From kindergarten to graduation, I went to public schools, and I know that they are a key to being sure that every child has a chance to succeed and to rise in the world.

Cheney frames public education as both a personal credential and a civic instrument. By invoking his own path “from kindergarten to graduation,” he presents himself as a product of the public-school system and uses that biography to argue for its democratic function: widening opportunity beyond family wealth or social position. The language of “chance,” “succeed,” and “rise in the world” echoes the American ideal of upward mobility, implying that public schools are a foundational equalizer. The quote also works rhetorically to build common ground with ordinary voters and to justify policy attention to public education as a matter of fairness and national strength.