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Clyburn: I Won't Let Obama Forget the "Corridor of Shame"
Says Children's Health Care Can Be Passed in First 100 Days
Declares That We Need a 21st Century WPA

Lays Out Blueprint New Administration Will Tackle

On Friday’s Edition of ETV’s “The Big Picture on the Radio”

For Immediate Release
November 7, 2008

Columbia SC…On Friday’s edition of South Carolina ETV’s “The Big Picture on the Radio,” SC Congressman James Clyburn, the third-highest ranking Democrat in the House, told host Mark Quinn that he would not allow President-Elect Barack Obama to forget the schools in his state infamously referred to by their location along I-95 as the “Corridor of Shame.” The interview was conducted earlier in the week.

Saying that Obama referenced those schools while out on the campaign trail, after he paid a visit to one, Clyburn linked the rebuilding of the “Corridor of Shame” schools with other initiatives he thinks are necessary to ensure public safety and the creation of new jobs.

“You’ve got to put people back to work,” Clyburn said. “You’ve got to do that. I think we need some kind of 21st century WPA that will get people back to work—that will allow us to re-build our infrastructure. Just in SC alone, I’m told that we have about 6,000 bridges that are really unsafe. They really need repair—and this is all over the country. We’ve got water and sewage projects that have been put on the back burner.”

Clyburn then went on to discuss Obama’s visit to a “Corridor of Shame” school in August of 2007 and how that made a lasting impression on the then-candidate.

“(Obama) talked about it out on the campaign trail after he left,” said Clyburn. “And I am not going to let him forget that the ‘Corridor of Shame’ is there. And so we’re going to put together, I think, a jobs program—and I want part of that jobs program, not just roads and bridges, but I want to see school buildings erected all along. I want to see something akin to what…say Roosevelt did when he came south to build schools—because the need is there.

“And you can do that by doing a common societal good and also putting people back to work at the same time. That’s gotta be done. And if you don’t do that, then I don’t think you would have the atmosphere that you need to go out and try to fix the healthcare programs, and go and do what you need to do about the educational system in the country, or about the energy problems that we have. Because if people aren’t working and earning a living, they aren’t going to be thinking about all these other things.”

Clyburn went on to tell Quinn: “Healthcare, we might be able to get on track, starting out with SCHIP—you can do that immediately. In the first hundred days we could pass SCHIP—that he (Obama) will sign—and get children’s health insurance program—that’s what SCHIP is (the State Children’s Health Insurance Program). Get that up and going right away.”

Clyburn then laid out a timeline for further initiatives he foresaw being priorities in the new administration.

“But then what (do) you do about senior citizens, people living on fixed income—what do you do about their health care? That’s a little longer term. What do you do about all those people in between? That’s a little longer term (beyond that). So, let’s do the children first, let’s put people back to work, let’s create an atmosphere in which people will feel good about themselves and start treating each other with dignity and respect, while you try to fix these other things over the long term.”

South Carolina ETV is the state's public educational broadcasting network with 11 television and eight radio transmitters, and a multi-media educational system in more than 2,500 schools, colleges, businesses and government agencies. Using television, radio and the web, SCETV's mission is to enrich lives by educating children, informing and connecting citizens, celebrating our culture and environment and instilling the joy of learning.

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For more information, contact Rob Schaller at (803) 737-6556 or rschaller@scetv.org.