Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Career education is a vital pipeline to high demand jobs in the workforce. Students from all walks of life benefit from the opportunity to pursue their career education goals and find new employment opportunities. Join Dr. Jason Altmire, President and CEO of Career Education Colleges and Universities (CECU), as he discusses the issues and innovations affecting postsecondary career education. Twice monthly, he and his guests discuss politics, business, and current events impacting education and public policy.
Jason Altmire (00:05)
All right, we have a big guest today, Career Education Report. We've had some good ones. We've had some good guests, but today, Rahm Emanuel, that's as good as it gets. And I know folks out there know who he is, but I will very briefly refresh your memory. He was a senior staffer in the Clinton administration. He was a member of Congress and member of the Democratic leadership.
Mayor of Chicago for two terms, very successful, especially on education issues, which we'll be talking about. He was the White House Chief of Staff under President Obama at a very eventful time in that presidency. He has been the US ambassador to Japan, and he's done some other stuff too, on top of all that. But
Rahm, we've been friends for a long time. I hope you don't mind. I'll call you Rahm. And it is just great to have you on here.
Rahm Emanuel (01:05)
You should hear what my wife calls me. So Rahm is like an upgrade, brother.
Jason Altmire (01:10)
I have no doubt that that is true. But it is it is great to see you. And this this podcast, we focus on education, especially higher education. And I think I was thinking about it today, preparing for this, that your resume actually
distracts a little bit from your accomplishments on education because I think people see you as as such a leader and you've done so many different things. I don't know that there is a an appreciation for the focus that you have put on education throughout your career and the difference that you have made. And you we're going to talk a little bit about what you might have planned in the future and you've put out some policy proposals as it relates to higher education. But I wanted to start by
looking at what you've done as mayor of Chicago, the two terms that you served and and you did a lot with regard to education in a city that before you took the reins was not highly regarded in public education. I think it's fair to say.
Rahm Emanuel (02:13)
I think Jason, that is the understatement of the year or c or a competitor for number one in the understatement of the year. Correct.
Jason Altmire (02:21)
Well just yeah, so so just talk about that. Talk about what you accomplished and what and the priority you placed.
Rahm Emanuel (02:27)
Let me start with one personal, which is when I went to school, college, I actually wanted to be an early childhood educator. So there's a personal connection to the profession. I think it's very, very im important. I wouldn't be sitting here, you would be sitting here if it wasn't a for family raised with the value of the importance of education. And then to the schools we went to to accomplish and realize that kind of value. anyway, to your core question. So when I walk in about
A couple decades earlier, Ronald Reagan Secretary of Education, William Bennett, called Chicago public schools the single worst in America. And that legacy slash stench stuck around. And I made it the number one focus of my priority. And the reason I decided to leave President Obama's side and run for mayor was I thought you could fix a big public school system where eighty three percent of the kids are from poverty or below. So first thing
Chicago had the shortest school day and the shortest school year in all of the United States of America. All 7,000 plus school districts. And I made a pledge we were gonna get a full school day and a full school year to live up to the full potential of our children. And that's the number one thing we did. Number two, through a lot of different things, we added full day kindergarten for every child, which did not exist in Chicago. We added full day pre-K for every four year old that did not exist in the city of Chicago because of the full day that we also added.
Chicago added every child ended up getting the equivalent of four additional school years, both through pre K and kindergarten and time. We made minimum mandatories around, I'm doing this by memory, but you couldn't go below an hour and ten minutes of reading. You could do an hour and a half every day, but you couldn't go below X. That was also true of math. It was also true of science. We also got, because we extended the school day, kids got recessed, which they never had before.
And we got every child got a minimum of two and a half hours a week of arts education, as you know my interest in that. Anyway, then our you know, the end result of a lot of other changes, and I want to come back to high school years because I think that was the biggest reform we did. When I walk out, Stanford University's premier education demographer, Sean Reardon, calls Chicago.
remember we go from the worst, but they he calls Chicago the single best of the top one hundred and we're in the ninety eighth top percentile for the United States of America. By way of example, we took our graduation rates from fifty six percent to eighty three percent. Our college attendance was in the twenties and we took it up to sixty seven percent. College four year and two year. Our reading and math scores, our kids were in above fifty percent attainment and they were, I think, among
tiers of their demographics, they were six months ahead on reading and math. So those are just kind of some of the indication, but that was a priority because I thought that one, it was important for the city. If you want to grow a city, you needed a public school system to attract people. So that was one thing. Now, when I stepped back, and I kind of say this, Jason, having gone to Mississippi, and just so you know, I'm gonna soon go to Louisiana. It's the only state in America
where both reading and math scores have gone up pre-COVID. So I'm gonna go down there end of September, figure out what they're doing that we can replicate. There's no problem hailing America that can't be fixed by what's working in America. The biggest changes I thought was if elementary is about returning to the fundamentals, high school education is about fundamental reform. We did three things that I think if I decide to run for higher office,
will be at the corner. So one, first city in America, if you got a B average, we made community college free. Tuition, books, and transportation. You had to get a B average. And about 20,000 kids attained that. And then if you kept your B average in the community colleges, all the universities and colleges in Chicago area gave you somewhere between 25 and 40% off of the remaining two years. So kids were graduating and
debt free as were their parents. The second thing, we set a goal of 50% and achieved it. 50% of our kids were graduating high school with college credit. Mom and dad didn't have to pay for it. Kids got the confidence. And more importantly, it re energized them and you lose kids in high school, it re energized them in the high school years. And it was the merging theoretically between the high school years and the community colleges because we did dual credit, dual enrollment to get to that 50% number.
And finally, the biggest piece of that reform was we were the only school district in America that set a requirement and we met it. Ninety-eight percent met it, not a hockey. You could not receive your high school diploma without showing us a letter of acceptance from either a college, a community college, a branch of the armed forces, or a vocational school. Not just the Altma Altmeyer or Emmanuel children had a post-high school plan. Every child was required to have one.
And it f and it changed the trajectory. And I when you put those three together, and I gotta be honest, we didn't think of them as a piece, but when I look back through the rearview mirror in retrospect, we took the high school from a diploma mindset to a college career mindset. And through the free community college, college credit while you're in high school, and then a mandatory post high school plan that had to be produced. And we hired a lot of college career advisors, et cetera. Every child wasn't just dropped off.
at eighteen and we had no responsibility. If before you left the womb of high school, you had a plan that you could execute on and worked.
Jason Altmire (08:15)
That mandatory plan included vocational education, right? That wasn't just you're gonna go to a four year school.
Rahm Emanuel (08:22)
No, no. It was college letter, community college letter, a vocational school or a branch of the armed forces. You had to know what you were doing. It was too expensive to reintroduce vocational ed in every school. So right next to the IBW one thirty four local, which was a re purposed local, and they added a massive amount of a new training facility in the city, having left the city decades earlier. They came back and expanded because of the 'cause all the work that was going on.
We opened up a closed school and made it the vocational ed. And I made all the trades on the nearest south side, Bronzeville rather. Bronxville's where I went to college myself. Bronzeville. And carpenters, IBW, plumbers, pipe fitters, laborers, sheet metal work, everybody contributed something. And we created a single vocational school. But for the whole high school system, vocational ed, if you were accepted to an apprenticeship at Carpenters or
operating engineers pick your trade. That counted just like a community college counted, just like University of Illinois counted, just like the Marines or Navy counted. I didn't care. All I wanted you to be is the best and best best prepared.
Jason Altmire (09:35)
You very quickly skim by your interest in the arts and for those who may be listening that don't know and I think they would be shocked to know. Yeah, is is
Rahm Emanuel (09:45)
Lot of people are, Jason. Yeah. I was trying to bury the lead here.
Jason Altmire (09:49)
No, you you were a co if I remember correctly, you were accomplished at ballet and I think you got a scholarship to Juilliard, right? And you turned it down and different direction.
Rahm Emanuel (09:58)
And but
so I had a scholarship to the Joffrey Ballet School. Okay.
Jason Altmire (10:03)
Free ballot. Okay.
Rahm Emanuel (10:04)
And I did not do the ballet school to my mother's, to this day, chagrin. But I mean, Yo Yo Ma and Renee Flemme were big advisors to the Chicago public schools because we extended the day. Anyway, it was two and a half hours a week of arts education for every child. We went from almost zero to two and a half hours.
And we won significant awards in the city, nationally rather, for arts back in school when s other school districts were cutting it, we were actually adding it. And it's my personal interest, as you know. Yeah.
Jason Altmire (10:39)
It's just it's interesting to folks who know you more by reputation that that you have that on your back. Well your words, not mine. At least not these aren't my words. I'm self-aware. I think it's really important to have set the conversation based upon your interest in education. This isn't something that you come to lightly or recently.
I remember in Congress when we were working together, you were very interested in education topics. You proved it as mayor. You made a huge difference. So now, fast forward, you're considering running for higher office, meaning the presidency, which I think we will talk about. And as part of that, you one of the first things you did was put out a higher education plan. Your proposal for higher education. So I would ask you first, why do you feel like
It's necessary as a Democrat considering running for Congress to focus on higher education and then maybe talk about what your plan entails.
Rahm Emanuel (11:43)
Let me two things, when I think of higher education, I include everything post-high school. Meaning, you want to go to community college, that's higher education. You want to go to c four-year institution or graduate school even? That's higher education. You want to join the Marines? That's higher education. I my view is we are way behind the times. Basically, it's high school and that's it. Every we 80% of all jobs require a minimum of two years of post-high school education. So what are we doing? And
That's one of the reasons I want to make sure that college classes are in high school or to you through dual credit, dual enrollment, IB or AP. Kids are graduating high school already running down the clock on that post-high school education of two years. I include vocationalists. You know, look, you're gonna get great mechanics out of the Air Force and the Navy and the Army. You're gonna get great people doing distribution, logistics, and transportation. You're gonna get great people doing emergency medical care.
That's all in education. And they leave the military and they come into society ready, ready and prepared and et cetera. Now, second, I happen to believe that we should I looked at and I laid out a pre K to BA plan because I want people to know what I'm gonna do. Jason, people move neighborhoods, they move communities everywhere just to make sure that their kids have a good education. I think our party
You know, if you go back historically, I would say one, Jimmy Carter sets up the Department of Education. Bill Clinton runs on public school choice and teachers of excellence and implements it. Barack Obama does race to the top. And in the Recovery Act, Joe Biden puts $190 billion out there without a single policy proposal associated with the education money. It's the largest infusion of federal money. And fifty percent of our kids today, just two years after he leaves office.
Can't read at grade level. Similar numbers among math. So we spent all this money, but because we were too scared to talk about accountability standards and what kids were being taught, whether it was phonics or the arts of it, arts of reading, which is crap in my view, we wasted a lot of money. And I obviously you know this because I'm very political. That has hurt the party. And I care about this. And I am, if I decide to run for office, I don't want to just tell you I'm gonna fix the price of gasoline.
I'm gonna be on the phone almost every day pushing the Department of Education. Where are we on reading? Where are we? I'm at that is what I care. And you should know that. And if it's not important to you, don't vote for me. Because it's important to me and I want you to know it. And I think I owe you, going back to Bill Clinton's model, ideas are the most underappreciated thing in politics. So I'm gonna lay out a plan. Now, in that effort, three things what we call the post you know, higher education. There are twelve hundred community colleges.
And vocational institutions in America. We're spending under Donald Trump thirty-eight billion dollars on detention centers that nobody wants in their communities. Yet in our communities are these great educational institutions that all the businesses and all the people who work full-time rely on as they're ticketed into the middle class. You're a nurse and you want to become a radiologist, community college and technical school. You want to become a carpenter, you want to become advanced manufacturing, other type of trades, other types of industrial
The community college, that's where you're working full time and you go to. Not not counting also the vocational eds that exist through the building traits and each of their facilities. So the first thing I said is don't spend thirty-eight billion dollars on detention centers. Take eight billion dollars and modernize the community college system, not just the facilities, but the curriculum. Mean put your board put a board together of your local industry, whatever it is, if you're
big on transportation distribution logistics, like you may be in Kentucky or Memphis, Tennessee, or we are in Chicago. Get those guys in there. What is the curriculum? So modernize the curriculum. So when they're hiring, they know from the local community college, like we did at W Al Harvey on the south side of Chicago, if Walmart or Whole Foods or any of the other TELs are hiring, they know that that curriculum is what they developed. So the person walking in with a community college degree
is as important as a person coming in with a University of Illinois degree. I want those kids to hold their head high. I want them to know that they got educated on a program that will get the door open, not shut in their face. That's what I want. So that's one.
Jason Altmire (16:19)
And and that applies to private vocational schools too, I assume, right?
Rahm Emanuel (16:23)
I want to be clear. I haven't gotten into that because I was I mean, that's something we can work through. I'm kind of thinking of the community colleges like Chicago has, like the state of Illinois has, like Pennsylvania has, et cetera. I haven't been thinking about the for-profit model to be blunt. Okay. Eight billion eight billion dollars, update the curriculum, make sure it's relevant. The second thing I want from the community college for that eight billion dollars, which is RASA, you have to have a partnership with all the high schools in your area on a dual credit, dual enrollment.
To achieve that other objective we set out, which is you're gonna graduate, we're gonna 100% of our kids are gonna graduate high school with college credit. 100% with college credit, a minimum of 10 credits. So I wanna basically incentivize with the use of those $8 billion. Don't spend it on detention centers that nobody wants to sell you. Modernize that community college. I did it in lacrosse. I saw it in Spartan. There was a young man.
Going to community colleges. He was graduating back in May. I saw him in April, and he was getting 32 bucks an hour. We graduated, he'd go work at GE in Spartanburg area. He's gonna get 32 an hour plus healthcare plus pension. Our community colleges and technical schools, twelve hundred of them throughout the country, are the heartbeat of the modern economy of the United States. People working full time rely on them to make it to the next piece of the economic ladder. We spend as a federal government.
A billion on our education backbone. I want to spend eight billion, but with a specific plan to make the community college even more relevant, both for the companies and most importantly for the workers who rely on that community college as as their ticket in the way that my college education I knew was going to get me an opening and a job hire, et cetera, and start me on my career. Same way for you, Jason. And that we expect so I poured life and we did it in Chicago.
But new curriculum, corporate advisory board, so people hiring know that the curriculum's relevant and people can then can trust it. And third, a plan to make the high schools and community colleges a seamless education thing. Second thing, away from that on higher education, was for the two hundred thousand men and women coming out of the armed forces, we would p give you tax-free a ten thousand dollar signing bonus if you went into one of the trades.
And there were forms around housing that hadn't been done before. I didn't realize this. If you come out of the military and you have your GI bill, you go to college, you get your not just tuition, but housing. You go to carpentry, you only get six months. There's a bias in that system. But I give you a ten thousand dollar tax-free siding bonus. If you become a carpenter, operating engineer, electrician, plumber, pipe fitter, I don't really care. Our economy is massively short, tradesmen and women. Massively. And it's also
now become a national security risk. Every year we'd fund two nuke subs to be built, mainly on the East Coast. Because we are short pipe fitters, plumbers, and electricians, over the last decade, not a single year have we hit on budget or on time or in quantity, the two nuclear subs. We're always building one and a half or one and a quarter because we're short plumbers, pipe fitters, electricians, welders for those subs.
And so it's not just data centers and it's not just, you know, big warehouses and et cetera. We're just short. And again, I also want to say this in a time in which people are worried about the middle class, worried whether they're gonna make it. When I was in Michigan in the West, and then also just north of Detroit, I went to the carpenter's hole operating engineer. There's a woman who was a florist that's a carpenter, a florist. She becomes a carpenter. She's now
the top of in that area retrofitting a nuclear facility. She and her partner bought a home. They have, you know, a life, a middle class life. They have a vacation home too. She's got fifty an hour plus full time benefits. And she's got a guaranteed 10 years worth of work retrofitting that nuclear facility. And she runs a team, I'm doing this by memory, by twenty people. Mm-hmm. Go over to the operating engineers just north of Detroit. Young man was working
as a in a warehouse. He was making a buck fifty more than Michigan minimum wage. He becomes an operating engineer. I think he's still an apprentice. He's making 37 an hour plus full time benefits, not counting overtime. He just got married and he and his wife just put a money that down payment on a home. So all the horrors that you hear about not being able to afford a middle class life, et cetera, these two examples, and now they didn't come out of the armed forces, but that's who I would prioritize as paying.
that to me is that piece. And then third and finally, since you asked me to run down the whole agenda, we'll
I have a four I have a four year plan I'll get to when you are
Jason Altmire (21:30)
You have taken a closer look at how the federal government operates certainly than most, probably more than anybody. And I've heard you talk about the number of job training programs and the number of different agencies. Yeah. So may maybe riff on that for a little bit because that's important to our members.
Rahm Emanuel (21:50)
There are forty-three job training programs across seven different agencies. Hold that. Now everywhere you go, whether it's medical profession, health or healthcare, whether it's the trades as we talked about, whether it's manufacturing. In fact, when Donald Trump gets into office, there are 400,000 helpline signs on 400,000 different manufacturing positions. We have 43 job training programs.
Across seven government different agencies, and yet employer and employees are looking for workers. That job training program has nothing to do with the economy. That's everything you do with either protecting a member of Congress who sits on a committee and wants something to play with, or some bureaucrat who's moving paper. I'm sorry, it is messed up. The verdict is in. There's not a d I mean, just take one industry. I went to you do the broadband industry.
And they will tell you there are 150,000 electricians short. Okay? Forget what your position is on data centers over the next decade. They are a half a million, a half a million electrician short. You go to the sub ports, both on the on the east coast and Groton, Connecticut, up in Maine, et cetera. They are short welders, plumbers, pipe fitters. I can go down. We're short nurses. Starting salaries 150,000.
Don't have to just be in the trades. Either consolidate these job training programs, or some people have offered Republicans, make it a voucher, can only be used in X, Y, or Z. I mean, use a way to do this, but we're not we don't need a job training program for people who on Tuesday are left handed and on Wednesday are right-handed, etc. I mean, the verdict is in companies are looking for workers, workers are looking for a middle class paycheck.
And Washington is producing job training programs that doesn't serve anybody but themselves in Washington. Either the person running the paper or the member of Congress, and you and I both can talk honestly about that, who wants jurisdiction because it has nothing to do with it. It has to be modernized. This thing is crap. And it's we're selling crap. And nobody's buying the perina dog chow. So stop it. There's better ways to do and you know, other countries. Now
I happen to think the way I talked about it, which is remodernizing our high school education so it's more relevant, hasn't been changed in a hundred and twenty years, and making sure that the community colleges and the high schools are single blended educational experience. That to me, and a modernizing our community college system with an infusion of money, and not just money, but with standards, accountabilities, and a focus on it. And then I'll let me step back as you know this, Jason, is I'm a history nerd. I love history.
There are four great periods of American economic growth. Post Civil War, land grant colleges, the turn of the century, universal high school education, and a World War II, the GI Bill of Rights, the Sputnik Challenge for Russia, and the science and technology investments. There's 20 years in each of these four buckets where America's economic growth takes off like a rocket. And there's one constant.
Investing in the American people's education and skill level. And I gotta be honest, we're operating with one hand tied behind a rack. I don't think in a competition against China we have a person to waste or a community overlook. My kids, Zach went to UCLA, he's was Navy Intel officer for seven years afterwards, and he's now a reservist. Alana went to Brown and she's a Navy reservist. She's going to graduate school, getting a law and a business degree. Leah went to Princeton.
And she advises the Pentagon on national security and resilience. Okay. My kids are gonna be okay. They got a loving home and a good education. That's not how I keep score. I'm happy, Amy, that we live every day to make sure all three are staying on a narrow path forward. And they've d grown up to be really good. But if you and I have committed our lives to public services making not making sure my kids are okay, it's making sure other people's kids are okay. There's three doors a kid walks through that will determine their future. Front door of the home.
front door of the school and front door of the place of worship. And if one of those doors are closed, it's going to impact the child's life. I want to make sure that both as best as I can, the home, but definitely the school, that door is not only open, but is most productive. And we've got to be honest as a country when 50% of your kids can't read at grade level. And we are not actually rethinking what our high school vocational led community college system should be about.
And we're only worried about four year institutions, which are also becoming cost prohibitive. We're not operating at the level we need to be for the best benefit of the American people.
Jason Altmire (26:51)
I wanna r really quickly give you a chance to talk about the rest of your higher ed plan w which is you you advocate for three year degrees, at least experimenting in that and then the the grand bargain on free tuition.
Rahm Emanuel (27:04)
So it's a part of a piece. Now, I preface this because Cambridge and Oxford in England do three year BAs. The four year BA is not some biblical Ten Commandments. Again, now I said to you earlier, high school education, minimum of ten credits, a hundred percent of our kids. But I would say, and it could be twenty or twenty-five, but I said twenty. If you graduate high school with twenty-five credits in college.
We allow you to get your BA in three years, not four. That would save mom and dad a full year of tuition. And again, it drives the reforming of the high school education, which hasn't been changed in 120 years. And second, it saves parents money by not having to pay four years rather than three. The kids may not like it because they want all four years for the experience, but tough luck. Second
is if you're only doing it three years, less likely you're gonna end up in your parents' basement with thirty thousand dollars of invoices for the rest of your life. The second thing, foreign students pay full price. Today they only represent six, seven percent of college attendees. I would let Pennsylvania State or my Miami of Ohio, I don't care the kind of college or university. It could be a research institution, it could be a four year liberal arts, I don't care.
You get to take up to 20% of your students from overseas. You can make 18% of them in the research and 2% in the undergraduate. I don't I don't care how you divide it, but you get up to 20% foreign students. They'll pay full price. And to all the fam American families who make less than $200,000, you're gonna go tuition free. The other the piece of it is basically foreign students would subsidize American students. And
If you make more than two hundred thousand, whatever your child's tuition was freshman year, it can only go up sophomore, junior, and senior year by the rate of inflation. The other piece of savings for the college beyond foreign students is a lot of them are spending a ton of dough on lawyers' accountants, et cetera, complying with the federal government's rules or regs. You identify ten percent of savings in those areas?
You can we would sign off on the federal government, you don't have to do that crap anymore. And you keep a hundred percent of those savings. So foreign students, twenty percent, less paperwork with the Washington, you keep a hundred percent. Three year BA, two hundred thousand less free on tuition. Am of two hundred thousand, it can't rise faster than inflation. That to me would restore people's confidence that higher education as related to the four year institution was worth the price.
This morning I was reading a story how Trump's changes on student loans is driving chaos in the graduate school program. But they've messed up the student loan program for four years. I personally think they haven't done anything on, I know they haven't done anything on the community colleges, and they clearly don't care about reading scores. Now, a lot of people, Jason, tell me, people don't really care about this here. It's about affordability. I care about it. I'm tired of living short term.
I'm not dismissing concerns about the price of gas or eggs. But if we don't get education right, and I think people should know this is where I stand. Now, if somebody else wants to run for president, tell you what they want to do, great. But I have a full plan from the early years to the final years, and you should know about it. That's my bad attitude.
Jason Altmire (30:45)
So with that said, the last question, good way to wrap up. You've been traveling the country, you've been talking to people. I know you've been speaking at universities and before other educational groups and more generally you went to Israel and and gave a tough talk over there and and and you've done things that a presidential candidate does when they're thinking about jumping in. So where does that process stand? How real is that? And is is this something that you think that you might do?
Rahm Emanuel (31:15)
Well, look, I mean, when I first got off the plane from Japan as being ambassador, some people approached me and I thought this was crap. Like, why would I do that? I've done everything plus my whole dream. Well, when I was in college, it was working in the White House. I've done two of those. Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor, Clinton and Obama. I've got to Congress, I got the mayor of the city that welcomed my grandfather in nineteen fourteen as a an immigrant without a bucket to piss it and a window to throw it out of.
And then I got to be ambassador to Japan and it was great for Amy. To be honest, it was a really exciting time to be ambassador. A very great country to be ambassador. I learned a tremendous amount. But as I traveled around the country and I hear the stories of like a nurse who's on the phone fifty percent of her time arguing with an insurance company to get coverage that her and the doctor have prescribed for the patient. The insurance company knows one word in the English language. No. I met a young plumber in New Hampshire on my bike trip. He and his girlfriend
Live together. They're both on Obamacare ACA. Their premiums just went up individually, a hundred and fifty bucks each. They don't have the money for a down payment. He's busy as all hell out as a plumber because of the price of a mortgage. That can go down the list. And the question is I kind of not just warmed up to the idea is do you think you have an answer for what's ailing America? And then the leadership and the toughness to get it done. Both
And I kinda say this jokingly, but I mean this. If you run for president there, you gotta know the classroom, the family room, the break room, the boardroom, and the situation room. And the problem for America is one party is stuck in the bedroom and the other party is stuck in the bathroom. And I'm not interested in either one of those. I wanna be about what matters for this country. And I think I got something to say in a way to answer what I think ails us.
Then I'll probably make that decision. And the reason I went to Israel and then on to Berlin was to lay out very specific plans about change. We can't keep doing what we're doing. We can't, there's nowhere on the Oval Office desk, in the resolute desk in the Oval Office, there's no reset button, then you can erase the Donald Trump years. So you got to pick up the pieces, you got to have an agenda that changes that gets everybody bought in, and that can move forward. And I think I owe people, I think you would know since you worked with me.
I probably have I'm on the spectrum when it comes to candor. I probably should calm down a little, but I tell people the truth. You're
Jason Altmire (33:47)
Off the spectrum.
Rahm Emanuel (33:49)
candor. yeah, well we've now we got a guy in the president who can't seem to ever tell the truth, even when it's self evident that that's what the moment requires. So I've actually warmed up to the idea of drop dot you know, diving in the deep end without my water wings. And if people believe what I'm saying.
And they know my record. I've made my fair share of mistakes. If you're looking for perfection, I ain't your candidate. I've made mistakes my whole life, my whole career. The question is, did I learn from them and apply them forward? That's the only question that matters. Cause in the Oval Office, the one thing I know, the only thing that ends up in there is bad and worse. And you have to have the judgment, the insight, the self awareness to know the difference and learn from all the mistakes you're gonna make. And so that's where I'm right now, I'm in the position.
Still exploring it. Amy and I were talking about it last night, but what it would take from the family. And then if I do it, it's because I've learned a lot about traveling the next trip. I've been to Mississippi, I've been to Spartanburg, I've been to La Crosse, Wisconsin. I've just came from Omaha. I've been up and doing a bike trip in New Hampshire across the state. And I did about seven town halls. I've been, as a you note, to Tel Aviv to Berlin. Next trip is Louisiana, the state that's mastered a
Math and reading. Here's my thing. I don't need to go ask us to go figure out what Stockholm or Copenhagen are doing. The answer to everything that ails America can be found right here in America.
Jason Altmire (35:22)
And it's gonna be a big field. Senators, governors, people every one of them, you know the names, you know them personally, you you know where you fit in. How what what does that play into your decision making?
Rahm Emanuel (35:36)
Kinda the way I say it, Jace, is look, in let's be honest, 2024, the Democrats didn't have a choice. We were told who to our nominated. Kind of true of 2020. It was Biden versus Bernie if that wasn't really a choice if you wanted to win. So my view is 2028's gonna be Baskin and Robbins. It's gonna be 31 flavors. And I plan on being Rocky Road if I run. And you just gotta like that taste. If you don't like that ice cream, don't pick round. Go somewhere else.
Jason Altmire (36:03)
And if somebody wants to learn more about you and your policy proposals and and do some research, how would they find out about you?
Rahm Emanuel (36:12)
Yes, you can Google st I've written all a lot of this for the Washington Post. There's other stuff on our social media website, videos from the trips where I've talked about education, where I've talked about foreign policy, where I've talked about economic policy. They can all it's all out there. Probably too much.
Jason Altmire (36:31)
Well, thank you so much. Our guest today has been Rahm Emanuel. Very much appreciate you being with us, Rahm.
Rahm Emanuel (36:37)
Alright buddy, be good. Hope family's well.
Jason Altmire (36:42)
Thanks for joining me for this episode of the Career Education Report. Subscribe and rate us on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. For more information, visit our website at career.org and follow us on Twitter @CECUED. That's at C E C U E D. Thank you for listening.