent doesn't show up and that kid is left on your doorstep at school, it's you who picks up the phone and says, Doctor, I'm sorry. I'm not going to be able to make my appointment today. I've got a problem. I've got a kid with me. It's you. (Applause.)

It's you -- it's you because I have watched it with Jill. It's you who calls your husband or wife or neighbor and says, can you watch my child tonight because I'm going to go to another child's home because they have to pass this English test in order to be able to make it. It's you. It's not somebody else.

And when the school district runs out of money because of this God-awful recession they inflicted on you all, it's you -- it's you who sacrifice and forgo contractual raises, and you who make other sacrifices to maintain full-day kindergarten like you did in Islip, Long Island. It's you who keeps the art and gym classes going in Toledo, Ohio. It's you who keeps early education available in Los Angeles, California. It's you who keeps class sizes down in Providence, Rhode Island. (Applause.)

I could go on and on and on. It's you who take money out of your pocket when kids your class don't have tablets, don't have pencils, don't have pens. It's you who do that. (Applause.) It's not somebody else. It's you. (Applause.)

Look, Governor Romney and his Republican friends in Congress, and his Republican friends in governor seats, instead of focusing on the things they could help you do better -- your job better at, like making sure that you got a modern chem and science lab; that your kids have access to computers, enabling you to continue to have a program in arts and music, giving you flexibility you need to be creative teachers who teach with passion and to teach to a test, it's you they should be helping. (Applause.)

We -- we public officials should be debating among ourselves who wants to do more to invest in early education so that there is no achievement gap because you close it before the kid gets in first grade. (Applause.)

We should be debating about how big a seat you have at the table, not whether you get to sit at the table when we talk about how to improve education in America. (Applause.)

How many other people -- how many other people have to do their job, but first have to make sure that child has enough to eat for breakfast? Not your child, somebody else's child. (Applause.)

How many other people have to do a difficult job and have to deal with that child from a broken home whose mother or father just got arrested? Or how many of you -- how many of you do that every single day and so much more. (Applause.)

Ladies and gentlemen, instead of working to provide you with the things that help you do what you must do, they criticize you. They blame you for the shortcomings of public education.

To digress a moment here, it used to be a debate in this country, Randi, between Democrats and Republicans about how to best improve public education. And there are legitimate debates of what standards should be available for everyone from principals to teachers to students, legitimate. But you know what I sense this election, watching the Republican debates, and I'm not being facetious when I say this, it looks as though, they decided that public education is not worth the investment anymore. I don't think it's because they don't care about kids -- I really mean this -- I think Romney is a good man. He's a family man. He's got a beautiful -- I think most of these men and women up there, they are concerned. But I think they've basically said we don't know how to do this any more so we're going to just essentially move away from public education as the focus for success. (Laughter.)

Look, this is not your father's Republican Party, folks. This is not your father's Republican Party. Governor Romney, the Republican Party in Congress, and many of the new Republican governors, they have a fundamentally different set of priorities and a fundamentally different value set. I am not questioning their motive, but I am questioning their judgment. (Applause.)

Look, they say -- they say and they talk about valuing education. I believe they really do care about America's children as much as we do. They say, though, they value education -- public education. My dad used to have an expression. Everyone who has lived with me and been around me know they've heard my dad say it a hundred times before he passed away. When someone would say, this is what I value, Joe. His name was Joe. My dad would say, don't tell me what you value. Show me your budget, and I will tell you what you value. (Applause.) Don't tell me what you value. Show me your budget, and I will tell you. (Applause.)

Don't tell me you value women in the workplace, and you don't hire any women. Don't tell me you value education and you don't invest in it.

Look, the first two years we got in office, we were able to move some substantial things through. But they voted against everything, the Republicans in Congress. They voted against the legislation we passed that kept 400,000 educators in the classroom for those first two years because of this recession. They said, no, that's not how we should be helping the cities or the states. They oppose our present efforts to give local governments the funding support to keep -- put 300,000 educators back in the classroom this fall. They'd vote against -- they're against that. They blocked it.

The Republican budget, endorsed by Governor Romney, the so-called Ryan budget, supported by I think every Republican in Congress. There may be one or two, I don't know of any, John, but maybe there are who voted against it. But Romney has endorsed it, just take a look at what it does, about how much they value education. It cuts $900 million out of elementary and secondary education, which could result in as many as 38,000 teachers and aides losing their job this fall, if it were to be -- if it were to pass -- when it passes, if it passes.

They cut Head Start. As many as 200,000 kids will lose access -- will lose access to early learning opportunity to give them a fighting chance to be able graduate. They cut Pell grants. More than 9 million students would lose an average of $1,000 a year, making a difference whether they could stay or not. They cut college work study programs more than 100,000 college students will be affected in their ability to stay in college because of these work study programs.

They eliminate the college tuition tax credit that we're so proud of. That's $10,000 a year for -- $10,000 for four years for each of your children for middle-class and aspiring families who can afford it, and they call you selfish.

Ladies and gentlemen, let me describe selfish for you. The reason they make all these cuts -- and not just with you, but they cut law enforcement, firefighters, Medicaid. They cut a whole range of things. Why do they do it? Everybody says, why would Romney endorse this Ryan budget which was so unpopular? Because -- because he has to endorse it in order to pay for what their priorities are. Here are their priorities: In order to make room for a $1.6 trillion tax cut that goes only to millionaires.

Here's how it works. I'm not making this stuff up. Of the so-called Bush tax cuts for the very top, that trillion dollars for the top 2 percent, $800 billion goes to people with a minimum income of $1 million. And roughly $500 billion of that trillion goes to 120,000 families in America. That's it. Roughly $500 billion to 120,000 households in America.

And on top of that, Governor Romney and the Republicans have endorsed an additional roughly trillion-dollar tax cut. You need to qualify for it. You have to make a minimum of $1 million. Now, ladies and gentlemen, these guys really buy this malarkey about if the wealthy do very well, it will trickle down. But that's the reason why, seriously. Because you got to ask yourself, if this were 1990, you'd think I was making this up if this were part of the debate with the Republicans. But they got to find $1.6 trillion in order to provide additional tax cuts, which will average well over -- excuse me -- well over $250,000 a year for people making over a million bucks.

They're not bad people, by the way. And I come from a wealthy little state. I've learned in my years with the same voting record I have, I've never played this class politics stuff. Rich people are just as patriotic as poor people, just as patriotic as middle-class people. But in this case, nothing is being asked of them.

You know that bill we had in order to put teachers back to work and put cops and firefighters back to work, it would have put over 400,000 people -- teachers, cops -- mostly teachers, cops and firefighters back to work. You know how we paid for that? Remember we made them vote on each individual piece of our jobs bill. We paid for that by saying, here's the deal, in order to generate the money necessary to pay for those new -- those people going back to work, we proposed raising .5 of 1 percent, the tax on the first dollar you make after you make your first million. That's literally how it worked. I'm not making this up. That tax of .5 percent -- one-half of 1 percent additional tax on the income over a million dollars would have generated enough -- would have generated enough to put you all back work, make the streets safer and your homes more secure with EMTs, firefighters, cops, teachers and teachers aides, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, et cetera. They said no. Yet the polling data showed close to 70 percent of the people in America who said they were millionaires strongly supported this action.

So I want to make it clear to you, it's not that wealthy people aren't prepared to do their share. These guys aren't asking anything -- anything -- anything of the very wealthy because they believe in this philosophy that if they accumulate more disposable income, somehow, we're all going to do just fine.

In addition to this, it's pretty clear what this new Republican Party thinks of you, thinks of my wife, thinks of all those who are educators. Just listen to what Governor Romney and his friends say, listen to the things they've said -- and I'm not taking this out of context. One Republican congressman said, "The government needs to get its nose out of the education business." He compared federal student loans to "stage three cancer of socialism." (Laughter.)

Barack and Jill and Michelle and I talk about this, none of us would be standing in the position we're in were it not for student loans and scholarships. No possibility. No possibility. (Applause.)

I don't know where these guys were raised. I'm serious. I don't know -- I don't know how they can't know this -- not about this, but about all of you and your neighbors and people you grew up with and people you live with.

Romney went on to say -- this one I love -- he said, "I was not pleased with what I read about a plan to save 240,000 teachers' jobs." He was not pleased. He was not pleased.

In Philadelphia, he told a group of teachers the obvious, class size doesn't matter. You all know that, right? (Laughter.) Prompting one of the people at this set table -- they didn't pick them because they thought they were going to be hostile -- said, "I can't think of any teacher in the whole time I've been teaching over 10 years that would say, more students would benefit them. And I can't think of a parent that would say, I'd like my teacher [sic] to be in a room with lots of kids and only one teacher." (Laughter.)

Folks, some of this, as that old saying goes, is not rocket science. (Laughter.) It's just kind of basic. But I think it's because he and others have a totally different perspective than most of us had growing up. He said, speaking at a college -- I think it was in Iowa, but here in the Midwest. I'm not sure where it was. He said to the college students, he said, you got to be willing to take chances. How? He said, "Borrow money if you have to from your parents." (Laughter.) How many of you know people who are able to go out there and borrow enough money from their parents to open a new business? (Laughter.) And how many of you doubt whether if the parent had the money, they wouldn't lend it to the child? (Laughter.)

Folks, where -- go home and borrow money from your parents? While they're trying to stay in their home which is upside-down, even though they've never missed a single, solitary mortgage payment because of these wacky financial instruments that we allowed Wall Street to have going, and all of a sudden two houses go get foreclosed in your neighborhood, and you're under water. You thought you had money for savings. You mostly thought if you have college-age kids, you had the money to borrow against your house to pay for your kids' education.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, if you really want to know what Governor Romney thinks about your profession, just go to his website -- and I mean this sincerely -- go to his website. Here's what it says, talking about you all, "when your cause in life is preventing parents from having a meaningful choice or children from having a real chance, then you're on the wrong side." You? You are the ones who don't want people to have a meaningful chance? That's what they think -- he thinks of you. Just go to his website. Is this guy serious? By the way, I'd feel better if he wasn't, but I think he is. (Laughter.) No, no, I think he is. I know he changes position a lot. But on this one, I think he is. (Laughter and applause.) I hope I'm wrong.

I've been doing this a long time, and none of you women are as old as I am, but some of you guys are getting there. (Laughter.) All kidding aside, have you ever heard a candidate for President of the United States say anything remotely like that, a party candidate?

Look, folks, education is all about providing choices and chances. That's why you got into it. It's all about opportunity. It's all about community. It's all about this country. It's about keeping America the strongest, most vital nation in the world with an economy that can lead the world in the 21st century like it did in the 20th.

As Jill has been saying, and I've been quoting her for the last four years, now everyone is suggesting it's their quote, but it's hers, at least the first I heard it, she said, any country that out-educates us will out-compete us. Any country that out-educates us will out-compete us. We rank 16th in the world in the percent of population we graduate from college -- 16th in the world. Does anybody think if in the bulk of the 20th century we ranked 16th in the world, we would have ever led the world as we did in the 20th century? It's got to change.

I know a lot of critics are pointing out that the goal that Barack and I set that by 2020, we -- the middle of this -- the end of this next decade, we'd be once again number one in the world. These guys talk like we should not set goals and expectations. As if Americans aren't capable of doing the kinds of things they did for the past several hundred years.

Look, folks, at its core, the fundamental debate between Barack and myself and Governor Romney and whomever he picks -- I guess -- we don't know who that will be -- but is the fundamental, the core of the debate is about how important it is, if it's important, to rebuild the middle class -- a middle class of the 21st century -- (applause) -- a middle class of the 21st century that's as vibrant and dynamic and as open and accessible as it was in the 20th century.

But you know what's happened to the middle class in the beginning of this century, it's been clobbered. It's been absolutely clobbered, and so the argument at its core when you strip everything aside is, we think you build and rebuild this country from the middle out. They honestly believe -- I don't think it's about rewarding wealthy friends. I don't buy that. It's about they believe that truly the best way to make us the most competitive nation in the world in the 21st century is from the top down. Because I don't think they think much of our capacity. They think it has to come from the top down.

We believe -- and we think history shows -- that the way America has grown and led the world is from the middle out because when the middle class is doing well, the poor have a ladder up, an opportunity, and the wealthy do very, very, very well because you all have money to spend to buy things they make and do that they own. Everybody does well. (Applause.)

But I think the defining feature, and then I'll get out of your hair here, the defining feature here is that to me, to Jill, to Barack, to Michelle, the middle class is not a number. If you go up and ask the economists, even some of our economists, what's middle class, there will be a debate that will ensure, is it $48,260 or $51,912 -- it's not. It's not a number. It's a way of life. It's a set of values. It's about being able to own your own home, not just rent it. (Applause.)

It's about living in a safe neighborhood where you can send your kid out to the park, and that park you know will be environmentally safe, and they'll be safe coming and going. (Applause.) It's about -- it's about your child being able to attend a modern school, well-equipped, fully staffed, where if they do well, they can get to college if they want to go to college. (Applause.)

And for my father, my mother, Jill's mother and father and I think every middle-class parent out there, and every poor parent, it's about if your child qualifies, giving them a chance and being able to help them get to college, so they can go to college. (Applause.)

I was speaking at a -- I'm supposedly a foreign policy expert -- an expert is anyone out of town with a briefcase; I don't have a briefcase with me. (Laughter.) But I was talking to a group of national security folks from around the world, and they said, what's the single most important thing America has to do to maintain its security edge in the world? And the answer was simple -- they were a little surprised, until they thought about it. I said: Be the best educated nation in the world -- that's how we remain secure. (Applause.)

And, folks, being middle class is, while you're struggling, being able to help your elderly parents and save enough and hope that your children won't have to help you when you get older. That's what being middle class is about. (Applause.) And maybe most important -- and you are the middle class -- maybe most important is being able to turn to your kid and say, Honey, it's going to be okay -- whatever it is, being able to say with confidence, it's going to be okay; not having to make that -- what I call that longest walk up a short flight of stairs to your child's bedroom and sit at the end of the bed and say, Honey, I'm sorry, Baby, but you're not going to be able to go back to Cooper's school next year; you can't play in that Little League team, because daddy or mommy lost their job, or the bank said, Honey, we don't have enough money to stay here -- we can't stay here, Baby.

My dad made that walk when I was in third grade. We were in Scranton, Pennsylvania, living with my grandpa -- (applause) -- on North Washington Avenue. And I remember my dad walking up, going into fourth grade, and he sat at the end of the bed and he said, Joey, I'm going to have to move; I'm going to move down to Wilmington, Delaware, with Uncle Frank. There's good jobs down there, Honey. This was the mid-'50s. And he said, there's good jobs down there. It's only 157 miles, Joey. I thought that was like going to the moon. He said, it'll be about a year. He said, I'll come home when -- almost every weekend, and when things get better I'll be able to take you and mom, Valerie and Jimmy, and we'll have a nice place. It's going to be okay. He believed, when he said then, it was going to be okay.

I didn't realize the longer walk my proud father had to make -- I didn't realize till I was in my 20s -- was into my grandfather Ambrose Finnegan's kitchen, with her brothers, and say, Ambrose, I need a favor. Can you keep Jean and the kids? It'll be about a year, but I promise -- I promise I'll pay you back. You know people who have made that walk. Some of you maybe had to make that walk. But back then, my dad looked at me and said, it's going to be okay. And he was absolutely certain that was true, and I believed it, too.

Go back to your old neighborhood, wherever you're from; go to some of your old buddies who still live in that neighborhood and ask them, today, whether they have the same confidence that if they turn to their kid and say, Honey, it's going to be okay, that they really believe it.

Barack and I have one objective -- one objective, and I mean this sincerely -- we talk about it for real -- is when we're finished, for all those moms and dads, being able to turn to their kids and say, Honey, it's going to be okay, and for them to know that.

And, ladies and gentlemen, the single maybe most important thing beyond a job -- and that's the critical thing -- the single most important thing we can do for those families is give their kid a shot. Because in the 20th century it was okay; you could make it without an education beyond high school. You could make it without a certificate with some skill. You could make it without a community college or a college. But seven out of 10 jobs over the next 10 years are going to require something beyond high school.

In our vision -- Barack's and mine -- we're not only -- it's not about only how much is demanded of you, but how much is accorded you. Our vision sees you being treated and rewarded and respected for the professionals you are. Our vision is that when your kids graduate and decide to go on to school -- if you're old enough to have kids graduating -- go on to teach -- that when they decide to say, I'm going to teach, they get paid the same starting salary as an engineer or any other professional. I mean it sincerely. (Applause.)

It all goes back to my dad -- don't tell me what you value; show me your budget and I'll tell you what you value. Don't tell me you value educators, and pay them so little when they start. Don't make demands, in fact, unless you are prepared to make commitments. Unlike our Republican friends in this new Republican Party, we don't see you as the problem; we see you as the solution. You understand. (Applause.) And the reason we see you as the solution is you understand, as William Butler Yeats said, education is not the filling of a pail, it's the lighting of a fire. Education is not the filling of a pail, it's the lighting of a fire.

So, folks, it's time for all of us -- rich and not so rich; all of us -- to provide you the kind of kindling you need to light that fire, because unless we light that fire, we are never going to reach the goals and aspirations of this great country. And at root, it depends on you, and it depends on us treating you like the professionals you are.

God bless you all, and may God protect our troops. Thank you. (Applause.)

END 5:00 P.M. EDT