ASU+GSV 2026 Summit | Tuesday, April 14, 2026, 11:30 am-12:15 pm | Sponsored Partner Programming
Speakers
- Abigail Hollingsworth, Bank of America
- Claire Zau, GSV Ventures
- Jermall Wright, Little Rock School District
- Zach Hrynowski, Gallup
- Zach Hrynowski, Gallup
Key Takeaways
- Former Rhode Island Governor and U.S.
- Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and former Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza discuss how Democrats lost their once-dominant 26-point advantage on voter trust in education, and what political leaders must do to reclaim it.
- The conversation draws parallels between Raimondo's politically costly but successful pension reform in Rhode Island and the challenge of education reform, arguing that elected officials must prioritize outcomes over reelection.
- They highlight devastating statistics -- only 2.4% of Providence high school seniors proficient in math, 80% of Detroit fourth graders reading below basic level -- as evidence that systemic change requires bold, bipartisan leadership willing to evaluate policies on merit rather than partisan origin.
Notable Quotes
"Don't consider success being popular or getting reelected. Consider success as getting the job done for the people you serve. And I would say especially the least advantaged, because they're the ones with the least voice."
ā Gina Raimondo
"Today in Providence, where I was mayor, only 2.4 percent of high school seniors in traditional high schools can do math at grade level... At a certain point, you've got to ask yourself, what are we doing here, folks?"
ā Jorge Elorza
"Man, if I were a mother and that were my only option, I'd say blow that thing up, too. So, but I believe in government."
ā Gina Raimondo
"Check your politics, and just go with the merit of the idea. If this is an idea that will help the people you serve, I think you have to take a really hard look at it."
ā Gina Raimondo
"Every American deserves a chance to see them and their children in this economy prospering, and it's our job to paint that picture for them and make it a reality."
ā Gina Raimondo
Full Transcript
Secretary, good afternoon. It's great to be here with you. Good afternoon, everybody. It's great to be here.
Secretary, I'd love to just jump right into it. Go for it. Jorge and I are friends. He was mayor of Providence the same time I was the governor, and we always got along.
So it's such a pleasure for me to be here with him. Yeah, it was great to work together, Governor. So 10 years ago, Democrats used to have a 26 point advantage over Republicans on voter trust on education. We were clearly the party of education.
Today, depending on which poll or what you look at, either that has narrowed or we're underwater. How did that happen? And how do we get back on our front foot? Yeah, thank you.
Thank you for the question. Listening to those statistics, it just makes my heart hurt. Neither of us would be here but for good education. And for that matter, good government services.
And I don't know how you can be a Democrat and not be for opportunity, which starts with education, leveling the playing field, which is education, and having an effective, efficient government, which is public schools working. So, you know, how did we get here? You probably know we were chatting in the back and you were kind of educating me. How did we get here?
I think it's a combination of things. You know, maybe we've spent too much time just opposing the other side's ideas, even if they're good ideas. And look, as an elected official having stood for a number of elections, including hard primaries, sometimes it's hard to be a reformer because you're afraid of progressives or teachers unions or public unions coming after you in a primary. And I think that's a crime.
You ought to do what you think is right for the people you serve, especially the children you serve, without regard for whether you're going to get reelected. Absolutely. Amen to that, Governor. So when I talk to people across the country and your name comes up, they always mention the work that you did around pensions.
You are literally famous for what you've done around pensions. Folks here might not be fully familiar with what you've done around pensions. I'd love to ask you to share a little bit about what you did and how you did it. But even more interestingly, I see some parallels between taking on this big, thorny challenge, which is pension reform, and big, thorny challenge, which is ed reform.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You guys are probably wondering why we're talking about pensions at an education conference. But it's interesting what the mayor says. I do think there are parallels.
So very briefly, my first thing I ran for was state treasurer in Rhode Island. It's an elected office. When I became treasurer, I inherited a pension system which was a mess, insofar as it was deeply underfunded. And I worried so much that it was going to run out of money.
My kids were in Barton Gregorian, a local public school at the time. Their first grade teacher was in her mid-30s. She was amazing. And every day I'd drop off, I would look at her and feel guilty because I knew that 30 years from now, when she needed her pension, it was possible she wouldn't get it or she would get half of it.
And so I led a huge effort to fix the pension system. And it was brutal politics. And in fact, it's quite similar, I think, to education, though you can check me. You guys are the experts.
The actual solution was not hard. The math of it wasn't that hard. We knew what had to be done. We had to raise the retirement age.
We had to change the benefit design. The math, write down the solution, not hard. Politics, leadership, very hard. Because politics being the way they are, when I came forward with reform, which I thought was in the interest of state workers, firefighters, police officers, and teachers, all of the folks who led those unions came after me pretty viciously.
In fact, you know, it's the same playbook. You know, I'm going to throw everything we have against you. You'll never get reelected. Yada, yada.
And it was brutally hard. So I took the case to the people. And I said, this is an everybody issue. This is not business versus labor.
This is not the Chamber of Commerce versus labor unions. This is an everybody issue. It is in everybody's interest to have a well-functioning government. And by the way, as a Democrat, as a Democrat, I stood for governments that work.
I stood for pensions being there when people needed it. I stood for governments that balance budgets and weren't bankrupt. In the end, we got it done. We got it done by huge margins.
It was very popular. And today, the system is well-funded. But it was a it was very tough politics. And as you well know, I had a brutal primary for governor.
But I won. But the thing is, I didn't really care if I won. You got to do the right thing. And I think a similar thing is at stake here.
You all probably know what has to happen in K through 12 to make it better, to be there for the students who need it and deserve it. So we got to get to the business of doing it, having the courage and leadership and just get it done. Because these kids don't have any other options. That's right.
So I want to I want to get back to this. Really, what you're getting at is political leadership. You have to make it a priority. I'm sure you you must have had advisors or at least trusted people in the community telling you, don't take on pension reform.
It's a political dead end. Number of pitfalls. You know, the similarities are all there with education as well. Let me throw out some crazy.
They boggle my mind statistics. Today in Providence, where I was mayor, only 2.4 percent of high school seniors in traditional high schools can do math at grade level. Crazy. In Detroit today, 80 percent of fourth graders are reading at a below basic level.
Below basic is the lowest level. 80 percent. At a certain point, you've got to ask yourself, what are we doing here, folks? And the political incentives, it said don't align for electives to take on education and education reform. But you proved that wrong with pension reform.
And I'd love to just hear your thoughts on the kind of political leadership it takes. And, you know, we have 36 gubernatorial elections this year. You've served your time, your two terms as governor. How would you advise them to lead on education?
Yeah, those statistics, it's so tough. As a mother, as someone who whose life was changed by education, like those are heartbreaking. And, you know, I know it's heartbreaking. And every one of us should just ask ourselves, what are we doing wrong and how do we make it better?
My advice to governors and any elected official is always the same, which is don't consider success being popular or getting reelected. Consider success as getting the job done for the people you serve. And I would say especially the least advantaged, because they're the ones with the least voice. Now, yes, everyone told me I was crazy.
My own family told me I was crazy. And they weren't wrong. Truthfully, they were not wrong. What I have done, not just with pensions, so many things in my political career, was I guess bad politics.
It made it much harder to get elected governor or reelected. But I guess for myself, I didn't consider success being popular or being elected or reelected. And I give that same advice to governors. I was chair of the Democratic Governors Association for a while.
I was a senior person in the National Governors Association. It's like having these positions is a short time of having the power, influence, ability to get big things done. Don't waste that opportunity on trying to make yourself popular. Use the opportunity to be as bold as possible to make as much change as possible in the lives of the people you serve.
And talking about being bold, you know, it's often said that the definition of political courage is telling your side they're wrong when you think they're wrong and agreeing with the other side when you think that they're right. And, you know, there was a recent new federal law that was passed, a federal scholarship tax credit program. It was part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. And so it requires governors to opt in.
All but one Republican governor has opted in. And on the Democratic side, one slash two maybe Democratic governors have opted in. And so we have this same dynamic. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the scholarship tax credit program.
What are your general thoughts about it? And any thoughts about whether Democratic governors should opt in? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, again, I don't know all the details.
And from what I understand, it's still being going through the rulemaking process. So I'm not going to opine on this precise details of this policy. But here's what I think. Like, in what we know in Providence, man, if I could have had more money go into after school initiatives, tutoring, coaching, and all the amazing nonprofits that did that work, if there were a program that I as governor could have signed up for to enable that, I'm pretty sure I would have done it in a minute, regardless of whose idea it was.
And, you know, I was sorry, for those of you who don't know me, I was governor between 2000, I was elected in 2014. And I served until 2021, when I had to leave to go to the cabinet, or when I was honored to leave to go to the And so I was there in in, you know, Medicaid expansion. And I remember so clearly, none of the Republican governors at the time took the Medicaid expansion. Because it was Obama's idea.
So who lost the people in their state? So and it drove me crazy at that time. So I guess what I think is, we have to get to a place, when, especially when the stakes are so high, education, healthcare, check your politics, and just go with the merit of the idea. If this is an idea that will help the people you serve, I think you have to take a really hard look at it.
And if you decide that it's the right thing to do for the people of your state, and will deliver benefit, etc. Even if it's tough sledding for your politics, I think you have an obligation to do it. Governor, you've, of course, served as governor at the state level, you've served as Secretary of Treasury, Secretary of Commerce in the Biden administration, you have a unique perspective, not only on democratic policymaking, but on the politics of it all as well. There's been a lot that has been written over the past year and change about the democratic brand, how we've gone wrong, etc.
There's a lot that we need to work on. But from your perspective, I'd be very interested, whether it's education or beyond education, what makes you optimistic, and what is making you hopeful about this moment that will either rejuvenate the democratic brand, or where you see opportunities for real policy innovation to move impactful policies forward? Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, this conference makes me hopeful.
I came to this event a dozen years ago, and it was a fraction of what it is today. So this, this is exciting. So many entrepreneurs, new ideas, etc. It's awesome.
I guess when I think about, say, education or everything, what you do is awesome. The problem is, it's too small of a part of the system. The reform, the innovation, the emphasis on effectiveness and outcomes is terrific. But that needs to be the system, not a small piece of innovation on the side of the system.
And the system is run by government and politicians. And that's why I would encourage any one of you who are crazy enough to try it, to run for office, because we have to take what you have, the urgency, the creativity, the focus on outcomes, the willingness to be different, and, you know, put that into the way the whole system is run. K through 12, post-secondary, etc. And when I listen to the statistics that you said, and by the way, it's different in higher ed, but, I mean, you know, 40% of people who go to college don't graduate, they have loans, no degree.
We need major change. And without being too political, you know, I have a lot of problems with the current occupant of the White House, but his message fundamentally was, like, blow it all up, right? The system is the problem, drain the swamp. Well, you can't really blame some people for that resonating with them when 98% of the kids in the public school system that you just referenced are below grade level.
Man, if I were a mother and that were my only option, I'd say blow that thing up, too. So, but I believe in government. I would not be here without the GI Bill that sent my father to college, the only one in our immigrant family who got there, public buses, public schools, public libraries. So, no matter how tough it is, you have to, now is the moment, in this country, with these statistics, with this divisiveness, America rises to the challenge in times of crisis, and we have one now.
So rise to that challenge, forget about your own popularity, and push forward with urgency, because in these moments, it is our time to reinvent at the whole, you know, the whole system level, so everybody has a chance to be successful. So, we have about a minute left, and I've always been, like, a member of the Gina Raimondo fan club, and that's because you don't just walk, you know, talk the talk, you walk the walk, and she and I had lunch, this is after we had just gotten reelected, to talk about education, and, you know, we talked about how do we turn around the Providence schools. I threw out an idea to her that was just way bigger than the conversation at the time, and instantly, she was like, I'm in, let's do this, and we jumped in, and we worked on it together, and I think that you're so right, Secretary, that it is about systems change, we need to think bigger, and this is a moment for big ideas. So, one last big idea question, so a lot of folks are looking at 2028, and there's going to be a lot happening in politics, so if you were someone that was thinking about the future, where do you see, you know, opportunities for Democrats to resonate even deeper with average voters, or not average voters, but everyday voters that we've disconnected from?
You've got to meet people where they are and speak to what they worry about every minute of every day, not what you think is interesting, and what they're worried about every minute of every day is can't afford my house, can't afford the gas, can't afford the groceries, can't afford my kid's college tuition, so what are we going to do about that? Jobs, jobs, jobs. Is AI going to take my job? Why am I paying all this money for my kid to go to college?
Will they get a job? Every American deserves a chance to see them and their children in this economy prospering, and it's our job to paint that picture for them and make it a reality. Great. Thank you.
Thank you.
This transcript was put together by our friend Philippos Savvides from Arizona State University. The original transcript and additional summit resources are available on GitHub. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.