Quote

My only foray into anything stock-market-related was in my eighth grade social studies class. I have steered clear ever since.

All four of my grandparents were educators, my mom was a school nurse, and I went through the public school system.

I started school in public housing. My dad had a sixth-grade education.

I was a lower middle-class kid. My family had no money. There was no room in our small house where there were already four kids, including myself, living.

I didn't go to business school, didn't care about financial stuff and the stock market.

My parents believed in education and economic security, and I thank them for it. Because I think that's part of what's made my life stable. It was instilled in me. You have to be able to pay your bills. You do not get into debt. And I never have been.

My parents were working class folks. My dad was a bartender for most of his life, my mom was a maid and a cashier and a stock clerk at WalMart. We were not people of financial means in terms of significant financial means. I always told them, 'I didn't always have what I wanted. I always had what I needed.' My parents always provided that.

I went to big, broken, under-resourced public schools, but we had a real sense of community, because those were days in the '50s and the '60s when every child was under the jurisdiction of every single adult on the block.

I look back and see the kids who made it through school - it made a huge difference in their lives, which made me believe in the power of public education and what it can do for individuals and communities and the state.