Education (2020 Presidential Election)

No teacher goes into education expecting to hit it rich.  However, they may not understand that when you choose education as a field, you are choosing a field that pays 20% less than other college-educated workers.  For the first time, a majority of parents say that they do not want their children to become teachers, citing poor pay and benefits.  Two-thirds of Americans say that teachers are underpaid and 78% of public school parents say they would support teachers if they went on strike for more pay.  In both red states and blue states, voters back tax increases to support public education and urge lawmakers to stop cutting school budgets.   Many teachers across the country have gone on strike to protest the low pay.   Teachers in both West Virginia and Oklahoma won raises as a result of their walkouts.

The average teacher pay in 2016-2017 was $58,950.  Public teachers’ average weekly wage hasn’t increased since 1996.  Adjusting for today’s average for inflation, today’s pay is actually $1,000 less than it was in 1989 and $3,000 less than 2009!  Some argue that the salary gap is made up for with better healthcare and retirement benefits.  However, factoring that in, teachers nationally still make 11% less.  Despite the fact that, in 1994, teacher compensation, including benefits, was about equal to similarly educated professionals.  Higher pay leads to teacher retention which is linked to higher student achievement.

Source: www.usatodayeducation.com

The decline in education funding is not limited to salaries.  Twenty-nine states were still spending less per student in 2015 than they were before The Great Recession.  This leads to poor facilities, overcrowding, outdated resources, and a lack of supplies.  Public schools received a D+ in facilities from the American Society of Civil Engineers.  Public school infrastructure is underfunded by $46 billion annually.

When 20,000 teachers walked out in the state of West Virginia, the average salary was just $45,701.  To end the walkout, legislators agreed to a 5% wage increase.  Following West Virginia, Oklahoma teachers walked out forcing the first major tax increase in nearly 30 years to fund raises for teachers.  This was followed by similar walkouts in Kentucky, Arizona, North Carolina, Colorado, Los Angeles, Denver, and Oakland.  

Of course, while much of the public does support teachers and teacher pay, many lawmakers and government officials don’t.  Education Secretary, Betsy DeVos, criticized striking teachers implying that they were failing to serve their students and told them to “keep adult disagreements” out of the classroom.  There is opposition to teachers’ unions, a push to standardize curriculum, and arguments that full funding for public education isn’t fiscally responsible.  States like Wisconsin, moved to strip teachers of their pensions and roll back collective bargaining in 2011.  In 2018, the Supreme Court dealt an additional blow to teachers’ unions when they mandated that public sector unions can’t mandate fees from non-members.  Also in 2018, Colorado voted to raise teacher retirement age and cut benefits.  That same year, the Supreme Court in Arizona blocked a ballot measure that would have added $690 million annually to state education funding.

In addition to stagnant wages and attacks on benefits, teachers are consistently met with ever changing benchmarks for student achievement, pressure for their students to perform on standardized tests, constantly changing curriculums, and evaluations on performance linked to all of the above.  They spend their own money on supplies and are asked to take on roles such as mentoring and coaching new teachers, and serving as social workers due to lack of mental health support in the schools. Teachers are generally not treated as experts in their field.  This loss of control over the classroom, coupled with the fact that 20% of teachers work more than one job to get by, make it an unappealing field for many.  

On top of that, teachers are on the front lines of caring for traumatized children living with the effects of the opioid crisis, poverty, and fear of the next school shooting.  One in five students experience mental health problems.  The CDC says that over half of American children have experienced some kind of trauma.  Teachers are exposed to the traumas that students bring in every day leading to Secondary Traumatic Stress (STS). As a result, educators are exposed to and begin exhibiting signs of trauma themselves including withdrawal, anxiety, depression, and chronic fatigue.  The current school psychologist to student ratio is 1,400 to 1 and experts say it should be at about 700 to 1.

Due to all of this, districts across the country are facing hiring shortages.  Between 2008 and 2016, the number of students in teacher prep programs fell by 23% and at least 17% left the profession within the first five years.

While other fields, like nursing (which earns an average salary of $73,550), address shortages with signing bonuses, free housing, and tuition reimbursement, teacher shortages result in states increasing class sizes, shortening school weeks, freezing updates to supplies and resources, and enacting emergency certifications for untrained educators.

And, all of this doesn’t even address the funding gaps between high income and low income districts.  Since a portion of education is funded by property taxes, there is a massive discrepancy between high income and low income districts.  Districts that are made up of predominantly non-white students receive $23 billion dollars less annually than districts made up of predominantly white students, despite the fact that they serve the same number of students.  And, students in these low-income districts start at a disadvantage before they even begin kindergarten.  By age 3, students from lower income families and upper income families have a 30 million word gap. 

One often offered solution to the achievement gap is school choice.  School choice allows families to redirect public education funds to private schools, charter schools, or home schools. The most common school choice programs involve scholarship tax credits which exist in many states. The most controversial form of school choice is the school choice voucher program. Eighteen states have voucher programs. The movement gained prominence in 1990 with the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program. Indiana’s Choice Scholarship Program is the largest voucher program. 

Supporters of school choice say that it expands options for students with poor educational options in their neighborhood and gives parents options. They think public schools should be run like businesses subject to competition from other schools and closure if they don’t work. 

Critics say that it redirects public school funds to private institutions in an effort to privatize education, therefore undermining public education. They say that schools cannot run like a business because students are not products. They say that public schools have to accept all students, but private schools don’t and public schools are hurt when their funds are diverted because the schools they are diverted from are already typically underfunded. Choice schools are not accountable to the public, oversight is often lax, and some choice schools violate separation of church and state (where tax dollars would be diverted to religious institutions through the choice program).

Here is where the candidates stand on the issues.  Click on their name to be taken to their campaign website’s full plans.

Joe Biden:  Joe’s wife, Dr. Jill Biden, has worked as an educator for more than 30 years. Biden vows to give teachers the pay and dignity they deserve.  He will invest in resources for our schools so students grow into physically and emotionally healthy adults so that educators can focus on teaching.  He wants to ensure that no child’s future is determined based on their zip code, parents’ income, race, or disability.  He says he will provide every middle and high school student a path to a successful career and start investing in children at birth.  Here are some specifics of his plan:

• Invest to eliminate the funding gap.  He will triple funding for Title I which benefits schools with a high percentage of low income families.  He will require these funds be used for competitive teacher salaries, then access to pre-school for three and four year olds, as well as other critical investments before directing the funding into other purposes.
• Help teachers pay off their student loans by fixing the current Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program.  Currently 99% of applications are denied.
• Make what he calls an unprecedented investment in school mental health professionals to double the number of psychologists, guidance counselors, nurses and social workers so kids get the mental health support they need.
• Include federal infrastructure legislation aimed specifically at improving school buildings.
• Provide universal pre-k for all three and four year olds.
• He also has plans to improve teacher diversity, build innovative schools in low-income communities, diversify schools, supporting children with disabilities by fully funding the IDEA Act, and create more opportunities for high school students to take practical classes that lead to more credentials.

Donald Trump:  Central to Trump’s education plan is his support for school choice.  His budgets have made school choice a priority and he has encouraged state and federal lawmakers to expand school choice.  The additional achievements in education he lists on his campaign website include:

• recalling the Education Department’s order that public schools allow “gender-confused males access to girls’ restrooms and lockers.”
• signing the INSPIRE Act which encouraged NASA to have more women and girls participate in STEM and pursue careers in aerospace.
• announcing $200 million in grant funds directed toward STEM education, an effort spearheaded by Ivanka Trump.
• rolling back various guidance documents on affirmative action because of “unnecessary or improper rulemaking.”
• reauthorizing the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act providing nearly 1.3 billion annually for career and technical programs.
• forgiving over $300 million in outstanding debt to 4 schools impacted by  natural disasters.
• signing a “historic executive order that promotes and protects free speech on college campuses.”
• appropriating more money than any other president to Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
• signing legislation to increase funding for HBCU’s by 13%, the highest level ever.
• lifting the ban on Pell Grants on summer classes.
• lowering regulatory hurdles and restoring flexibility to schools with respect to cafeteria menus.
• waiving the interest on all federal student loans during the Covid-19 crisis.