Bernie Sanders in CNN N. H. Town Hall

On Education: Freeze private charter schools; they have no accountability

SANDERS: Yes.

Q: Why?

SANDERS: Because I think that charter schools are able to do things that public schools can't. They can pick and choose the students that they get. Their teachers are not able to become union members. They don't have the accountability that public schools do. And we have seen many, many problems in charter schools. And they are taking money away from public education. So I think public money should go to public schools, and we're going to freeze all private charter schools funding.

On Environment: Single-use plastic is a crisis among many pollution crises

SANDERS: Well, it's one of many issues that we have to deal with in terms of the environment. You've seen the pictures of our oceans where there are tons and tons of plastics, where whales wash up onshore and they have all this horrible plastic in it. So this is one of the many environmental crises that we are facing. There is an enormous amount of pollution of all kinds that's now taking place in America. It's not just Flint, Michigan. There are hundreds of communities where people cannot get clean drinking water. So we've got a major environmental crisis. And then we've got a president who has converted the Environmental Protection Agency into the Non-Environmental Protection Agency. He's doing exactly the wrong thing, deregulating polluters. So this is a major issue that we have got to deal with. And as president, I certainly will.

On Health Care: Every president since FDR has tried to fix healthcare

SANDERS: Americans have been hearing about it for a lot longer than you have been alive. Teddy Roosevelt, way back when, over 100 years ago, talked about universal health care. FDR talked about it in the '30s and '40s. Truman and Johnson talked about it. Obama talked about it, and Carter; Nixon even talked about it. But what has been the problem all of this time? The problem is, at the end of the day, if we want universal health care, if we want to do what every other major country on Earth does--this is not a radical idea. I live 50 miles away from the Canadian border. They do it. Everybody has health care. You don't take out your wallet or your credit card when you go to the doctor or the hospital. They spend one-half as much per capita as we spend.

On Health Care: More money into research for pandemics like coronavirus

SANDERS: Well, for start, I would not do what Trump has done and cut funding for those federal agencies which deal with infectious crises. We would put more money into research to make sure that we are best prepared to what I fear may be happening more and more frequently. And we've got to go to the best experts that we can. But we need a global response to this global crisis.

Q: Is cutting off access with China, is that wise?

SANDERS: I don't think you want to cut off access. I think you want to put up protocols to do our best to make sure that we take a look at anybody who is coming into this country, I suspect. But I don't know you have to stop travel from China.