Sen. Edwards Announces White House Run

AP | 1/02/03 | REBECCA MILLER

[kattracks]

RALEIGH, N.C., Jan 02, 2003 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- Democratic Sen. John Edwards will run for president in 2004, telling guests at a party at his home Wednesday he will form an exploratory committee.

The first-term senator from North Carolina told about 200 friends he will announce his plans publicly Thursday, said Walter Dellinger, a former U.S. solicitor general who attended the New Year's Day party.

Edwards' guests gathered in his back yard while the senator thanked them for their support during his time in the Senate and in "what I'm going to do next."

As he spoke, a loud cheer went up.

"John was talking about where he wants to lead the country," Ed Turlington, a former state Democratic party executive director, said afterward in describing the announcement. "He asked for our support. Our answer was yes."

Edwards' announcement gives him the jump on several of his colleagues in Congress who are also expected to join the Democratic field in 2004.

Vermont Gov. Howard Dean and Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry are already running, and associates expect Missouri Rep. Dick Gephardt to announce he's running within the next week.

Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman is leaning toward a run, though he hasn't set a timetable for his decision. Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle is still talking with supporters with a plan to decide by mid-January, and Florida Sen. Bob Graham has said he will decide this month.

Edwards, 49, a millionaire former trial lawyer, has spent months making the rounds at Democratic functions in Iowa, New Hampshire and elsewhere.

Standing with his youngest children, 2-year-old son Jack and 4-year-old Emma Claire, Edwards said before the party started that his family was uppermost in his mind as he considered whether to run.

"I've been thinking about North Carolina and the nation and what effect it's going to have on my family," he said.

He is scheduled to appear on NBC's "Today" show Thursday morning to make his announcement official. He also has two fund-raisers scheduled for Saturday in Raleigh.

Edwards would be up for Senate re-election in 2004, a factor that had to be weighed in making a decision on the presidential race.

Edwards' move toward a run has drawn a lot of attention. He was an early hit with Democratic activists who saw him as telegenic and able to connect with voters.

The last three Democratic presidents - Lyndon Johnson of Texas, Jimmy Carter of Georgia and Bill Clinton of Arkansas - have been from the South.

Edwards grew up as the son of a textile mill employee, born in South Carolina but spending his teenage years in Robbins, N.C. He became a successful trial lawyer in Raleigh, winning personal injury cases against big companies and amassing a fortune of $14 million.

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Associated Press writers Ron Fournier in Washington and Scott Mooneyham in Raleigh contributed to this report.

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On the Net:

Edwards' Senate Web site: http://edwards.senate.gov

By REBECCA MILLER Associated Press Writer

Copyright 2003 Associated Press, All rights reserved

[kcvl]

The firm was founded in 1993 as Edwards & Kirby, L.L.P., with David F. Kirby, John R. Edwards and C. Mark Holt as attorneys. William B. Bystrynski joined the firm in 1994, and Isaac L. Thorp joined the firm in 1998. The firm was renamed Kirby & Holt, L.L.P. when John R. Edwards began his service in the United States Senate after being elected in 1998.

[kcvl]

What do John Edwards and Britney Spears have in common? Oops, he did it again! He made you believe you're more than just friends.
7-03-01

Press Here

[kcvl]

John Edwards almost became Al Gore's running mate in 2000

As a popular Southern Democrat, Edwards has the potential to break the Republican lock on the South that cost Al Gore every Southern state, despite his being a Southerner himself.

a GOP consultant with North Carolina ties, readily concedes that "Edwards has got a lot of Bill Clinton in him---without the ethical or moral problems."


In the 2000 election cycle, Democrats received 98 percent of the nearly $15 million that trial lawyers gave to candidates,

Edwards did get into law school at the University of North Carolina, where he met his wife, Elizabeth, and his future law partner, David Kirby.

Upon graduating, he moved to Tennessee to join former Republican Governor Lamar Alexander's law firm

In 1981, he returned to North Carolina, specifically to the politically well-connected Raleigh law firm of Wade Smith, a former Democratic Party state chairman, where he started a rapidly successful civil litigation division. He won his first multi-million dollar verdict in 1984, which he followed the next year with a $6.5 million verdict for a 6-year-old girl who'd suffered brain damage at Pitt Memorial Hospital---at the time, the largest verdict in state history. Edwards left in 1993 to start his own firm with Kirby.


More than half his cases were medical malpractice suits. Many involved infants born with brain damage or other serious conditions that entail a lifetime of expensive medical care. Edwards also won cases against hospitals, cities, and corporations.


In 1990, he was the youngest member inducted into The Inner Circle of Advocates, an invitation-only group of the nation's top 100 trial lawyers. By the mid-1990s, Edwards had become legendary.

It is said that insurance companies would suddenly become interested in settling when Edwards' name was added to a plaintiff's team. Edwards won a $7 million verdict for the parents of a 16-year-old who'd killed himself the day after being dismissed from a psychiatric hospital, an incredibly difficult case to win, Dayton says, because in North Carolina the plaintiff must prove that the entire burden of negligence lies with the defendant. In 1997, Edwards successfully sued a doctor for $23 million on behalf of the parents of a baby severely brain damaged by oxygen deprivation during labor.

a close friend and fellow attorney says that, before running for Senate, Edwards had a team of doctors and nurses privately screen his record to make sure that no case he'd brought to trial could be considered frivolous:

Edwards' opening speech at the Association of Trial Lawyers of America's annual convention in Montreal vividly captured the odd mixture of professional pride and paranoia that distinguishes the modern trial bar. "For 20 years I fought for the rights and dignity of ordinary people, just like everyone in this room," Edwards told a standing-room-only crowd. "I make no apologies for what I spent my life doing. I am proud of what I did: leveling the playing field." The convention buzzed with excitement over the Ford/Firestone suits, which all agreed was a public relations coup, and the new avenues for lawsuits that Edwards' patients' rights bill would create. There was much talk of "helping the little guy." Edwards left the podium to shouts of "Edwards for president!" And just before the convention's awards luncheon---at which no fewer than three trial lawyers' groups presented awards to the attorneys who sued Firestone---one of the lawyers paused to read an invocation: "You created us, Lord, not to accumulate treasure for ourselves, but to do your work." Then the conventioneers split up to learn the newest ways to sue over hip implants, misdiagnosed breast cancer, recalled drugs, herbal remedies, substandard nursing homes, pesticide poisoning, and train derailments.


Edwards himself won't discuss what or how he charges clients. Like other personal-injury lawyers, he worked on a contingency basis, whereby he earned nothing if he lost, but stood to receive between 30 and 40 percent of the award if he won. But he's never accepted that such information should be part of the public record. He has boasted---and why not?---of winning large sums for deserving plaintiffs ($152.4 million in 63 cases, by one count), but refuses to reveal his own take. Disclosure statements filed when he ran for the Senate established his net worth to be somewhere between $13.7 million and $38.6 million.

[kcvl]

In 1997, a botched childbirth resulted in a state record $23.5 million award, setting off a runaway train of jury malpractice awards in North Carolina. John Edwards was the plaintiff's counsel. He broke his own record that same year with a $30 million award.

Some doctors and hospitals have found a solution to insurance costs by requiring patients to sign waivers submitting any claims to private arbitrators. But trial lawyer lobbyists are trying to nix that remedy, too, and have begun to push Congress for anti-arbitration legislation.

This lobby is closely tied to Edwards. According to the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call, 86 percent of the $1.39 million raised by Edwards' recently formed political action committee came from fellow trial lawyers. Roll Call writes, "No other Congressional leader or potential presidential contender has such a heavy reliance on a single industry for their leadership PAC."

Additionally, Edwards was a chief co-sponsor of the "Patients Bill of Rights" legislation. The Edwards-sponsored version of the bill would have permitted patients to sue health care providers for punitive damages in federal court — allowing lawyers to circumvent state court caps on punitive damages like those enacted in North Carolina. The Employment Policy Foundation estimated at the time that the Edwards bill would result in 56,000 new lawsuits per year, a $16 billion increase in health care costs, and nine million more Americans with no health care coverage at all.

Trial lawyers, of course, loved it.

Edwards' background wouldn't be so important to his presidential ambitions if he weren't so blatant about mischaracterizing it. He talks about "helping the helpless," but in fact, he built his fortune and paved his way to politics chasing doctors out of the medical profession. Lots of those "helpless" people he mentions live in low-income areas without access to the health care they need.

[kcvl]

Edwards, the junior senator from North Carolina, is the hot new Democrat in Washington. A member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Edwards also is a cosponsor of the McCain-Edwards-Kennedy Patients' Bill of Rights. As John Kennedy was nearly the vice presidential nominee in 1956, so Edwards was on Al Gore's short list in 2000. Like JFK, Edwards has used his near-miss as a launch vehicle toward the big prize.

The key reason why Sen. Edwards has a decent chance to play Bill Clinton against this President Bush is his access to money. North Carolina is a medium-sized state, but Edwards has a national organization of trial lawyers to draw on for financial and campaign support. This is critical for success in the new system where candidates without great personal wealth or a rich-state base have difficulty staying in the race. Just ask John McCain.


"Edwards' days in the courtroom are behind him, but he is relying heavily on colleagues from around the country as he preps for a 2004 presidential bid. More than $4 of every $5 raised by Edwards' political action committee, New American Optimists, has come from lawyers or their family members." (John Wagner, "Lawyers Fill Edwards' Pockets," The [Raleigh] News & Observer, May 1, 2002)


"Of the $461,000 raised in the April 24, 2002 statement, $426,000 of it, over 90% was contributions from trial lawyer friends of Edwards." (Internal Revenue Service Website, www.irs.gov)


"Edwards has been on a fundraising frenzy over the last three months, raising nearly $2 million in 'soft money' -- the type of donation soon to be banned, with three-quarters of it coming from trial lawyers." (Jim VandeHei, "Trial Lawyers Fund Edwards," The Washington Post, September 3, 2002)

"Steve Bing, a Hollywood producer and top Democratic donor, sent Edwards a $250,000 check. But nearly every other dollar donated to Edwards' soft-money account since early 2001 came from trial lawyers -- $1,859,000 to be precise, according to the Public Citizen analysis." (Jim VandeHei, "Trial Lawyers Fund Edwards," The Washington Post, September 3, 2002)


Since The 1998 Election Cycle, Edwards' Senatorial Committee Has Raised At Least $3.9 Million From Lawyers And Lobbyists.

1998 Cycle: At least $ 900,280 (50% of all contributions)


2000 Cycle: At least $ 1.3 million (50% of all contributions)


2002 Cycle: At least $ 1.7 million (50% of all contributions)

(The Center For Responsive Politics Website, www.opensecrets.org, Accessed July 20, 2002)


"Edwards' advisers get almost giddy when talking about the potential for turning ATLA [American Trial Lawyers Association] contributors into presidential donors next year, when White House fund raising gets under way in earnest." (John Wagner, "Edwards Looks To Lawyers," The [Raleigh] News & Observer, June 28, 2002)

Personal Injury Trial Lawyer Fred Baron Donated $100,000 To Edwards' New American Optimists PAC During The Second Quarter Of 2002. (New American Optimists PAC, 8872 2nd Quarter Filing, July 18, 2002)

Senator John Edwards Has Been Actively Courting Baron To Play A Lead Role In His Upcoming Presidential Political Fundraising. "In a related development, the Edwards camp has been courting Dallas lawyer Fred Baron to play a lead role in fund raising. Baron, a former president of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, previously helped both President Clinton and former Vice President Al Gore in their respective White House bids. Baron said he's been impressed by Edwards but is also friendly with House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt of Missouri and U.S. Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, both of whom are also considering presidential runs." (Joseph Neff and John Wagner, "Edwards Coming Home," The [Raleigh] News And Observer, September 19, 2002)

Baron Has Described Senator Edwards As "The Whole Package" And Has Praised His Ability To Articulate The Democrat Message. "Baron said he was willing to help Edwards because he has great skill in talking about issues that Democrats should be promoting. 'I feel like John articulates the message as well as anyone,' Baron said at a gathering in Atlanta of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, a group he once led. 'John's the whole package. He's a great messenger, and he gets the message.'" (John Wagner, "Big Donors Fuel Edwards' Fund-Raising Machine," The [Raleigh]News And Observer, August 15, 2002)

Baron Calls For Jihad. "Fred Baron has 10,000 asbestos clients - probably more than any other lawyer in the US - and he has a simple message for those lobbying Washington's lawmakers to make it harder to bring his cases to court. 'There will be a jihad,' he says. 'We will fight them with everything we've got.'" ("Special Report The Asbestos Crisis - Growing Chorus Demands Change In Law," Financial Times, September 9, 2002)

Baron's Law Firm Is The Subject Of A Racketeering Suit. "Several major players in the asbestos plaintiffs' bar, including Dallas' Baron & Budd, have been sued for allegedly threatening to sabotage pending settlements with a company that pressed for federal legislation aimed at capping recoveries and fees." The racketeering complaint, filed on Jan. 10, 2001, in the Southern District of New York, alleges that principals of Baron & Budd and others threatened a "nuclear response" if the target of their asbestos claims persisted in supporting the now-stalled Fairness in Asbestos Compensation Act. Fred Baron denied the allegations and calls them "garbage." The heart of the claim, however, is a memorandum issued by Baron's firm that allegedly instructs clients falsely to claim equal exposure to all products and directs that clients should deny that they ever saw warnings or had any knowledge concerning the harmful effects of asbestos. "Baron says the memo, which first surfaced in 1997 after a Baron & Budd lawyer mistakenly turned it over to defense counsel during discovery, is 'old news.'" (Mark Hamblett, "Baron & Budd Lawyers Named In Civil RICO Suit," Texas Lawyer, January 22, 2001)


Baron's Law Firm's "Witness Coaching" Memorandum Is Smoking Gun In RICO Case. "After asbestos claims forced the parent company of GAF Materials Corp., the largest U.S. roofing materials company, into bankruptcy this year, it sued three law firms. The complaint reads like a Sopranos episode, alleging that the trial lawyers threatened to crush any company pushing for asbestos tort reform under an avalanche of new claims. It also alleges that doctors reading X-rays for one law firm received sexual favors from female paralegals and secretaries. . . .But the real smoking gun is a memo that GAF alleges law firm Baron & Budd used to prepare witnesses. The memo details facts that all clients, regardless of their actual experience, should testify to and comments all should avoid. . . . Partner Fred Baron says few people were shown the document: 'A paralegal did a memo she should not have done.'" (Pamela Sherrid, "Looking For Some Million Dollar Lungs," U.S. News & World Report, December 17, 2001)

Baron Calls Controversial Practice Of Capturing Clients Through Mass Screenings "Wonderful." Since asymptomatic cases had become valuable, plaintiffs' lawyers began seeking them out. Since the mid-1980s, they have been organizing mass screenings of potential clients, often with the cooperation of labor unions. After being offered a free chest X-ray, a. worker would typically be asked to sign a retainer agreement, promising to be represented by a certain law firm if the X-ray came back positive for asbestos-related disease. "There was nothing illegal or unethical in itself about staging mass screenings, and plaintiffs lawyers straight-facedly claimed that they provided a benefit to society. 'I think it's a wonderful thing,' says Fred Baron . . . head of Dallas-based Baron & Budd, which now handles about 12,000 asbestos cases." (Roger Parloff and Ellen Florian, "The $200 Billion Miscarriage Of Justice," Fortune Magazine, March 4, 2002)

[AlwaysLurking]

kcvl!!!! You da man!
Great research!!!!
I am printing and will be using it all!!!
Thanks!!!

On the question of the Edwards children.....John and Elizabeth had 2 teens, a boy and a girl.The girl is currently a student at Princeton.The boy, Wade, was killed in an auto accident about 4-5 years ago when he was 16 or 17. As a response to this the Edwards had two more babies. They were in their 40's at the birth of the little boy, Jack, 2, and the little girl, Emma Claire, 4. It would seem that they were not planning more children but the death of Wade changed that.

[Timesink]

Kind of reminds ya of JFK.. doesn't it

Depends on how many drugs Edwards was on this morning.

[Timesink]

Bush is going to be in big trouble if the economy is tanking in 2004, there is another big terrorist attack, and he's still dragging his feet on preventing illegal immigration.

This is barely different from what people were saying on January 21, 2001. Then we had Election Day 2002. It's been proven over and over that the American public does not blame Bush for our current economic situation, fully expects more terrorist attacks, and doesn't exactly consider "illegal immigration" to be one of their top issues.

"Pointing to dramatic failures in stopping the September 11 terrorists from entering the country, Senator Edwards also proposed increasing the number of immigration, border patrol and state department consular officials by 10,000. He called for tripling funds for border control information technology, and condensing the confusing array of immigration documents."

There is no way in hell the DNC is ever going to allow something like this to become part of their platform.

We should never accept Bush's reelection as a fait accompli. But at the same time, we should not overestimate the threat posed.

[Timesink]

IOW, he's an opportunistic parasite.

Yeah, I really loved it when Matt Lauer called him a "self-made millionaire" this morning. There's no such thing as a self-made TRIAL LAWYER.

[AlwaysLurking]

Could you source the information you posted....I know some is from the law firm site but the rest of that great stuff came from where?

[Timesink]

Nor Kerry either. Both are more restrained than crazy Algore... and he almost won! We won by The Electoral College and the SCOTUS.

The only reason we needed the Electoral College and SCOTUS is because of the intentional, perfectly-timed leak by the DNC about Bush's 500-year-old drunk driving arrest, combined with the networks calling Florida (and, by extention, the entire nation) for Gore an hour before the polls closed. Several studies have shown that cost Bush at least 1 to 2 MILLION votes across the West.

[Timesink]

When does Al Sharpton announce his candidacy and will it be on the Today Show? I sure want to see the uncomfortable looks from Matt and Katie when Big Al makes his announcement.

Al has promised Sean Hannity that if he announces, it will be on Sean's radio show.

[kcvl]

Radley Balko, "Malpractice Suits Driving Out Doctors", FoxNews.com, May 9). In National Review Online, Byron York


("The Trials of John Edwards", May 6). See also Eric Dyer, "Conservative detractors taking swipes at Edwards", Greensboro (N.C.) News-Record, May 12; Joshua Green, "John Edwards, Esq.", Washington Monthly, Oct. 2001; Ned Martle, "Starting Gun", New York, May 28, 2001


You can't buy John Edwards-- He is already bought!
www.ncgop.org


WHO IS FRED BARON?
Republican National Committee


John Edwards, Esq.
www.washingtonmonthly.com

North Carolina Lawyers Weekly

Malpractice Suits Driving Out Doctors
www.foxnews.com

[kcvl]

Sen. John Edwards, a North Carolina Democrat who made millions trying personal injury lawsuits against big companies before he joined Congress, said the malpractice caps would help the industry.

"It is striking that at a time when Wall Street is in shambles … the president has chosen to go to North Carolina to help insurance companies instead of the victims of bad medical care," said Edwards, a potential presidential contender in 2004.

His conference call was organized by the Democratic National Committee.

Edwards said malpractice premiums are not the problem, and contended lawsuits against doctors are not the most significant factor in rising insurance costs.

He was the plaintiffs' lawyer in 1997 when a North Carolina jury ordered an obstetrician and her employer to pay the parents of a retarded girl $23.2 million — the largest award ever for a medical malpractice case in the state.


President backs caps on malpractice lawsuits
PittsburghLIVE.com
Wednesday, December 4, 2002

[jackbill]

Hey, you wart-lipped, ambulance chasing piece of crap, I'm a "Regular People" and I suggest that you crawl back into your hole.

[hunter112]

I've read this whole thread, and am having trouble deciding if he is a pretty-boy fool, trying to just get name recognition for 2008, or a serious threat. There's some fear in dealing with someone that can give a big closing argument to a jury, that produces a judgment that can bankrupt a company. I shudder when I remember that stupid juries are drawn from voter's lists...

[kcvl]

Citizens for a Sound Economy
September 4, 2001

The Rise of the Shark

Edwards earned so much from suits against doctors, insurers, and businesses that he largely self-financed his ’98 election. During the campaign, Edwards used the wealth derived from suing health care professionals to bolster his image: Edwards’ TV commercials proclaimed him "the people’s senator" because he refused to take contributions from political action committees.

Before becoming Senator, Edwards often lectured groups of budding trial lawyers on the need to dramatize a defendant’s net worth to the jury. In a memorable case in West Virginia, a trial lawyer employed this strategy in a way that would make Edwards proud: The trial lawyer asked the defendant, an ear-nose-and-throat specialist, how much he charged for a sinus procedure ($2000) and how many of those procedures the doctor performs in a year (about 200). The trial lawyer then wrote down the figures and multiplied them on a chalkboard in front of the jury. Needless to say, the jury awarded a sizable verdict.

During the Senate "Patients’ Bill of Rights" debate, many commentators thought it was unseemly for a former trial lawyer to lead the charge for a bill that was essentially written by trial lawyers. But once again, Edwards was able to deflect the criticism to emerge triumphant. In fact, one of Edwards’ most memorable Meet the Press appearances was a debate on the issue with Dr. Bill Frist of Tennessee. Like he routinely did in the courtroom, Senator Edwards denounced the profits of health insurers and second-guessed the doctor’s judgment. Edwards’s Patient’s Bill of Rights legislation passed the Senate weeks later.

On the Internet privacy issue, Edwards is again sponsoring legislation hand-tailored for trial lawyers. His bill would open all Web sites that fail to meet an arbitrarily defined privacy standard to class-action lawsuits. Each member of the class would be worth $2500 and the suit would be heard in the court "where the computer software concerned was installed or used," which means the state court of the trial lawyer’s choosing. If made law, the trial lawyers will be able to sink their teeth into millions in legal fees and no business will be safe from the class-action shakedown that will surely result.

What’s good for trial lawyers, however, is rarely good for consumers because they are the ones forced to pay for lawsuits through higher prices for everything from electronics, to insurance premiums, to doctors’ bills. The total cost of the Tort system in 2000 was estimated to be as high as $200 billion, and worse, this lawsuit abuse harms regular citizens with real grievances by clogging the courts with these frivolous suits.

Unqualified support from trial lawyers would make Edwards nearly unbeatable in the Democratic primary given the legal profession’s increasing influence within the party and its unrivaled political giving – over $250 million to Democrats during the past decade. With billions from tobacco settlements ready to be reinvested in politics, trial lawyers could play the role of kingmaker in 2004 with John Edwards as their king.

[Timesink]

There's some fear in dealing with someone that can give a big closing argument to a jury, that produces a judgment that can bankrupt a company.

I really don't know that much about his legal past. Did he actually argue those cases personally? Or just oversee a team of underlings that did?

[kcvl]

Edwards to N.C. Farmers: Tobacco Buyout May be on Way
By Associated Press

Senator John Edwards say his colleagues may be ready to lend their support to the idea of buying out tobacco farmers' quotas.

Edwards spoke Tuesday at the annual meeting of the North Carolina Farm Bureau. He said he and Republican senator-elect Elizabeth Dole have already discussed what they can do to assure passage of a buyout bill when the new Congress convenes next month.

The federal buyout would pay farmers for surrendering government-granted allotments that dictate how much of the crop can be grown. A further step could mean abolishing minimum prices for tobacco and moving to a free market approach.

Edwards says a group of senators who have resisted supporting a buyout in the past have reconsidered and have indicated they're willing to seriously consider a tobacco buyout. He didn't identify those senators.

(Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Last Updated: Dec 10, 2002

[kcvl]

Sen. Edwards Outlines Education Plan
Thu Nov 21, 4:38 AM ET

By WILL LESTER, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - North Carolina Sen. John Edwards (news, bio, voting record) is proposing financial incentives to encourage teachers to work where they are most needed.



The Democratic presidential hopeful also wants the federal government to help states reach the goal of a quality teacher in every classroom.


Education programs passed under the Bush administration raised standards without providing the resources to meet new goals, he said.


Edwards said President Bush (news - web sites) "toured the country touting the law" at the same time "he proposed the smallest education budget increase in almost a decade."


"We have raised standards without offering teachers and principals the resources to meet those standards," Edwards said in a speech prepared for delivery Thursday at the University of Maryland. "We used to call this an unfunded mandate. I call it unfair, unwise and unacceptable."


Still, Edwards said, the most critical task is improving the quality of teaching.


"Study after study shows that no single factor at school has a larger impact on the quality of a child's education than the quality of his or her teacher," Edwards said.


He said the federal government should pay for the college education of teachers willing to make a five-year commitment to work in places where good educators are in short supply. He also suggested a $5,000 mortgage tax credit to teachers willing to buy homes in poor neighborhoods near their schools.


Edwards said the federal government should double the $3 billion a year it gives states to help put quality teachers in classrooms. States would need to increase teacher pay and hold them to tougher standards.


He proposed several ideas he said would make college or other training after high school accessible to all young people who are interested.


Students willing to commit five years to the nation's homeland security should get four-year college scholarships, Edwards said. He also proposed a program that would cover the first year of college tuition for students who take responsibility for the remainder of their education and commit to at least 10 hours a week of work study, community service or a part-time job.

"Providing a free year of college tuition will eliminate the sticker shock that scares off so many kids," Edwards said. "After students get through that first year, which is the toughest, they'll know financial aid is available, they'll know student loans are an investment worth making and they'll have access to people who can help them pursue both."

Edwards said much of the money for such improvements could be found by cutting expenses in other areas of government. He suggested scrapping the current program for student loans and making loans through competitive contracts.