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Vice President Kamala Harris shortly emerged because the most probably Democratic nominee for president, securing dozens of endorsements inside hours of President Joe Biden asserting he would finish his reelection marketing campaign.
If Harris turns into the nominee, she’ll face a Republican opponent in former President Donald Trump who has promised to chop federal funding for colleges that train “inappropriate” classes on race, gender, and politics, and to roll again protections for homosexual and transgender college students.
Whereas the economic system, immigration, and overseas coverage have obtained much more consideration this election cycle, the events differ sharply on training.
Harris virtually instantly secured the endorsement of the American Federation of Lecturers, the nation’s second largest lecturers union. The Nationwide Training Affiliation adopted, with President Becky Pringle posting on X, the positioning previously often called Twitter, that “Kamala has delivered for college students & educators.”
Right here’s what we find out about Harris’ training file to this point:
Harris has backed Title I, Head Begin funding will increase
Like Biden, Harris has referred to as for “vital” will increase to Title I, the federal program that sends cash to colleges serving increased shares of scholars from low-income households. As a presidential candidate within the final election, she additionally referred to as for extra funding for Head Begin, which offers federally sponsored preschool to low-income kids.
Biden has tried a number of occasions to go a price range that might greater than double Title I. However Congressional Republicans have blocked these proposals and pushed for dramatic cuts to this system.
That places Harris at odds with Trump, whose training platform contains eliminating the U.S. Division of Training and giving states full management over the nation’s instructional programming. Mission 2025, a blueprint developed by a number of former Trump officers that might probably inform coverage underneath a second Trump administration, requires phasing out Title I and eliminating Head Begin.
Harris may reenergize faculty desegregation efforts
Probably the most putting moments throughout the Democratic presidential debates in 2019 got here when Harris challenged Biden about his file on faculty desegregation. Biden had opposed busing kids to attend totally different colleges underneath a courtroom order, and Harris raised her private expertise as a baby who took half in a voluntary integration program in Berkeley Public Faculties.
“There was somewhat woman in California who was part of the second class to combine her public colleges and he or she was bused to high school daily,” Harris stated in 2019. “And that little woman was me.”
On condition that, Harris may very well be an advocate for varsity desegregation and racial fairness initiatives, although she would face stiff opposition. Congressional Republicans and Republican-controlled state legislatures have fiercely opposed range and fairness efforts in Ok-12 colleges and faculties lately.
Harris has championed the concept of giving faculty districts grants to fund voluntary desegregation efforts. However the Biden administration struggled to safe modest funding for the same effort. The administration quietly launched a scaled-back model final 12 months.
Trump, in the meantime, defunded an identical faculty desegregation grant program shortly after taking workplace, saying the initiative was “an unwise use of tax {dollars}.”
Harris would carry civil rights expertise to Title IX
As a candidate, Harris pointed to her expertise imposing kids’s civil rights as California’s legal professional basic, and stated she would carry that to bear as president.
In 2019, she referred to as for including employees to the U.S. Division of Justice to implement Title IX, the federal legislation that prohibits intercourse discrimination, and defend LGBTQ college students from discrimination and harassment in school.
The Biden administration lately issued new guidelines that say Title IX protects college students from discrimination primarily based on sexual orientation and gender identification — an interpretation that’s drawn intense opposition from Republican officers. Greater than two dozen states are suing the Biden administration to dam these guidelines, that are briefly on maintain in no less than 15 of them, in line with a tracker compiled by Training Week.
If elected, her administration would probably be within the place of defending these Title IX guidelines in opposition to any ongoing or future challenges — and could also be tasked with finalizing guidelines in regards to the rights of trans athletes to play on sure faculty groups. The Biden administration has indefinitely delayed releasing these.
Lecturers would probably have a buddy in Harris
Harris made elevating instructor pay a centerpiece of her training platform when she was a presidential candidate. She proposed closing the pay hole between lecturers and different professions that require a school diploma, a transfer that might have meant a mean increase of $13,500 a 12 months on the time and would have value an estimated $315 billion over 10 years. Such a proposal would have represented a serious enlargement of the federal function in training.
Since then, many states and districts have raised instructor pay, however these raises typically haven’t saved tempo with inflation. A latest RAND report discovered that along with incomes lower than their friends in different professions, lecturers are additionally extra more likely to say that their pay feels insufficient. It’s among the many causes lecturers cite for leaving the career — particularly Black lecturers, who’re already underrepresented in American school rooms.
Harris additionally referred to as for a $2.5 billion funding in instructor preparation applications at traditionally Black faculties and universities — or HBCUs — in a bid to diversify the educating career. She additionally supported extra funding in instructor residencies and “develop your personal” applications, which typically present monetary help and mentoring for lecturers aides, substitute lecturers, and others who dwell in communities of coloration.
Roughly 80% of public faculty lecturers are white, in contrast with solely about half of scholars. Research discover that college students of coloration taught by lecturers of coloration usually tend to be referred to gifted applications and go to varsity.
Harris backed plans at no cost faculty
Harris has supported proposals to make two-year faculties free for many college students and to make four-year faculties free for a lot of college students from lower- and middle-income households as each a senator and a presidential candidate.
Biden got here into workplace together with his personal plans to make two years of faculty free for a lot of college students, however these insurance policies did not advance in a difficult political surroundings. As an alternative, the Biden administration pushed to develop Pell grants that scale back faculty prices for a lot of college students from low-income backgrounds. The bungled rollout of a brand new federal monetary assist kind means fewer college students could profit from these modifications.
Public service staff’ mortgage forgiveness a Harris precedence
As a prosecutor in California, Harris backed debt forgiveness for college students defrauded by for-profit faculties. As a presidential candidate, her debt forgiveness plan was narrower than these from progressives comparable to Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.
However throughout inner Biden administration debates, Harris was reportedly an advocate for extra beneficiant reduction. After the U.S. Supreme Court docket struck down Biden’s preliminary scholar debt forgiveness plan, the administration pursued quite a lot of methods which have worn out an estimated $168 billion in debt for greater than 4 million debtors, with a give attention to public service staff comparable to lecturers.
However Republicans have challenged parts of Biden’s plans in courtroom, most lately securing an injunction in opposition to the Saving on a Worthwhile Training income-based compensation plan.
Harris appears more likely to proceed to pursue debt forgiveness and defend these insurance policies in opposition to challenges. However it’s unclear how a lot political or authorized room there’s to enact broader mortgage forgiveness.
Editor’s Observe: This text has been up to date to mirror that each NEA and AFT have endorsed Kamala Harris for president.
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