Mechele Dickerson

I mean, we're again at the where we unfortunately spend most of our time in the political space with, you know, we let perfect be the enemy of good.

Right.

And so why not say these are the six things that we think people in this country deserve?

And if we can agree that everyone deserves healthcare, everyone deserves some kind of retirement security, we can then say, okay, now that we've agreed on that, who do we think should be responsible for providing it?

Ignoring who may be providing it right now, but who going forward do we think should be responsible for providing it?

That to me is a much more productive conversation because

than relitigating, well, it's not fair if businesses have to do this and it increased their costs.

Okay, let's just assume that you're true.

Let's go forward.

Well, I'll lead by saying one group that we also have to bring into this discussion are employers, because even if we had K-14 and everyone had a free community college education, employers need to be willing to hire them.

And pay them a decent wage.

The challenge now is that the bachelor's degree has largely become the gateway to the middle class.

So employers also need to come into the conversation and say, we're going to hire people and treat them decently, even if they don't have a bachelor's degree.

But you're absolutely right.

we've got to look at what happens starting in kindergarten.

I would like to start actually in preschool as well.

And how do we treat

lower and middle income children in public schools?

And how do we treat rich children and lower rich children who are more likely to be educated in private schools?

So we need to have an honest discussion when we're talking about charters and vouchers and all of these other things.