Build a wall to stop illegal immigration. Ban Muslims from entering the country. Make college education free for everyone.
There’s been no shortage of bold—and sometimes controversial—policy proposals in this year’s presidential campaign. Yet there’s been little said so far about K-12 education.
In a bid to change that, the National School Boards Action Center (NASBC) helped sponsor a forum Thursday to give presidential candidates and their campaigns an opportunity to highlight their education policy agendas.
NSBAC is a nonprofit organization founded by NSBA to mobilize public support for public education.
One of the most significant messages to come out of the two-hour policy discussion was that last year’s reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, a major legislative achievement in federal education policy, appears to be influencing the agendas of the Democratic presidential candidates.
With lawmakers ready to turn their attention to other issues, “higher education is a priority,” said Donni Turner, a policy analyst for the campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders. The Vermont senator has made free college tuition for all a major initiative of his campaign.
The importance of expanding early childhood education—as well as making it affordable for low-income families—also is a major policy interest of both Democratic candidates.
“No family should have to pay more than 10 percent of their income for child care,” said Ann O’Leary, senior policy analyst for the campaign of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
No representative appeared on behalf of presumptive Republican Party nominee Donald Trump, despite repeated invitations.
The forum, hosted by the Center for Education Funding, was one of a series of initiatives supported by NSBAC’s campaign, Building America’s Future in Public Schools. The campaign is working with advocates of public education to put K-12 policy issues on the political radar in this year’s presidential election.
NSBA honors the anniversary of the landmark 1954 U.S. Supreme Court Brown v. Board of Education decision which established the segregation of public school students based on race as unconstitutional.
Public education is America’s most vital institution and the foundation of our democracy. NSBA believes that public education is a civil right and that each and every child deserves equal access to a high quality public education that maximizes his or her individual potential.
The Court’s decision validated the struggle and remarkable actions of countless Americans who challenged the destructive effects of segregation in our society. The Court recognized we’re a multicultural society and that we’re stronger when we’re united. The decision had and continues to have a profound and significant impact on the lives of our children, our country’s educational system, and our nation as a whole.
NSBA recognizes the significance of the Court’s unanimous decision more than fifty years ago and what equal protection under the law continues to mean for Americans today. Every child in America deserves and has the right to attend a great public school where they live.
“Supplement, Not Supplant” Provision Ensures Federal Education Funding Provides Additional Programs, Supports, and Services to Help Schools and Students Most in Need”
Washington, DC – United States Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), along with seven other senators, urged the U.S. Department of Education (ED) to use the authority that it was given by Congress to fully enforce the “supplement, not supplant” provision in the recently-passed Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). This provision helps ensure the law meets it goal of protecting the civil rights and educational opportunity for all students. The letter was signed by Senators Warren, Murphy, Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Al Franken (D-Minn.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), and Cory Booker (D-N.J.).
The senators explain in their letter that the core purpose of the federal K-12 education law is “to protect the civil rights and educational opportunity for all students, especially our most vulnerable students,” and that the “supplement, not supplant” provision “is critical to ensure that states and districts spend federal education dollars to provide additional resources to low-income schools, and to not simply replace existing investments that states and school districts are already supposed to be making.”
The senators continue, “Simply put-we believe that state and local educational agencies should not use federal funds as an excuse to spend less money on low-income children…The Department has the authority and responsibility to enforce the fiscal accountability safeguards in ESSA through strong regulations and oversight, and that’s precisely what we expect to see.”
Read a PDF copy of the senators’ letter to ED here.
Build a wall to stop illegal immigration. Ban Muslims from entering the country. Make college education free for everyone.
