>> For "Here& Now", I'm Nathan Denzin in La Crosse.
>> Turning to education, another national figure was out
campaigning in Wisconsin and other swing states this week as
students stepped back into classrooms. U.S. Secretary of
Education Miguel Cardona kicked off a back to school bus tour by
stopping in green Bay, Oneida Milwaukee and Mazomanie,
promoting investments in public education. At a stop in the
Wisconsin Heights, School District, Secretary Cardona
chided private school voucher programs for siphoning money
away from public schools. And he highlighted a program that
mentors rural high school students who want to become
teachers. often are overlooked, and one of
the things that we're trying to do is combat that we want to
make sure that we're recognizing that in rural communities there
are unique challenges. So recruiting and retaining
educators is an area that I wanted to learn more about and
how they're solving it. The Grow program that they have here,
where they put money together, districts come together to
provide scholarships for high school students that want to
become teachers so that they can come back into the community.
That's brilliant. So we sent a team here to really highlight
it. I wanted to hear from educators and superintendents
that's a perfect example of, you know, I don't think for a second
that in D.C. we had the answers. The answers lie here. So when I
come to Wisconsin Heights and I and I listen, I find solutions
to challenges that are being felt in other parts of the
country. And then I say, hey, go talk to them over there in
Wisconsin because they get it. Public education is a great
equalizer. I wouldn't be standing as Secretary of
Education if it weren't for what the public schools offered me in
my hometown, and they're under attack in many places.
Oftentimes, you know, public education dollars are being used
to fund private schools and tuitions and vouchers for
schools that take away from already cash strapped public
schools. We had to do better. So what better way than to show up
in schools and see the great things that are happening in
your neighborhood, public went I had choice when I was in
high school. I didn't go to my traditional high school. I chose
to go to a technical school. So I'm a big fan of choice, but I'm
not a fan of is taking public education dollars, which is
already thin, and then paying private tuitions for that in