I’ll be honest: I was a reluctant volunteer. I usually don’t like talking to people I don’t know, so going out and registering voters was a challenge. I didn’t even like to do phone banking. But after some gentle prodding from my field organizer, now I’m the one training other volunteers in phone banking and canvassing. I never thought I’d be doing this, but I do it because I know it makes a difference in reelecting President Obama.
For 40 years, I taught at a California state university. I saw firsthand what my students went through in trying to pay for college – most of them worked at least part-time to pay for their education. But many of them still needed financial aid and scholarships. My own son is attending college right now, and he’s had to take out loans to pay for his tuition. Unfortunately that means he’ll be required to find a well-paying job as soon as he graduates so he can start paying them back.
That’s why I support the work President Obama has done to make college more affordable, by doubling funding for Pell grants and consolidating loan payments. He understands that having an educated workforce is important for the future of our country, and for the jobs of the future. We really need to continue to train our students for the modern marketplace.
And more important, I believe that the hole we were in cannot be corrected in just four years. I believe that President Obama’s policies are taking us on the right track, and he needs four more years to stabilize the economy. I believe in moving forward and not going back to the policies that failed our country.
So despite my initial discomfort, now I’m excited to go into volunteer at my neighborhood field office. It’s going to be worth it when we win this November 6th.
Five things you can do to help President Obama's reelection: