Family Matters

There's no more important decision, no more fundamental a right, than the decision to have a family. This is one area where government has no business treading.

Some would call me crazy, but my husband Bruce and I have raised five boys. It was challenging, chaotic and joyous, and it required organization, persistence and discipline — — the kind of on-the-job training that too few parents get credit for!

Whether or not to have a child must remain a woman's decision, made in conjunction with her partner, her faith and her family. Whether and when to access birth control also is not a decision that belongs to government or even to employers who contribute to their employees' health insurance — it is not their decision to make. As governor, I will protect a woman's right to make her own reproductive health care decisions, to decide to start a family when it is right for her and her partner.

My Republican opponents talk a nice spiel about families——certain kinds of families — but I don't see them putting their money where their mouth is.

Their proposals drain resources from our public schools to give to private schools. They would keep, if not deepen further, the deep cuts they made to our colleges and universities. What we should be focusing on instead is ensuring that every family has the opportunity to succeed and participate in our economic and civic life.

We all want better for our children and that means giving them an opportunity for a good education. In my own life, education took me from low-wage jobs after high school to starting my own company and later to the front of a college classroom teaching. It made me a voracious reader and an informed citizen, active and engaged in the community around me.

Education in America has always been a path to success. The recent 50 percent cut to our university system is unconscionable and as university officials recently noted, made it impossible for this state to lower tuition. In making these drastic cuts, our legislature put new roadblocks up for ambitious young people and their families, already facing the highest debt load in the nation to get through college.

We, as a state, must make a commitment to good schools and affordable higher education. A healthy, vibrant economy depends on developing innovators and educated workers and then giving them reasons to stay in New Hampshire.

We need to remain a family-friendly state if we want our children and grandchildren to be able to raise their own families here. Safe communities, good schools, good jobs and affordable college tuition are essential to our future.

When I served in the Senate, during the summer months when the legislature was not in session, I made it a practice to invite individual children and their families to a private tour of the Statehouse. I asked them about their favorite books and their favorite subjects of study. I talked to their parents and sometimes with siblings who came along.

There's nothing like talking to a child one-on-one to give you hope for the future. They may not be old enough to vote, but they are one of the reasons I'm running for governor.

I meet talented, hard-working young people every day. I meet the parents who raised them and sacrificed to give them every opportunity.

We will turn the economy around in this state and in this country, because we owe it to our children to give them a chance. They are a valuable resource. Teachers, parents, grandparents and others have sacrificed and invested too much. Young people have worked too hard. And despite heavy student debt and a lack of jobs, our young people remain optimistic about their future.

I am a mother. I've been a teacher. I've been a lawmaker. And like young people today, I remain an optimist.

Budgeting must be guided by our priorities and an open discussion about how to fund them — — not by political posturing over The Pledge. That's why I refused to sign it. We can do better here in New Hampshire, for this generation and the generations to come. We will weigh carefully every penny in our state budget, but we will not give up on our children.