PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — Presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren sided with fellow White House hopeful Bernie Sanders Saturday on the need to eliminate for-profit charter schools.
“Yeah, I think it’s a real problem right now,” the senator from Massachusetts told reporters at the Rockingham County Democrats’ clambake in Portsmouth, N.H., taking the opportunity to discuss Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, a charter school advocate. “And what Betsy DeVos has done to our public education really undermines the best opportunities for our kids. I think public tax dollars should stay in our public schools,” the former public school teacher said.
Sanders, Warren’s senatorial colleague from Vermont, unveiled his position Saturday during a speech in Orangeburg, S.C. The independent also proposed a moratorium on all public charter school expansion funding until the completion of a national audit.
During her keynote address at the annual fundraiser for Democrats in the important blue pocket of New Hampshire, Warren additionally promised women “were not going back, not now, not ever,” to a time when there were blanket bans on abortions. She touted the reproductive rights platform she released last week, in which she calls for lawmakers to pass legislation that codifies protections outlined in landmark Supreme Court case, Roe v. Wade.
Afterward, Warren pushed back on criticism that a Republican-controlled Congress could easily erode safeguards created by federal statute like the GOP did with former President Barack Obama’s signature Affordable Care Act measure.
“That’s what elections are about. We’ve got one coming up in 2020, and I’m glad to talk every day about Republicans’ views on women’s reproductive freedom,” she said. “I think that people who listen to their own constituents and how they feel about having protection for themselves and their families, I think they will be people of different political persuasions that will join us in this.”
While being peppered with questions, Warren shrugged off speculation she was expecting liberal firebrand and New York Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s support during the 2020 cycle, saying she had not solicited any endorsements. She also batted back a veiled attack from former Vice President Joe Biden, who at his campaign rally in Philadelphia on Saturday decried “angry” politics.
“I think this is the core of optimism to talk about the kinds of changes that we can make. We can do this in a democracy,” she said.
Warren’s two-day swing of the Granite State concludes on Sunday with a house party in Bedford and a town hall in Nashua. She attended a house party in Rochester earlier Saturday.
