NEA applauds Warren plan to strengthen America’s public schools

WASHINGTON - National Education Association President Lily Eskelsen García provided the following statement in response to the release of Senator Elizabeth Warren’s education plan:

“Going into 2020, educators are looking for a candidate who will champion our nation’s public schools and worker rights -- someone who will partner with parents and educators to ensure every student, no matter what zip code they live in, has access to quality public schools.

“We applaud Senator Warren’s plan to strengthen America’s public schools and ensure that every student has the opportunity to get a quality public education. Warren’s plan is rooted in respect for our nation’s educators, and recognizes that those who know the names of the kids in their classrooms should be making education decisions. Her plan renews Senator Warren’s promise to appoint someone with experience working in our public schools as Secretary of Education.

“And Warren rightfully seeks to stop the privatization of our public schools by banning for-profit charters and ending the federal funding for expanding charter schools. She plans to stop diverting money from our public schools and focus on putting students, rather than profits, first.

“Senator Warren, along with the other candidates, witnessed how educators have used the power of their collective voice in the #RedForEd movement. And now NEA’s 3 million members will use this power to elect a champion for students and our neighborhood public schools to the White House.”

Additionally, Warren’s plan calls for:

• Paying educators like the professionals they are and funding schools adequately.
• Reducing class sizes so that every student can have the personal attention they need to learn.
• Quadrupling funding for Title I; conditioning the extra funding on states adopting more progressive funding formulas, while imposing tougher transparency requirements on its use to better understand what investments work best, and encouraging states to use Title I funds on integration efforts of their own design.
• Helping 25,000 public schools transition to community schools; investing an additional $25 billion to improve school facilities on top of related commitments in other plans, such as clean energy; and fully funding BIE schools to support major construction and repair backlogs.
• Establishing more school-based health centers through a $25 billion capital fund for communities that are in health professional shortage areas.
• Recognizing that policies around housing, clean energy and broadband deployment need to be discussed when talking about boosting education outcomes for our students.

As educators continue doing their homework to learn about each of the candidates, praise for any candidate’s proposal should not be seen as an endorsement of that candidate by the NEA. As America’s largest union and largest organization of educators, NEA will continue engaging in conversations with all candidates as we vet them to determine who has the best ideas for ensuring all students, regardless of where they live, receive support, tools, and time to learn.

Educators are trusted and powerful voices in every community. NEA represents 1 in 100 Americans, and 1 in 39 voters comes from an NEA household. NEA members are located in every U.S. congressional district, including key battleground states, which makes them key electoral influencers.