Education is a hot topic for some candidates in the Democratic presidential field — and potential trouble for others
One promised to spend $315 billion to raise teachers’ pay. Another vowed to hire a former public school teacher as U.S. education secretary. A number of them want to eliminate tuition at public schools and forgive a mountain of student loans.
They are the Democratic candidates seeking their party’s 2020 presidential nomination, and education is a hot topic among a good number of them in the field of 23. It is also potential trouble for some candidates whose past positions, once dominant in the party, have been losing luster in the era of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.
American voters have long declared education an important issue but never prioritized education in general elections — at least not until the 2018 midterm elections. That’s when some races were won or lost — depending on your point of view — on education issues. Scott Walker lost his bid for a third term as Wisconsin governor to Tony Evers, a former state education superintendent who campaigned against Walker’s assault on public education.
A remarkable string of teacher strikes in states led by Republicans and Democrats started in early 2018 and put new focus on the issues affecting public schools. The strikes were not just about bolstering teacher pay and benefits but about winning new funding for schools sorely needing resources, and an effort to support the U.S. public education system, which DeVos once called “a dead end.”
Now, as they seek to win the votes of millions of members of teachers unions and secure the endorsement of those organizations, some Democratic candidates are throwing out big ideas for raising teacher salaries, creating free universal prekindergarten, rebuilding crumbling school buildings and fixing other problems facing K-12 public education and higher education. For example:
- With a new report saying that teachers earned 21.4 percent less in weekly wages in 2018 than professionals with comparable educations, Sen. Kamala D. Harris (Calif.) made her first big campaign policy pronouncement a plan to boost teacher pay: spending $315 billion over 10 years. Julián Castro, a former U.S. housing secretary and mayor of San Antonio, just released a comprehensive education CONTINUE READING: Education is a hot topic for some candidates in the Democratic presidential field — and potential trouble for others - The Washington Post
