Joe Biden’s plan to triple spending on low-income schools, explained
Biden’s education plan suggests he’s breaking with Obama’s legacy.
Former Vice President Joe Biden just announced his first detailed policy proposal of the 2020 campaign: an education plan that calls for a big increase in federal spending on schools and districts serving low-income kids.
The plan, which Biden announced ahead of a forum with the American Federation of Teachers in Houston on Tuesday, would give teachers a raise (an idea previously proposed by Kamala Harris). It calls for universal prekindergarten and for the Education Department to renew its work on desegregation.
Biden’s plan mostly sticks to ideas with a long history of support in the Democratic Party and sidesteps intraparty controversies, such as the debate about the role of charter schools.
Still, the plan is notable for what it leaves out, and the implicit break with Barack Obama that the omissions represent. The Obama administration believed that school and teacher quality could be measured by standardized tests, and that states needed to do whatever they could to hold schools and teachers accountable for both test results and students’ growth — even if doing so alienated teachers, who are typically Democratic allies.
Biden’s plan suggests he, like other 2020 candidates, would take a much more conciliatory approach. The federal government’s role, as Biden sees it, isn’t to push states to hold schools accountable. It’s to be a partner to schools and teachers — and key to that partnership would be a big influx of new cash to even out inequalities.
Biden’s education plan, explained
The heart of Biden’s plan is a call to triple the money the federal government sends to low-income schools and districts from about $16 billion per year to about $48 billion.
Biden’s plan draws clear lines on how that money should be used: Teachers should get a raise, 3- and 4-year-olds should get access to pre-K, and rigorous coursework (such as Advanced CONTINUE READING: Joe Biden’s education plan, explained - Vox
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