Thank you President Pringle. Thanks to the Friend of Education Award Committee. And thanks most of all to you educators out there working hard for kids and families in public schools across the country. I want to give a special shout-out to the Michigan delegation for the work you do every day. I’m so honored and humbled to be standing up here to receive this award–and I share it with all of you.
We all know tomorrow is Independence Day. Today I’m thinking about those famous words from Thomas Jefferson: “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Each of us has probably seen that phrase a thousand times in our lives. But I want to use this opportunity to talk about what it means for me and what I think it means for all of us moving forward.
When I first started the work that brought me up here, I thought I was talking about history. One bad idea–school voucher schemes–with roots in resistance to the Civil Rights Movement, and funded today by Betsy DeVos and other billionaires.
But as we’ve seen, threats to public education, and to public investments in all of our futures–from health care, to jobs, to retirement security, and even basic, affordable costs of living–this is all very much breaking news. “Breaking” as in urgent. But also “breaking” as in a forceful, threatening undoing.
Because that’s what’s at stake here. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for everyone. Not just the wealthy and the well-connected. All of us.
You might know my name because I’ve been fighting Betsy DeVos’s school voucher schemes. But as we look ahead we have to remember that it’s not just one bad billionaire idea. It’s an entire political agenda. Folks from Michigan may remember that when Betsy DeVos was chairwoman of our state’s Republican Party, she once said that the problem with Michigan’s economy was that our workers are paid too much!
I don’t need any lessons about how to fix American education–or American health care, American Social Security, or American democracy itself–from a billionaire who thinks the way to fix the American economy is to cut worker pay!
You know, I get a lot of crap from the DeVos political machine, her lobbyists and Super PACs, the Heritage Foundation, and all the rest. They attack me for the work you’ve honored me with here today. And of course, one thing they say is “Josh, he’s too close to the teachers’ unions.”
But I’m proud to be here. I am my own man. And I have my own strength. And I have my own dignity. And I say: I would rather stand shoulder to shoulder with Becky Pringle, Randi Weingarten, Sean Fain, Liz Shuler–and labor leaders, autoworkers, educators, journeymen and women, and middle class families all over the country–then crawl for even one short minute at the feet of right-wing billionaires.
Listen. It’s going to get harder. We have a lot work to do. But as my governor, Gretchen Whitmer, has been saying “we can do hard things.”
We sure as hell can. And we know not just the DeVoses but other Republicans are gearing up to make 2026 in Michigan the “education election” for their priorities like more standardized testing. Cuts to public school funding. And yes, school vouchers.
I’m not going to let them. But I’m going to need some help in that work to defend public schools. And Medicaid, Social Security, jobs and so much more. Now, I know that I’m going to have to work hard to win any official endorsements from the Michigan folks and others, but for today I’m hoping you’ll visit my website and learn more about me and how we can stand together for students and families.
My time on this stage is up but our work together is just beginning. And I want to wrap up by just going back to that Declaration of Independence–life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness–and to remind all of us that what’s at stake here really is democracy.
We all talk about democracy in different ways, and none of us have to be as eloquent as Jefferson, or Abe Lincoln, or FDR or Dr. King. We just have to listen to families and go out and meet them where they are at the places that matter to them.
For a single mom with a kid who’s struggling to read, maybe democracy is just having a public school that is a bit more responsive to her when she’s trying to get what she needs for her kiddo.
For a 27 year-old guy with Type-I diabetes, maybe democracy is just having a health care plan that won’t throw him out in the cold because he has a pre-existing condition.
Maybe for a retiree, democracy is just having someone there at the Social Security office to pick up the damn phone and talk to a real person if their check goes missing.
For a working dad of 3 or 4 kids, who’s just lost his job, maybe democracy is just getting a little bit of economic assistance till he gets back on his feet. Or if he has a job, maybe democracy means being able to count on an income not just to survive and put food on the table–but to thrive and build out his family’s future.
A democracy that works for everyone is an economy that works for everyone. And an economy that works for everyone is a democracy that works for everyone.
Thank you all, God Bless you. And God Bless America–this weekend on her birthday, and every day ahead.
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The National Education Association is the nation’s largest professional employee organization, representing more than 3 million elementary and secondary teachers, higher education faculty, education support professionals, school administrators, retired educators, students preparing to become teachers, healthcare workers, and public employees. Learn more at www.nea.org.
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