Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., will be visiting the Krieger Child Care Center on campus today as part of her campaign for the Democratic presidential bid.
Clinton plans to discuss her platform for early childhood education, and is also expected to announce that she has received the endorsement of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
The endorsement is expected to be politically significant, as Villaraigosa has recently been a prominent figure in the Democratic Party and may help Clinton garner support from Latino voters.
Kyle Kleckner, president of Bruin Democrats, said Clinton will be unveiling a plan for universal preschool education at the press conference, which is expected to draw high security. Though Kleckner was not certain what her detailed plans are for early childhood education, he said he is excited for a politician with Clinton’s experience to come to campus and expand on her different platforms.
“Clinton has spent years as the first lady and she has spent over six years in the Senate. She’s extremely smart in regards to policy issues in the country today,” Kleckner said.
Gay Macdonald, the executive director of early care and education at Krieger, said she believes it is important for candidates to begin emphasizing early childhood education, since it is during that period that the child goes through a tremendous amount of social and neurological development.
“We feel like it’s very important for the community to focus their attention on the needs of young children and the importance of providing high quality early education. It’s an important time of life that hasn’t really been given much attention before,” Macdonald said.
She also added that, given the support Clinton has shown toward education for young children in the past, her coming to the campus as a presidential candidate reflects on quality of early childhood education that UCLA provides as well.
“We’re delighted that she would want to come to our place at UCLA. It allows UCLA to be showcased as a place where people are paying attention to the needs of young children and families,” Macdonald said.
According to her official campaign Web site, as part of her platform Clinton also plans to provide affordable and accessible health care, as well as promote energy independence and improve means of combating global warming.
With regard to foreign policy, Clinton hopes to create a plan to end the war in Iraq and to restore America’s role in the world as a respected leader.