Edwards’ wife fields questions on issues
BROWNSVILLE – For Belle Vernon Mayor Jim Bitonti, the issue was keeping young people in the area. For Albert Gallatin High School teacher D. Eric Nuttall, his issue was No Child Left Behind and its impact on local schools.
One by one Thursday, people had their chance to ask the wife of vice presidential candidate Sen. John Edwards where he and Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry stand on issues important to them.
A standing-room-only crowd greeted Elizabeth Edwards at the Sons of Italy Lodge as she held a “community discussion” with the audience.
After a brief speech, she entertained questions from the audience.
Edwards, whose father was born and raised in Brownsville, said that her father has often talked about his years in the area, though her visit Thursday was her first trip to Fayette County.
“I’m not here to reminisce, though,” she said. “I’m here with an important message why John Kerry and John Edwards are running for office.”
She said her husband and Kerry are running because they can get the country “on the right track.” The Kerry-Edwards campaign has spent the better part of a year talking and listening to people and the Democratic challengers can address the issues that people are thinking about, she said.
Bitonti asked Edwards what her husband and Kerry plan to do to address what is commonly known as “brain drain:” children who grow up in the area who have to leave after college to find a good-paying job.
Edwards said the men have a plan to create jobs rather than giving tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans by fighting to keep the jobs that are already here and making sure that small towns like Brownsville have all the resources they need to be attractive to prospective businesses.
“The president has eliminated programs that are useful for places like Brownsville,” she said. “John Kerry plans to re-institute them.”
Health care was a major focus of the hour-long session, as a California University of Pennsylvania student asked what Kerry and Edwards plan to do to help students like them, who will lose health care coverage when they graduate college.
Edwards said health care premiums have increased by $3,700 over the past four years for a family of four, and, on average, health insurance is costing 25 percent of a person’s income.
She said her husband and Kerry plan to cap the amount people pay for health insurance to no more than 12 percent of their income if a person makes less than $57,000 a year, and no more than 6 percent of income if someone makes less than another income level.
“We need to turn this around, and I am confident that we can,” she said.
Some of the other questions posed Thursday dealt with prescription drug coverage, abortion, Social Security and the outsourcing of work to other nations.
In response to a question from Nuttall concerning No Child Left Behind, Edwards said Kerry and her husband, if elected, will see that a new Secretary of Education that is less hostile toward teachers is nominated and will model their education plan after a successful program in North Carolina.
In that program, schools that are not improving at a certain pace are visited by an assessment team of teachers, administrators, and others who partner with the schools to determine what needs fixed and how to make the improvements.
Edwards said that, with No Child Left Behind, the Bush administration has failed to “fund the fix,” and has relied solely on standardized testing to determine achievement.
“Pennsylvania has been underfunded by $243 million,” she said. “If you had gotten that money, you could do more than just testing, you could have funded the fix.”
Edwards chastised the President for cutting back after-school programs and dropout prevention programs that students need.
Nuttall said after the session that Edwards provided the answer he was seeking to hear.
“She really hit the nail on the head,” he said. “She seems to really understand what we’re saying.”
Betty Lauricia of Uniontown said she found Edwards to be articulate and well informed on the issues that are important to the people of this area in particular.
“I really like her perspective on things,” she said. “It was very important to have her here today.”
Jeremy Burnworth, who also attended the session, said that Edwards has a good understanding of people and of how her husband and Kerry will handle important domestic issues.
“She was very genuine and interested in speaking with the public,” he said. “I was very glad to hear her talk about some issues that are very important to me.”
After the session, Edwards said that her first visit to her father’s childhood home brought forth the same round of questions that have been asked her during stops throughout the country during the past few months of campaigning.
“These issues in Brownsville are ones we hear every place,” she said.
Edwards’ father, Vincent Anania, graduated from Brownsville High School in 1938 and has several cousins in Brownsville.
Several of Edwards’ relatives were seen in the audience Thursday.