George Stephanopoulos brought Sen. Kamala Harris on to respond to Trump accusing "radical left Democrats" of wanting to defund the police. "How do you respond to that?" he asked.
"It's creating fear where none is necessary," Harris said.
"Listen, here's the thing. George, we all witnessed the tragic murder of George Floyd. people protesting in the streets are protesting what has been a long-standing issue in America. That needs to be addressed. and it can be done in a way that does not require us to create fear in people. The reality of it all is this, there needs to be accountability and consequence for anyone who breaks the law and breaks the rules and so what we're talking about in our package of bills is doing just that.
"And separately, we've really got to get to a point where we agree the status quo is wrong. It's just wrong. You know how you create more safety? You fund public schools and it wouldn't be the case. In America today two-thirds of our public schoolteachers come out of their own pocket to help pay for school supplies. Create more safety, people have access to health care and it's affordable. The way you create more safety is jobs in the community and economic opportunities and access to capital and you can look at any middle or upper middle class suburb in America, you don't see police presence there. But what you do see there are good schools. People have jobs and have incomes that help them get through the end of the month."
She points out that many American cities spend over one-third of their budgets on policing, but we've been defunding public schools for years.
"We've got to re-examine what we're doing with American taxpayer dollars and ask the question, are we getting the right return on our investment? Are we actually creating healthy and safe communities? And that's a legitimate conversation and it requires a really critical evaluation."
I'll say. Did you know almost half of the adults (around 46%) in our largest cities are illiterate? That means they don't read well enough to understand street signs, or labels on food. And guess what that leads to?
Of adults with the lowest literacy levels, 43 percent live in poverty, and 70% of adult welfare recipients have low literacy levels,
Individuals at the lowest literacy levels have a higher rate of unemployment and earn lower wages than the national average. Low literacy costs the U.S. at least $225 billion each year in non-productivity in the workforce, crime, and loss of tax revenue due to unemployment.
So while funding public schools instead of police sounds like a silly liberal pipe dream, it's actually one of the smartest things we can do to create safe cities.
