Saturday, August 22, 2020

Education on the brink, but missing from Biden/Harris speeches


The topic of education was, unfortunately, MIA from the main convention speeches. It barely came up in either the Kamala Harris or Joe Biden speech. This at a time when public ed has been pushed to the brink, not only by the pandemic but by the current administration's response to it and should be a central issue in the campaign.

I'm not sure where party platforms go after elections, but the draft Party Platform does have some good stuff in it. There doesn't seem to be any big changes in it from the 2016 Platform, but it's still a hell of a lot better than the Republicans'. Plus the idea of sending Betsy DeVos packing has my heart aflutter.

From the Platform...
As Democrats, we believe that education is a critical public good—not a commodity—and that it is the government’s responsibility to ensure that every child, everywhere, is able to receive a world-class education that enables them to lead meaningful lives, no matter their race, ZIP code, disability status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or household income.
On the pandemic...
The emergency conditions created by the COVID-19 pandemic have vividly demonstrated to parents, students, and educators across the country that there is no sustainable, long-term substitute for high-quality, in-classroom learning. Significant gaps in access to technology, including lack of access to high-speed broadband, have deepened inequities in our educational system for students of color, students with disabilities, and students in rural areas and under-resourced neighborhoods during this pandemic. We will need increased investments in public education to help students get back on track when public health experts determine it is safe to return to schools. 
On charter schools and vouchers...
Democrats believe that education is a public good and should not be saddled with a private profit motive, which is why we will ban for-profit private charter businesses from receiving federal funding...And Democrats oppose private school vouchers and other policies that divert taxpayer-funded resources away from the public school system.
On testing...
The evidence from nearly two decades of education reforms that hinge on standardized test scores shows clearly that high-stakes testing has not led to enough improvement in outcomes for students or for schools, and can lead to discrimination against students, particularly students with disabilities, students of color, low-income students, and English language learners. Democrats will work to end the use of such high-stakes tests and encourage states to develop reliable, continuous, evidence-based approaches to student assessment that rely on multiple and holistic measures that better represent student achievement. Those measures will be supported by data collection and analysis disaggregated by race, gender, disability status, and other important variables, to identify disparities in educational equity, access, and outcomes.
It will be up to us to demand adherence and accountability from a hopefully new regime.

2 comments:

  1. What are Biden and Harris going to implement that hasn't been tried before? ⊙.☉

    ReplyDelete
  2. What is it that you want them to implement?

    ReplyDelete

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