Our endorsed candidate for the U.S. Senate
Congressperson Andy Kim is the NJEA and NEA-endorsed candidate for the U.S. Senate. He currently represents the Third Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Rep. Kim was raised in Evesham Township and Cherry Hill and was educated in the public schools in those communities. He attended Rice Elementary School in Marlton and is a Class of 2000 graduate of Cherry Hill East High School. He went on to become a Rhodes Scholar. His children attend public schools in New Jersey.
On Aug. 30, he sat down with the editor of the NJEA Review, Patrick Rumaker, to tell his story and talk about his views on public education.
You’ve made your, and your family’s, public school experience part of your story. What does public education mean to you?
Public education means opportunity. It is the essence of the American dream. My parents immigrated to the United States 50 years ago. When I asked them why, they said it’s because here in America, they knew that the family they raised would have a better life and more opportunities than they did. My parents saw education as the key to mobility, to stability, to the kind of lives that they wanted my sister and me to have.
Now, I’m a public school kid who gets to represent in Congress the community where I had my education. That public school education set me up to become a Rhodes Scholar and allowed me to pursue my dreams of serving this country in national security and diplomacy.
You speak glowingly of public education in New Jersey, and our state’s public schools consistently rank number one in the nation. What do you believe contributes to our success?
It starts with the big picture, which is that our state recognizes public education as a greater good. We should all recognize that we as a country are stronger with a more educated population and a more educated workforce. That’s going to make our economy stronger, and it’s going to allow us to be able to innovate.
I’m proud that New Jersey continues to understand this—not just the political leadership, but the broader population. I’ve done over 75 town halls and I often talk about education. Whether or not the attendees are parents of school age children, they all have a recognition that public education is something worth investing in. That doesn’t mean we’re not going to have questions about the budget or about the curriculum, but at least there is a broad understanding of how important education is.
Is there a teacher, an educational support professional, or an educational services professional who had a particular impact on your K-12 schooling or who is memorable in some way?
I’ve had a lot of great teachers and educational support professionals throughout my public school education. When I was in elementary school, I went through years of speech therapy. I had a lot of trouble forming words, a lot of difficulty in articulating what it is that I felt. Part of the reason why I go by “Andy” is I had a hard time pronouncing the “R” of Andrew. It made me feel like there was something wrong with me. I remember the care with which a teacher [a speech therapist] worked with me almost every single day through a good chunk of elementary school. It helped me understand that this didn’t make me less of a of a student.
How, in your role as a U.S. senator, can you help lift the debt burden on current and future college graduates and make college more affordable overall?
I spend a lot of time in Congress thinking about how to invest in technologies, and we’re talking about how to supercharge semiconductor manufacturing in this country or other types of innovation. Well, part of that is by investing in students and investing in our education. I’m looking at, and support, efforts to drop interest rates down as low as possible, allow refinancing of student loans, things like that that give greater flexibility.
I was a Pell Grant kid, and that helped me pay the bills. But we haven’t invested in Pell Grants nearly enough—we should be increasing the amount because it hasn’t gone up in years. We also need to expand the number of students who have access to it. I was also a work-study kid. That’s how I helped pay my way through college. And that’s something that’s on the chopping block right now in Congress as we’re seeing a Republican majority in the House of Representatives trying to halve the amount of support for work-study programs.
I think that having a comprehensive approach in line with what President Biden’s also been pushing, such as repayment plans being income-driven so that it is not going to overly burden those who are trying to repay.
We, as a country, need to confront the fundamental question of why higher education costs so much to start with. We want higher education to be accessible to everyone. While not every single person needs to go to a four-year college—there are apprenticeships, trade schools and other opportunities—but we want people to have a choice. I’d love for that choice not to be driven by how much debt they’re going to be in.
In Minnesota, Gov. Walz signed legislation to provide free breakfast and lunch to all students. Last year, you reintroduced the Summer Meals REACH Act. Why is this legislation important to you?
I think of education as caring for students—caring for these young Americans in our community. A huge part of that is about educating them. But it’s also about their overall well-being. I don’t see how a student can perform to the level that they need—to study and focus and learn—if they’re hungry.
New Jersey is one of the wealthiest states in this country, and this country is the wealthiest, most powerful country in the history of humankind. But in my congressional district alone, we estimate that there are upwards of 16,000 to 18000 children who are considered food insecure, which we know is just a bureaucratic way of saying they’re hungry.
I continue to support efforts like the child tax credit, which had dropped child poverty in half for the period of time that it was in place. Unfortunately, was allowed to expire by the Republicans in Congress.
I’ve had some tough conversations with some of my colleagues, and it boggles my mind sometimes, just the lack of care that we have for our kids—when they don’t have enough to eat or don’t have the resources they need through no fault of their own. Do not punish them, do not disadvantage them, simply because of the circumstances in which they live.
How do you balance the need for gun violence prevention—especially in and near our schools—with the Second Amendment?
I was in high school when the Columbine shooting happened, and I remember how shocking that was for us. And I don’t think we understood at that time that mass shootings at schools would become so commonplace. It almost feels like we’re becoming numb to some of it.
I remember when the Sandy Hook shooting took place. I just broke down at work. And when I saw the inability for leaders of our country to do anything after first graders were massacred, I lost a lot of hope.
I believe that the opposite of democracy is apathy. We can’t give up on this. Nothing is inevitable in our country. The violence is not inevitable. But also progress towards your security is not inevitable. We have to fight for what we believe in.
There was a gentleman who came to talk to me after [one of my town hall meetings]. He told me, “I’m a veteran. I served in our military. I’m a lifelong member of the NRA, and I have more firearms than I can count.” Then he said, “I’m right there with you on universal background checks for gun safety. I’m a responsible gun owner. I understand the power of a firearm, and I don’t want to be lumped in with mass murderers.”
That was powerful. It reminded me that this is not a binary issue. It is not that everyone is solely in the camp of saying “We want as many guns as possible,” or “We’re worried about gun violence.”
There is room for a new type of coalition that recognizes that there are some people in this country who, because of different reasons, should not be allowed to carry a weapon that can do that much damage to another human being. That’s what I hope we can build towards—to recognize that this is not a binary issue. But unfortunately, with so many of the problems that we face in our country, our politics tries to force that into a binary position. It’s creating this level of tribalism that I think is hard for us to break through.
We should all remember that we were Americans first, that my job is to serve and protect the Constitution of the United States. And I’m hopeful that that kind of mindset can lead us to make the decisions that are necessary. Because it’s heartbreaking when my kids talk about “bad guy” drills at school and how normal this expectation of violence is.
I’m not saying that there isn’t gun violence in other countries, but the level and pervasiveness that we have in this country, it stands out, and it’s something that is really alarming and must be tackled.
What do you see as the most significant concerns around the proposals found in Project 2025 concerning public education?
I think it’s important for the American people to keep in mind that the election of a president is about more than just one person. It isn’t just about who occupies the Oval Office. It’s about what comes behind that election. What policies, what proposals, what vision for America is that person trying to implement?
When you see a large document like Project 2025, and you see things like dismantling the Department of Education, dismantling programs like Head Start—which is incredibly important for early childhood development—and Title I, and all that comes with supporting education to be a force for reducing inequality in our nation at a time when we see the greatest amount of inequality in our nation’s history.
But it’s not just about the inequality side. It’s about what Project 2025 would do if implemented to give carte blanche to so much more discrimination within our schools and whether that’s Title IX, civil rights and opening the door for increased discrimination against the LGBTQ community.
It’s sad to see the weaponization of education in this country—that it’s being used for political purposes. It’s being used to push a certain type of ideology, and it’s undermining the sort of fundamental principles of what education stands for.
There’s an effort to erode so many other fundamental aspects of our country that can really set our country on a trajectory that is alarming. I really do believe that the next four to five years are going to shape the next four to five decades in this country. That’s how pivotal the moment we are living in right now, which is why I’m stepping up to do everything I can—run for the U.S. Senate, to try to fight in Congress to stop these types of actions from happening. It’s also why we cannot allow Donald Trump back in the Oval Office.
We also need majorities in the Senate and the House that are going to protect and promote education as a good for our society rather than trying to demonize it. And it’s sad for me to see people who are my colleagues [in Congress] being some of the ones that are fomenting this type of hate and fear. Often, they’re doing it for their own political ambitions. I find that to be so irresponsible.
What can Congress do to help support teachers, librarians and other school personnel to oppose books bans and the narrowing of the American history curriculum?
I’m the ranking member on the Military Personnel Subcommittee—a subcommittee that normally focuses in on mental health and health care for our troops and for retention and recruitment in our military. Unfortunately, it’s become this subcommittee that’s been weaponized to get rid of DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] initiatives in our government, and going after our military academies about their curriculum.
I remember going to the Naval Academy to talk to some of the midshipmen. I wanted to hear their perspective on Congress’s attention—especially the Republican majority’s attention—on their curriculum and whether or not they’re being taught things that are going to be damaging.
I remember one midshipman just looked at me and said, “Doesn’t Congress have anything better to do?”
I wish all of my colleagues in Congress could have heard this young person that is just like, “Why is the United States Congress perusing and digging through our curriculum? Let us learn.”
And it’s not just about our military academies. It’s about just education writ large.
Look, I’m a parent. I want to know what my kids are being taught, and I have the ability to go and talk with my kids’ principals and their teachers. And that’s fine. But we should do it with respect. We shouldn’t have this situation where people are just yelling and screaming.
I hear from teachers and educational support professionals about the mental health anguish that many of them are facing because of the attacks upon them—sometimes very publicly and on social media—about their reputations being smeared. These are people who are just trying to serve our communities—just trying to do something that honestly a lot of Americans just take for granted.
We need to recognize that a lot of these attacks are not just about what books are in the library. This is about an assault upon what education in this country fundamentally means. This is a moment where we have to reassert what education means and how important it is for the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness that was part of the foundation of this nation.
And we see the slippery slope. We’re seeing it in many aspects of our lives, whether it’s women’s reproductive rights or other rights—taking away freedom to be able to do what we want to do, study what we study, and exercise our freedom of speech, our freedom of expression.
We’re about to celebrate the 250th anniversary of this country. I hope we take time to reflect upon where we are 250 years later and try to think through what we need to do to ensure our security and success for the next 250 years. Education needs to be a fundamental part of that.