1

When I first had the idea for starting the Education Foundation and making Gloucester’s schools among the best in the state, people said, "No Way! What are you nuts? Too many people in Gloucester don’t have money, are just scraping by, are working two jobs–and many don’t care so much about their kids getting a good education."

Well, you know what? I think that’s a bunch of junk. No–I know that’s a bunch of junk.

I know because of where I came from. My mom’s mother was a housemaid and her father was a mechanic. Mom worked for years as a welder and later as a bookkeeper. My dad’s father died when he was an infant and he grew up in an orphanage until he was eighteen.

Our neighborhood was made up of construction workers, truck drivers, and men and women in other trades. Both my parents worked full–time jobs, as did many of the others around us.

And you know what? The public schools where we lived were the best in the state. That’s because the hard–working parents who came home absolutely bone–tired every night insisted on it. They insisted on school budgets having enough money to pay for the best teachers, librarians in all the schools, music and art and language classes at early grades and lots of other extra curricular activities.

Our parents knew what they wanted – and it was the best education for their kids. They saw excellent schools as the single most important thing they could give their children. They weren’t going to work that hard for anything less.

2

The second story is about a remarkable woman named Alicia who cleans my office. Alicia was a schoolteacher in Honduras before immigrating to the United States. Five days a week she operates a small day care out of her home, and at night and on weekends, she cleans offices and other people’s houses.

Each week, Alicia’s girlfriends buy lottery tickets with the extra money they make. Alicia goes with her friends, but watches, then puts the money into a jar when she gets home for her kids education, for them to take extra classes after school, and for music lessons.

One daughter now is in dental school, and the other works at Harvard.

Alicia says about her daughters, "They are my lottery tickets! Their lives are so rich! They are so happy! Each time I see them I feel like I have won the lottery!"