Media response to NEA forum reflects prominence of education in Election 2020
By Danielle Sklarew
On Friday, 10 candidates seeking the 2020 Democratic nomination for the presidency participated in NEA’s Strong Public Schools Presidential Forum in Houston to define their visions for public education before an audience of more than 10,000 educators and guests.
[Watch the forum in its entirety here.]
Reporters from more than 90 media outlets—including the Washington Post, CBS News, and CNN—covered the event to record and analyze candidates’ responses to questions contributed by NEA members across the country through the StrongPublicSchools.orgwebsite.
“As an educator, I see firsthand the difficult issues affecting my students,” said TaRae Gardner, a fifth-grade teacher in Iowa’s Sioux City Community School District. “So when candidates talk about access to health care, mental health services and raising pay checks for the middle class you can bet I am interested in what they are saying. It affects me, my students, and my job directly.”
The press is well aware of the outsized role that educators will play in selecting the Democratic nominee and, ultimately, the nation’s next president. In the 2016 election, 1 in every 39 votes was cast by an NEA member or family member.
Here is how the media captured the powerful interactions that took place between the candidates and NEA members at the Strong Public Schools forum:
Jonathan Martinez, a reporter from KPRC 2 Houston, was impressed by the enthusiastic delegates at the #StrongPublicSchools forum. CONTINUE READING: Media response to NEA forum reflects prominence of education in Election 2020 - Education Votes