Sen. Kamala Harris wants teachers paid more; talks education in Dearborn

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California U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris is in Michigan and visited Miller Elementary School in Dearborn.

Harris read a book about kindness to the fourth graders there.

"Can you guys give me an example of how we can treat each other the way we want to be treated that is kind?" she asked.

"Yes," the students said.

The stop in Michigan was to meet the students, teachers and talk about public education.

"Here's the thing about your teachers - your teachers are super heroes," Harris said. 

Super heroes she says, who deserve a raise. Harris told reporters how her own first grade teacher attended her law school graduation. Her plan - if elected president - is to give the average teacher a $13,500 raise by the end of her first term.

"The teachers of our country, they're co-parenting with us, our children spend more waking hours with their teachers than they do with us," Harris said.

On this first day of National Teacher Appreciation Week, Harris said public education has been under attack - and it is time to invest in it instead.

"As a candidate for president of the United States and I fully intend to win," Harris said. "One of my major areas of focus will be on reinforcing and putting the resources that we need to put into our public education system."

Education not the only issue Harris is emphasizing on this trip. She spent Sunday night at the NAACP's Fight for Freedom Fund Dinner.

"Right now we all know there are a lot of folks who are rightly distrustful of our government, its institutions and leaders," she said at the dinner.

Back in Dearborn, Harris was also talking about trade policy and reforming the tax code to give working families making less than $100,000 a year, a $6,000 tax credit.

The children there may not know what any of that means but this visit from a presidential hopeful inspired the students to follow her lead.

"Who here is going to run for president one day," she asked to a big show of hands.