Sanders Speaks at Rutland HS

By Keith Whitcomb Jr
THE RUTLAND HERALD
Money, the climate, and nuclear weapons were a few topics students talked about with U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders when he visited Rutland High School on Wednesday.

The media wasn’t allowed to observe the event itself, but Sanders and a few students spoke to the media gathered outside the high school once it was over.

“It was a very nice meeting and I was very impressed with the questions and answers,” said Sanders, an independent.

“They expressed their concerns about climate, about health care, about inequality. It was a good discussion,” he said.

Sanders has visited RHS several times now, and often makes appearances in Vermont’s schools. He was scheduled to visit Mount Anthony Union High School in Bennington after his time in Rutland.

“What did surprise me is they were very knowledgeable about some of the important issues facing the country, and I think there was a concern among some of them about the high cost of college — if they’re going to be able to afford to go to college,” said Sanders. “There was great concern about climate; what we can do to transform our energy system; some discussion about health care; concern about the possibility of (Russian President Vladimir) Putin using nuclear weapons in the war in Ukraine; about our wages in America being too low and needing to raise the minimum wage. It was a good discussion.”

He told the students that the world has changed a great deal in the past century, and that he believes attitudes toward higher education need to shift, as well.

“What we have now is free public education for K through 12, but if our kids are going to go out and get the kinds of jobs that they need to have they’re going to need more education,” the senator said. “And I think we have to expand the concept of free public education through college. My view has been, for a long time, that we’ve got to make public colleges and universities tuition-free.”

The students also asked him about the potential for Putin using nuclear weapons.

Sanders said he told the students the good news is no country has used nuclear weapons in a war since 1945, defying some expectations held at the time.

“We’ve gone a long time without using nuclear weapons in a war, and let’s hope to God that Putin has the sense to understand how cataclysmic it would be for Russia and for the world if he used nuclear weapons in Ukraine,” said Sanders. “I hope very much that he has people around him who understand that it would be a really stupid thing to do.”

The first question he was asked was about the climate.

“We have got to move very boldly to transform our energy system away from fossil fuel to energy efficiency and sustainable energy, or else the planet they’re going to inherit for their kids is going to be increasingly unhealthy and uninhabitable,” Sanders said. “We can create millions of good-paying jobs in sustainable energy and energy efficiency and that’s something, I think they understand, that is enormously important for their own lives and for the country.”

Karsyn Bellomo, a senior at RHS, said Sanders not only took questions from students but asked his own.

“He talked about racial injustices, social class inequality, climate change; those problems,” she said. “It was a good conversation back and forth between students.”

Lauren Solimano, also a senior, said she didn’t ask Sanders anything but found the conversation productive. Sanders talked about health care and health care costs, how countries like France and Canada have a different approach to health care payments that could be adopted here. He also discussed the cost of higher education.

“I felt like the conversation was really engaging,” said Holden Champine, a junior. “I noticed a lot of people that were really interested in what he was talking about, and I felt like a lot of the questions were pretty relevant as to what’s going on, and his answers were pretty straightforward. I felt like we were able to interpret what he was trying to convey to us.”

Champine said he wanted to ask Sanders about the political divide in America and about the two-party system but didn’t get the chance.

“These guys said it really well,” said RHS Principal Greg Schillinger. “He moved the conversation along and heard from a lot of different students, which is really the point; he wants to hear from students.”

keith.whitcomb @rutlandherald.com