>> c-span is your unfiltered view of government. we are funded by these television companies and more including charter communications. >> charter is proud to be recognized as one of the best internet providers. we are just getting started. building 100,000 miles of new infrastructure to reach those who need it most. >> charter communications supports c-span as a public service along with these other television providers giving you a front row seat to democracy. [applause] >> thank you all and good evening. kaplan, thank you for the beautiful words and one more round of applause for the high school choir.

incredible. [applause] madam speaker and members of the minnesota house of representatives, madam majority leader and members of the minnesota senate, let them chief distinguished members of the minnesota supreme court and chief judge spiegel. my fellow constitutional officers, members of my staff, cabinet and administration, governor dayton and mrs. dayton, wonderful to see you both. [applause] gov. walz: distinguished tribal leaders, members of the minnesota national guard, chaplain mark patrick, superintendent, principal staff and faculty, and especially

students. [applause] lieutenant governor peggy flanagan and minnesota's second gentleman tom weber. [applause] minnesota's first lady, gwen walz. [applause] honored guests and my fellow minnesotans, maybe it is the smell of that freshly sharpened pencil, maybe it is the site of those desks in neat rows, maybe it's the sound of nervous youthful chatter fill in the hallways, but whatever it is, if you are a teacher, nothing, and i mean nothing beats the first day of school. for many years of our lives, we celebrated new year's day not in january, but in early fall. when the doors opened back up and the kids came back from summer break.

the first day of school is all about hope. it's all about opportunity and it's all about endless possibility. that has never been more true than here last fall, when the doors opened on this beautiful new building, a 317,000 square foot state-of-the-art symbol of this community's commitment to its children. [applause] imagine when you walk through the door the first time as a student, the whole world opens up in front of you. the classrooms here are gorgeous. they are full of natural light and modern technology. as you explore, you will find not only the wood, metal and engine shop, you will find nexgen hydroponic equipment, a nursing lab, afull commercial kitchen and so much more. this building is a factory. what manufactures is futures.

you can see the curb appeal is undeniable. but this building was not built for looks for the first day of school, it was built for the last. when a student walks out of here the last time as a graduating senior, they will have a ticket in their pocket, a ticket to a good paying career that they can feel excited about pursuing. they will go on to be construction managers and firefighters, farmers, welders, cardiac surgeons. not only will they have the foundation to pursue any life they can dream of, many of them will have advanced credentials that gives them a leg up on that journey. think of how many young people will walk out of those doors each spring full of passion, purpose and ready to make a contribution to this state in this world. ready to work and build and grow. ready to make the state of our state even stronger than it is today. [applause]

i came and thanked all of you for coming tonight to celebrate this magnificent school. and discuss the work that we are doing to improve the lives of children across minnesota. but i also want people to remember just how many things had to go right for this vision to become a reality. everybody in this town knows the back story, the old high school, while beautiful and historic, was 100 years old. people in this community have been talking about replacing it for decades. it wasn't until a few years ago that the leaders in the public and private sectors came together and decided it was time to stop talking and time to start building. federated insurance, a cornerstone of owatonna since the early 20th century, pledged a major investment not just for the good of their community, but the good of the future workforce. other companies joined in, offering not just money, but equipment and expertise. owatonna voters overwhelmingly

approved a bonding referendum, and finally this community was ready to take the plunge and put some shovels in the ground. that small window of opportunity, that brief moment when the stars aligned, produced a community institution that you are in today that will stand for decades and impact tens of thousands of children. [applause] many in this room know that most of the time politics is incremental, frustrating, and sometimes gridlocked altogether, but every once in a while you get an opportunity to make a lot of progress in a short time. it happened at owatonna in 2019. after a half-century of waiting, it happened again in st. paul in 2023. [applause] i could not be more proud of the

work we have done together in this window of opportunity to improve education inside the walls of this school and in every school across the state. we have given our children a brighter future by making the largest investment in public education in our state's history. we increased teacher pay and double down on efforts to recruit teachers from more diverse backgrounds. we expanded access to mental health resources, social workers, nurses and chemical dependency counselors. we invested in making sure every student can read at grade level. we expanded special education career and, technical education as part of our commitment that says every minnesota student should receive a world-class education regardless of where they live or go to school. [applause] gov. walz: we are working to make minnesota the best state in the country for a kid to grow up, and our work extends far beyond the walls of this school.

we expanded access to pre-k and affordable childcare. we established free college education for low income families so everyone has the opportunity to pursue their dream. [applause] gov. walz: we have made it easier to balance career and family by making paid family and medical leave the law of the land. [applause] and we want everyone to feel welcome and we made minnesota a more welcoming place by outlawing things like conversion therapy for lgbtq youth and putting in new protections for trans minnesotans. [applause]

we have invested together hundreds of millions of dollars to bring competitive high-paying jobs to minnesota, to expand our economy with an eye towards a sustainable green energy future. [applause] we expanded the right to collectively bargain because minnesota always will be a labor state. [applause] we collectively have lived up to our responsibility to our elders by cutting taxes for our seniors. we invested $300 million in public safety for communities across the state to fight crime and improve emergency services. and we struck a blow against climate change, putting minnesota on a path to 100% clean energy by 2040 and leading the nation. [applause] gov. walz: we expanded voting

rights to make it easier for people to vote thanks to the leadership of secretary steinman. [applause] and we announced plans to stop medical debt from ruining people's credit and lives and cut that interest rate back to zero because of the leadership of the attorney general. [applause] and we put food on the table for struggling families bypassing a new child tax credit that is estimated to cut childhood poverty in minnesota by one third and making minnesota the state with the lowest child poverty rate in the country. [applause] and speaking of putting food on the table, especially in this place, we are already seeing real results from our groundbreaking commitment to providing free school breakfast and lunch to all our children.

[applause] gov. walz: the data shows 30% more kids are eating breakfast, 11% more kids are eating lunch in school than before. truly illustrating the scope of the problem we are trying to tackle. that means students that might have had an empty stomach now go into that classroom full and ready to learn. [applause] now yet, for some reason, some, and i will say this, especially from other states, roll their eyes when we talk about collectively working to educate and feed our children. they say it is not the role of the government to parent on the food and education. certainly not. but instead of working to solve those problems, they are spending their time and energy and political capital picking fights with beer companies and librarians. [laughter] gov. walz: look, speaking on behalf of minnesota, we are happy to have people move here.

we are happy to have private sector investment dollars here. we are happy to have brilliant young people moving in from other states, but we are not going to take radical ideas that make it more difficult for someone to live the life they are choosing to live. [applause] that is especially true what we are seeing across the country, choosing to interfere with people's families. we saw it recently with a bunch of judges in alabama rule that a frozen embryo holds the same right as a human being. and the direct result of that decision, fertility clinics closed across the state, putting men and women only wishing to have a family with nowhere to turn. some of you have heard me say this, and i heard people say we have not heard you talk about this before. that is because your own personal decisions about your family are no one's business but your own. [applause] gov. walz: but i will say this,

if you have never personally gone through the hell of infertility, i guarantee you someone you know has. and i know that when gwen and i were having trouble getting pregnant, the anxiety, the frustration would have blotted out the sun. all we wanted was something that seemed so simple, to have that child. what those judges did was a direct attack on our family. it was a direct attack on my children. gwen and i will not forget it, nor will we forgive it, and neither will thousands across the state. [applause] when roe v. wade was overturned in 2022, the door was wide open for this type of attack on personal decisions and personal families. that attack has been here, and it is up to us to make sure we stop it. that is why in minnesota the legislature took action after roe v. wade fell, writing

protections for reproductive freedom into state laws and making sure people, not politicians, can make their own reproductive choices, including ivf. [applause] you have my pledge as long as i am governor, ivf will continue to be a lifeline of hope for families so they too can celebrate the beautiful families everyone of us so dearly want. meanwhile, while they fight these fights, we will keep building those families, building communities, building more roads and bridges, we will keep building more career pathways and more schools and will be building more opportunities for our kids, their kids and for generations to come. [applause] gov. walz: and i'll say, part of that good work includes following up on all of the incredible work that this legislature did. things like building a new state

agency focused on children and families to be more efficient in implementing programs. we need to stand up paid family and medical leave and make sure our adult use cannabis works to make sure we expunge those prosecutions that should have never been there in the first place, making sure adults can make their own choices. [applause] gov. walz: i want to thank the people who do that work, the state employees working around the clock to make sure that minnesotans can take advantage of this legislature's positive vision for minnesota. so thank you to the state workers. [applause] that work will include building on a foundation for more success. just recently we reached an agreement on the next set of budget targets. i want to thank our legislative leaders for their cooperation and working together. earlier this year, the lieutenant governor and i

announced a major new infrastructure plan, something that always has bipartisan support, an ambitious effort to invest in the things that make our communities strong, clean water, safe streets, affordable housing. [applause] this plan makes sure every community has safe streets. while violent crime has declined in minneapolis and across the state, there is much work to do. we are putting real funding behind this, including expanding the capacity for the bureau of criminal apprehension and planning for the construction of a new minnesota state patrol headquarters. [applause] gov. walz: this plan also makes sure we are continuing to invest to make sure every minnesota and has a safe and affordable place to call home. we are backing development of affordable housing so that anyone facing homelessness can find a place to be. we want to update the minneapolis veterans home to better serve those who served

us. [applause] this plan before the legislature makes sure we are investing in clean water so every minnesotan has access to it. we want to invest in grants to replace lead pipes and remove the so-called forever chemicals from drinking water across the state. [applause] and being good stewards of the taxpayer dollars, we want to make sure every building owned by the taxpayer is in good repair. buildings like the one at minnesota state and the university are in need of renovation and upkeep. our infrastructure plan is funding to make it happen. all of that work will be done by union labor. [applause] things might not be that flashy, but these are the initiatives that make a difference in real people's lives across the state. there is no reason we cannot get them done this session.

there is no reason both parties cannot be part of getting this done. i know we will not agree on everything. safe streets we can agree on. clean water we can agree on. affordable housing we can agree on. i'm asking you to join me, not just at the ribbon-cutting, but the work to get it done in the first place. [applause] gov. walz:thing i would like to talk about when you are in this space. i walked around the halls. some of you i hope got a chance to see this magnificent facility. i tried to put myself in the shoes of a student walking in there for the first time. i want those kids to feel hopeful, feel inspired. i want them to feel cared for, which they are. there is one thing that i want no kid to feel, the one thing no child in any building should feel is afraid. when you come into high school,

you should be worried about pop quizzes and prom dates, not mass shootings. as governor i made it a point to move toward responsible gun ownership and take the nra on. [applause] last year we implemented two pieces of legislation that are long overdue. red flags for extreme risk protection orders and we strengthened background checks. make no mistake, this keeps guns out of the wrong hands and saves lives. tonight i merging the legislature together to join me and our schools and communities to make them a little bit safer by strengthening the requirements around the safe storage and asking neighbors to report lost or stolen firearms and increasing the penalties for straw purchases. these are ideas we should be able to get done, making a difference in safety in minnesota.

[applause] gov. walz: again, i'm not naive. it can be a dangerous world. we were reminded of that earlier when three of our bravest first responders lost their lives at the hand of a man who should have never had a gun. we know we cannot legislate against every act of violence, but surely we can do more. asking your neighbors to store guns safely, to report them if they are stolen, is a simple step that can save lives. it is high time that minnesota take that step. [applause] gov. walz: in school it is always the first and last on things. if minnesotans want to keep sending us back to st. paul, i would not mind that one bit. we have a lot of work yet to do, but this window of opportunity is still open. we need to keep working to get the progress done. i know public service is not a permanent religion for anyone party, nor -- permanent service

for any one party or person. forever how long we have been in office, there was a first day on the job. my guess is it looked a lot like the first day of school, a bit of nervousness, little bit of excitement, cannot find the bathrooms, who you have lunch with. all of you know it is what it was. the truth is each of us will have a last day in office too. we will leave a little bit older, some a lot older, maybe a bit grayer, but hopefully all of us little wiser. we walk out the doors of the capital the last time, we will get that opportunity to ask ourselves a simple question, what kind of future have we built? not for us, but for our kids and the state that we love. i don't know how long the window of opportunity we are in will stay open, but i'm committed to you that we will do everything and our power to improve the lives of minnesotans and leave our state better than we found it. a generation from now, no one

will remember what silly fight got someone on tv, but the things we are fighting for will still stand. better schools like this one, cleaner water, safer streets, better paying a state that invests in our children and our future. that is what it means to build. that's what it means to grow. and i think that is what it means to lead. tonight, i'm proud to report that the state of our state is strong, minnesota. [applause] and one of the main reasons is because the kids of our state are better equipped to thrive. and if you ever doubt that, just come on down to owatonna. walk through the halls and join me in dreaming about the futures that will be built right here.

>> this evening, maryland governor wes moore will be joined by other government officials for an update on the situation surrounding the collapse of the francis scott key bridge in baltimore. that is scheduled to start at 6:15 p.m. eastern. live coverage here on c-span. >> this evening, on q and a: columnist rob henderson discusses what it was like growing up in the u.s. foster care system. the hurtles he overcame and what he learned about class divisions in america while obtaining degrees in psychology from yale and cambridge university. >> ivy league schools in general, the vast majority of students are raised by both of their parents. whereas where i grew up, none of us were raised by both of our birth parents. a lot of single mothers, people being taken in by grandmothers

or aunts. that mirrors the statistics overall. >> watch the q and a interview with rob henderson at 7:00 p.m. eastern on c-span, c-span now, or online at c-span.org. >> friday night, watching c-span's 2024 campaign trail. a weekly round up of c-span's campaign coverage providing a one-stop shop to discover what candidates across the country are saying two voters along with first-hand accounts from political reporters, updated pull numbers, fundraising data and campaign ads. watch c-span's 2024 campaign trail friday nights at 7:30 p.m. eastern on c-span, online at c-span.org or download as a podcast at c-span now, our free mobile app or wherever you get your podcasts. c-span, your unfiltered view of politics.

>> c-span is your unfiltered view of government. we are funded by these television companies and more including mediacom. >> at mediacom, we believe whether you live here or right here, or way out in the middle of anywhere you should have access to fast, reliable internet. that is where we are getting the way. >> mediacom supports c-span as a public service along with these other television providers giving you a front row seat to democracy. >> and now from the heritage foundation, a discussion on u.s. policy in taiwan and u.s. interest in preventing a chinese invasion of that country. this is about an hour. [applause] >> good