Background reading:

• “‘Artificial Timelines Put Parents on a Constrained Roadmap to Make Decisions About Their Life’: Rep. Hillary Scholten on Faith and Preserving Choice” — Livia Follet

Transcript:

00:00:03.2 Michele Goodwin:

Welcome to Fifteen Minutes of Feminism, part of our On the Issues with Michele Goodwin at Ms. magazine platform. As you know, we report, rebel and we tell it just like it is. And on Fifteen Minutes of Feminism, we count the minutes in our own feminist terms. 

And in this episode, I’m so delighted to be joined by Representative Hillary Scholten. It’s as we are back to school, and with matters of gun safety and policies that benefit mothers and families that are really on our minds. These are the kinds of things that matter, at home, in schools, in Congress and our nation, and as we are gearing up for the 2024 elections, these are major issues this election season. How can we ensure that children and families aren’t just safe, but that they can thrive? 

Now, helping us to think through these issues and to set the record straight, is Representative Hillary Scholten. She is a member of Congress who serves Michigan’s Third Congressional District. Now sit back, take a listen and enjoy this episode.

00:00:40.5 Michele Goodwin:

Representative Scholten, thank you so much for joining us for this Fifteen Minutes of Feminism, where we count the minutes in our own feminist terms. Thank you for joining.

00:01:11.0 Hillary Scholten:

That’s fantastic. It’s such an honor to be here. Thank you so much for having me.

00:01:27.1 Michele Goodwin:

We always do a back-to-school episode, and it’s a real honor and privilege to do this with you, especially given that one of the issues that has been so. Near and dear to the work that you’ve been doing is on gun violence. Can you give our listeners a reason why?

00:02:01.9 Hillary Scholten:

Yeah. You know, I’m the first mom in history to represent my part of the state in Congress, and that means bringing a keen attention to details that are facing the next generation, facing our kids, and unfortunately, we live in an age when gun violence is the number one killer of children, of individuals under 21 years of age. It is remarkable. I don’t know why this is not a, you know, grind-everything-to-a-halt-and-fix-this moment in our country, but it should be.

You know, we live in a part of the country where everyday gun violence is also plaguing our communities. I lost a neighbor two years ago to gun violence, and you know, my kids have had to duck and cover at our neighborhood pool. You know, they’ve been undergoing school drills for active shooter situations since they were in pre-K, and so, this is an issue that impacts their lives, and it impacts our lives, making sure that we are creating a safe and livable world for our children is a top priority for me.

00:03:27.4 Michele Goodwin:

This is a time in which we’re seen a recent assassination attempt on a presidential candidate, and as you say, it’s a moment in which this has come so close to you, a neighbor, the kinds of matters that your kids have had to contend with. What do you think is on the minds of moms, in 2024, as their kids are back to school?

00:03:57.7 Hillary Scholten:

Well, I know it is top of mind for so many moms as they think about, you know, what the new schoolyear brings, and you know, unfortunately, here in Michigan, we’ve had not one, but two school shootings in recent years. Oxford High School and Michigan State University. Higher level, but schools nonetheless, and I think, you know, that really underscores the issue about even though, relative, perhaps, to the number of days that most students experience an education setting from being shot at themselves.

Gun violence is still an everyday reality for so many students, because the trauma of gun violence in schools is not only just the incident, but the reverberating impact, the mental health impact, the trauma that so many other students feel, because they know it’s a reality. You know, I’ll never forget, after the Uvalde shooting, I had a fourth grader, and we made the choice to talk to the kids about it. You know, we don’t always insert national trauma into our everyday conversation.

But my son was going to get up and go back to school the next day, and we knew that he might likely hear about it from some friends, and we wanted to be able to give context to him and you know, provide this information in a space and reassure him, and I’ll never forget telling his sweet, angelic face, you know, this news, and just watching him process it and take it in, and he said, you know, Mom, we practice for these kinds of things in school. I never really knew that it was real, and you know, just the way that it changed his perception of what could be.

Last week, we had a Giffords event in our district. Gabby Giffords, obviously, a huge gun violence prevention advocate, and a young woman shared her story about how trauma at the MSU shooting had impacted her own life because her brother was there. Knowing, you know, students at Oxford, just knowing that these things could happen, right? Whenever there’s a loud noise or a scuttle, you know, students are thinking, is it happening to me? We don’t have to live like this. You know, and I raised my hand to run, in large part, because we don’t have to, and we won’t, if I have anything to do about it.

00:06:42.0 Michele Goodwin:

Well, this is so important because, as your son noted, there are children who are already practicing for this, and so, there’s a way in which it’s become so normalized, as normal as recess, right? As normal as line up in the hallway and go to art class, if art classes are in the kid’s school, which they’re in many.

00:07:02.7 Hillary Scholten:

Not in every school.

00:07:05.3 Michele Goodwin:

But this deep normalization of trauma, which that you’re entering the conversation even after your son has had to practice what to do about this.

00:07:16.8 Hillary Scholten:

Yeah. Exactly. Exactly, and you know, we’re just allowed, you know, students are young as…I mean, they practice in pre-school. Students as young as 4, you know, 5 years old, kindergarteners, you know, thinking what am I going to do if someone comes into this safe place? You know, my tambourine circle and starts shooting at me. It’s just unconscionable.

00:07:39.3 Michele Goodwin:

Well, when you think about it these days, then, probably for better, but worse for our nation in a way, you know, backpacks now with special safety features, such that if someone enters a classroom and begins shooting at a child before the backpack goes down, then, perhaps, the backpack will minimize the impact, and of course, it’s hard to minimize impact given the power and force or the kind of weapons that are so accessible.

Here’s what you’ve been quoted as saying. In the past three years, there have been at least 75 fatal shootings in Grand Rapids, and 32% of people live hear a shooting in the city of Grand Rapids, and you’ve said that that is too many, and my goodness, isn’t it? Too many have experienced the horror of gun violence even if they, themselves, were not on the other end of the firearm. That’s pretty chilling and a pretty chilling observation that certainly has to be on the minds of parents as the schoolyear opens.

00:08:55.2 Hillary Scholten:

Yeah. Absolutely, and you know, I was mentioning earlier, you know, it’s not just the gun violence that…you know, these school shootings that get national attention, you know, Uvalde and Oxford. It is the everyday gun violence, as well. You know, if your kids are walking home from school or going over to a friend’s house afterwards where, you know, guns might not be safely stored, it’s a question of, you know, how and in what proximity, and individuals living with these dangerous weapons, sometimes weapons of war, when you know, we’re talking about high-capacity magazines, et cetera. It’s too much.

00:09:39.6 Michele Goodwin:

That’s right, and certainly, thinking about the Supreme Court in this last year’s term with bump stocks being something that can’t be regulated in the way in which legislation has proposed is also quite disconcerting. So, I want to pivot just a bit. So, you’ve not just been the first woman, but the first mother to represent your district, as you mentioned, and so, you know, many of our listeners would want to know, does being a mother impact your policy priorities? And in fact, it’s a question for everyone, as there are more women who are coming into political power, and the backdrop had always been that it was a liability for women to be in positions of power, and yet bring with them the fact that they are a mother or a caregiver. How do you see that?

00:10:40.7 Hillary Scholten:

Oh, I mean, absolutely not. You know, it is an added benefit to the work that I do. You know, when we’re talking about, you know, the things like this massive public health crisis of gun violence, you know, when we’re talking about healthcare more generally, where women and mothers are the number one…overwhelmingly, by, like, 70 to 80% majority, the number one decision-makers on healthcare-related issues in the home. You know, it’s incumbent that we have women, mothers in positions of power, who are making these decisions, and you know, I serve on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee in Congress, Dr. Goodwin, and you know, I will be the first one to say our roads and bridges are also women’s issues. You know, if we…

00:11:35.2 Michele Goodwin:

They certainly are.

00:11:36.4 Hillary Scholten:

Break down on the way to work or to get our kid from school, that impacts our ability to provide for our family. So, national security issues are women’s issues, are mothers’ issues, as well. So, you know, having the perspective of women and mothers and caretakers in general, it makes such a difference. You know, I bring to this work an urgency, right? It’s one thing to read a policy briefing on how, you know, children are just increasingly being exposed to everyday gun violence and gun violence in their schools.

It’s another thing, you know, to sit around the kitchen table and talk to your fourth grader about what the most recent school shooting means. Talk to them about the drills that they’re having in their schools. You know, talk to them about the active shooter warning that happened, you know, while they were at the pool with their friends. It brings a real sense of urgency and personalization to the issue that is so needed right now.

00:12:41.1 Michele Goodwin:

So, you’ve paid close attention to, and have been an enormous advocate for, caregiving and normalizing, bringing forward how members of Congress understand caregiving. So, I’m wondering about, then, what kinds of investments in caregiving need to be made in order to support parents this fall? What should, both at the federal level and the state level, what should be done to give the support to families that they need?

00:13:16.0 Hillary Scholten:

Well, I think we’ve really set a great standard here in the state of Michigan with our Tri-Share program, which is a three-part program, where the state, the employer, and the employee split the cost of childcare. I would love to see a program like this nationalized so that, you know, the entire country can take advantage of it, but it’s been hugely successful. Lowers the cost and creates opportunities to expand childcare.

One thing I’ve personally been doing is advocating for more funds to come to our district, to expand the childcare slots. We know that there are tens of thousands of needed childcare slots in my district alone. That’s not even statewide, and it is a huge, huge difference. I also think one of the things we really need to be focusing on when we’re talking about childcare is not only affordability, but quality. You know, as we face one of the lowest unemployment rates, the largest need for workers in the country right now, you know, we’ve largely seen parents really giving it a second look.

When they’re thinking about going back to work, if they don’t have quality childcare for their kids…you know, as a parent, again, I know this personally. You’re not just going to leave your child in any situation, and going back to work has to be worth it. So, as we think about expanding these slots and making it more affordable, we also have to think about the quality, and we know that early childhood education, early exposure to sounds and reading, even in those infant ears, can make a lifetime difference for the learning of our children.

00:15:07.3 Michele Goodwin:

You are so absolutely right about that. So, as I begin to bring our 15 minutes together…and as I said, we count these in feminist minutes, I do want to turn to the fact that you’ve been named one of the most bipartisan members of Congress, and I’m curious about what that means to you. Why is bipartisanship important to you?

00:15:36.2 Hillary Scholten:

Well, you know, I don’t know, largely, where your listeners come from in the country, but where I come from, I serve a district that is deeply divided. We’re roughly, you know, 50/50 Republicans and Democrats, and historically, have been more Republican than Democrat. That call of a representative is not to serve your own individual agenda, but to serve your constituents, and so, making sure that I am addressing the needs of my constituents, reaching across the aisle when and where possible.

And I will also say, I think a big part of service today and doing effective bipartisanship is also knowing where to draw the line. You know, there’s no compromise when it comes to whether or not women get to make their own choices about their own bodies, their own healthcare decisions. That’s not a compromise issue, but the level of funding that we might spend on our roads when we get to the surface reauthorization next year, you know, let’s have a robust discussion and talk about the best ways to use those funds.

You know, we don’t control the House of Representatives right now. The only way to legislate is if you are finding a partner across the aisle to get things done, and I think we, in this country, have gotten too far away from the importance of actually delivering and making our government work for the American people, and Congress has just become a place where it’s too easy to politically grandstand, and that doesn’t serve my constituents, and it doesn’t serve our country.

00:17:27.2 Michele Goodwin:

And in fact, you’ve called it…you’ve said this Congress, with an agenda of chaos, has actually made it more challenging to cross party lines, but that you’re finding opportunities to do just that, and you say that knowing when to give in and when to stand up and hold the line is hard, but it’s values-driven work, and it’s something that your constituents have certainly found that you do successfully. So, we come to the end of this time, and it’s gone by way too quickly. So, I am very much hoping…

00:18:04.4 Hillary Scholten:

…minutes. Not 15 minutes.

00:18:07.9 Michele Goodwin:

I know, right? And I’m hoping that we can do this again, but before I let you go, we ask on every episode about a silver lining, because, in these times, there is so much chaos, and for many communities, there is a lot of darkness, a lot that they’re trying to hold onto a lift up for their families, and so, a silver lining really helps us to think about where we can go forward. So, I’m wondering, in light of the bipartisanship that you move forward, in light of the issues that you’ve been caring about, from curbing gun violence, to protecting families, and promoting caregiving. What do you see as a silver lining in these times?

00:18:57.2 Hillary Scholten:

You know, I’m so encouraged every day when I’m back in my district and talking to people who are engaged. I think, when we think about the future of our country and our democracy, it’s going to take principled leaders. My friend Elissa Slotkin talks about this a lot. Principles leaders and engaged constituents. I am working hard to be that type of responsive and principled leader every single day, but the engaged constituent part is a challenge. In an age of, you know, 24/7 news cycles, you know, tidbits online, it’s hard for people to get the information that they need to engage, but I see it. I see it every day, and I am so inspired by the people who are paying attention and ready to help build a more just, livable, and sustainable world for our children.

00:19:59.1 Michele Goodwin:

Representative Hillary Scholten, thank you so very much for joining me for 15 Minutes of Feminism on our Ms. Studios platform. Thank you.

00:20:10.2 Hillary Scholten:

Thank you so much.