Vice President Kamala Harris visited two programs in New Haven, Connecticut, on Friday to highlight the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan.
Harris was welcomed to the West Haven Child Development Center by 5-year-old Dalya and her class. She made time to sit cross-legged to take questions from Dalya and her class about being Vice President.
“Here’s the thing. You can be anything you want to be,” Harris said.
“I want to be everything,” Dalya said.
Harris made her stop here and earlier at the Boys and Girls Club of New Haven to listen to local educators talk about reopening schools.
Harris said she’s particularly concerned about the mental health of poor children who have been out-of-school during the pandemic. She said that’s why the American Rescue Plan includes an expanded child tax credit.
“So that we can improve the well being of our children, understanding that is not only about their education health, it is also about their mental health, it's about their physical health,” Harris said.
Harris was joined by the U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, Connecticut’s former education commissioner. He said the cooperation of educators is needed to help implement the plan.
“In order for this American Rescue Plan to really make the difference that we want it to make we have to make sure that we are talking to one another,” Cardona said.
Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro said the plan has programs to lift many New Haven families out of poverty.
“And one is the child tax credit and its expansion that will work for working poor and middle class families lifting one third of children in this country out of poverty,” DeLauro said.
DeLauro spoke just before Harris’s first stop at the Boys and Girls Club of New Haven.
