Where the 2020 Hopefuls Stand on Public Education
Broad support for the wave teacher strikes has candidates jostling each other step up on public education.
In May, Bernie Sanders unveiled his Thurgood Marshall Plan for Public Education, a bold plan that called for a dramatic increase in federal support for public education. Within a week, Joe Biden announced his own plan that, in part, was similar to the Sanders’s plan.
Both called for a tripling of federal aid for impoverished children, known as Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act; both called for a dramatic increase in federal aid to pay for disabilities; and both plans supported big pay hikes for teachers.
The days when Democratic candidates called for school sanctions, tougher tests, and the evaluation of teachers by test scores appear to be gone, thank goodness. Candidates with neoliberal, pro-reform histories like Cory Booker and Michael Bennett are going nowhere in the polls and are regularly panned on Twitter and Facebook by advocates of public schools.
Meanwhile, the teacher strikes of the past year have received popular sympathy and support. That support has been noticed by the candidates, who now jostle each other to prove that they are teachers’ true best friend. Support for universal preschool, significant subsidy of public college tuition, and calls for higher teacher pay are positions nearly universally adopted by the candidates.
Teacher strikes and the #RedForEd movement have protested both low salaries as well as insufficient supports of students. Striking teachers in Los Angeles made it clear that the expansion of charter schools has impacted the district’s finances, thus hurting the district’s ability to fund essential services for kids. The teachers’ #RedForEd movement joined the parent-led Arizona Save Our Schools organization to halt the expansion of vouchers in that state.
This year’s teacher walkout in West Virginia protested the legislature’s plan to establish charter schools and vouchers—a struggle that continues. In addition, Education Secretary Betsy De Vos’s and Donald Trump’s full embrace of the CONTINUE READING: Where the 2020 Hopefuls Stand on Public Education - Progressive.org
