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Democratic governor candidate, Kennedy says higher ed helps economies thrive

Democratic candidate for Illinois Governor Chris Kennedy stopped in Galesburg Tuesday night to speak on Knox College’s campus but first he stopped by for a conversation with WGIL.

Kennedy is a former Chairman of the Board of Trustees for the University of Illinois.

Higher education is crucial to the Illinois’ future in Kennedy’s view.

He says parts of the country that have thriving economies are often driven by higher education pointing to Austin, Akron, Austin, Boston, New York and Silicon Valley.

But the Democrat says that higher ed has been under attack by the administration of Gov. Bruce Rauner, “I just think that if we have the best educated kids in America, we’ll have the best economy in the world.”

Kennedy’s interview was taped the day before the budget address Rauner gave on Wednesday but Kennedy says he was dismayed that the governor never mentioned infrastructure in his State of the State address two weeks prior.

He says that it’s the governor’s job to reach out to the federal government to secure resources for projects.

Kennedy says that Rauner has not done this, leaving it up to leaders on the local level to have to work with Washington directly.

The Democrat also took aim at the Governor’s handling of the state budget impasse that left Illinois without a spending plan for over two years.

Kennedy calls it “immoral” to take a “state government budget problem” and make it the state’s economy’s “problem” also.

When asked if it concerns him that Rauner has singled out fellow Democratic hopeful J.B. Pritzker he compared the two.

Kennedy says “money talks, it doesn’t listen” and adds sometimes that talk is “really ugly.”

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