Knipel says politics, community service go together
Don’t ever tell Lori Knipel that something she strongly believes in isn’t going to happen. She’ll make it happen. Take the 2004 Democratic National Convention, for instance. Knipel, a lawyer from Flatbush, was a member of the platform committee, the group of loyal activists from across the country helping the party leaders craft the document detailing what the party stood for and would be running on in the presidential election that year.
Knipel, a firm believer in the importance of early childhood education, was seeking to have a universal pre-kindergarten plank placed in the platform. “I was told it was impossible. There was no money in the budget for it,” she told the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. She didn’t let the naysayers stop her. “I put up a big fuss. I actually got the motion put on the floor. Cory Booker seconded it for me,” Knipel said, referring to the man who is now Newark’s mayor and a rising star in national Democratic politics. The motion passed. “I was pretty pleased. It was important to get it done. I felt it was especially important for low-income parents to have access to pre-k for their children. Studies have shown it’s the basis for a child’s whole educational life,” she said.
Nine years later, universal pre-kindergarten is a standard part of the Democratic Party’s message. President Barack Obama supports it and has given speeches on numerous occasions talking about the importance of pre-kindergarten classes to a child’s intellectual and emotional development.