NEW: Warren Speaks to Mass. Nurses About Investing in Education

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Friday, May 11, 2012

Ashley Klann, GoLocalWorcester Contributor

Elizabeth Warren at the 2012 Clinical Conference.

Hundreds of local nurses gathered at the DCU Center on for the annual 2012 Clinical Conference. Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren addressed the group of local nurses about the importance of investing in education and the future. Congressman James McGovern also attended the event and spoke on Warren’s behalf.

The conference brought together the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA) and National Nurses United (NNU).

“Nurses know what it means to work together and make a better world,” Warren said, as she thanked the group for their early endorsement and encouragement. MNA was the first organization to endorse Warren's candidacy, citing her commitment to protecting the middle class and Main Street values.

Warren highlighted the importance of investing in the future, using anecdotes from her own career to show a desperate need.

“I worry that we are headed in another direction. We invested in our future – in our education,” Warren said. She worries that her case will be the last of its kind to in part to the rising cost of education. “We built a pipeline of ideas. GDP and family median income are going up. That was the kind of America we built. We built America’s middle class.”

She cited a change in that direction, however, and talked about other countries investing far past what the US commits.

Remarks on Senator Brown

In speaking about the rising cost of education and health care, Warren did not neglect to mention her opponent, Senator Scott Brown and his recent vote against keeping the student loan interest rate at 3.4%. This fact brought on a groan from the crowd.

“He’s not there to support our kids, our future, our health.” “His America is ‘I got mine and the rest of you are on your own,’” Warren said.