Interviews during 2017-2019: on Education
Jo Jorgensen:
Arm teachers to keep kids safe at school
Q: Should teachers be allowed to carry guns at school?A: Yes. There is no more immediate way to keep kids safe than by having an armed and trained adult on the scene.
This will save precious lives. The mere knowledge that a teacher may carry a gun will deter crime.
Source: AFA iVoterGuide on 2020 presidential hopefuls
Nov 3, 2020
Jo Jorgensen:
Opposes federally funded free college tuition
Q: Support free (or highly subsidized) public college tuition or loan forgiveness for low-income students?Jo Jorgensen: No. Opposes federally funded free tuition or increasing taxes on the rich to reduce cost of student loans.
Howie Hawkins: Yes. Supports lifelong free public education, pre-K through college, and student loan fund for debt forgiveness.
Source: CampusElect on 2020 presidential hopefuls
Aug 30, 2020
Gloria La Riva:
End unpaid internships; allow student workers to unionize
We call for the abolition of unpaid internships throughout all industries, including nonprofit organizations. We call for an end to any academic requirements that force students to work without pay.
We call for students &college &university workers, including but not limited to athletes, interns, and graduate students, to unionize within and across their respective departments, and for student athletes to unionize within all athletic divisions.
Source: Socialist PSL Platform adopted by 2020 presidential hopeful
Aug 3, 2020
Gloria La Riva:
Forgiveness of all outstanding federal student loans
We demand equal access to higher education for all people and support publicly funded higher education.
We call for the forgiveness of all outstanding federal student loans and believe that students should not be saddled with decades of debt simply because they pursue higher education.
Source: Socialist PSL Platform adopted by 2020 presidential hopeful
Aug 3, 2020
Gloria La Riva:
Schools should reflect community; students on school boards
We call for affirmative action programs so that the faculty and student-body of all schools reflect the community at large in terms of race/ethnicity, gender, and economic background. We support student, parent, and teacher control of curriculum
formation, and in the hiring and dismissal procedures of school personnel. We call for student representation on school boards, and for those boards to be fully accountable to students, parents, teachers, and school workers.
Source: Socialist PSL Platform adopted by 2020 presidential hopeful
Aug 3, 2020
Donald Trump:
We're not going to fund schools if they don't open
Schools have to open [despite the coronavirus pandemic]. Young people have to go to school, and there's problems when you don't go to school, too. And there's going to be a funding problem because we're not going to fund--when they don't
open their schools. We're not going to fund them. We're not going to give them money if they're not going to school. If they don't open.
Source: Fox News Sunday interview of 2020 presidential hopefuls
Jul 19, 2020
Howie Hawkins:
Free college tuition for qualified students; abolish loans
Provide free college tuition to all qualified students at public universities and vocational schools. Abolish all student and parent loans taken out to finance post-secondary and vocational education.Eliminate police officers from our schools.
Ensure school security personnel are trained for, and held accountable to, conflict resolution techniques and anti-bias training. Security personnel should demonstrate cultural competency and refrain from enforcing white supremacist oppressive tactics.
Source: Green Party Platform adopted by 2020 presidential hopeful
Jul 12, 2020
Howie Hawkins:
Increased funding for the arts as essential
Eliminating all laws that seek to restrict or censor artistic expression, including the withholding of government funds for political or moral content. Increased funding for the arts appropriate to
their essential social role at local, state and federal levels of government. Education programs in the community that will energize the creativity of every community member from the youngest to the oldest,
Source: Green Party Platform adopted by 2020 presidential hopeful
Jul 12, 2020
Kanye West:
Reinstate the fear and love of God in all schools
Reinstate in God's state, in God's country, the fear and love of God in all schools and organizations and you chill the fear and love of everything else. So that was a plan by the Devil to have our kids committing suicide at an all-time high by removing
God, to have murders in Chicago at an all-time high because the human beings working for the Devil removed God and prayer from the schools. That means more drugs, more murders, more suicide.
Source: Forbes Magazine on 2020 presidential hopefuls
Jul 8, 2020
Rocky De La Fuente:
Empower parents and older children; personalized curriculum
Universal preschool programs and kindergarten are essential for starting our children off on the right foot. Empower parents and older children. We need to give parents more control over the education of their children.
Create and support non-accredited schools that focus on blending a specialized and more personalized curriculum with project-based assessment and apprenticeship.
Source: Reform Party Platform adopted by 2020 presidential hopeful
Jun 22, 2020
Don Blankenship:
Tax relief for families whose children not in public school
We support the unimpeded right of parents to provide for the education of their children in the manner they deem best, including home, private or religious. All legislation that would interfere with or restrict that liberty should be opposed.
Equitable tax relief for families whose children do not attend government schools should be provided for. Compulsory attendance laws should be repealed.
WE CALL FOR THE ELIMINATION OF THE FEDERAL DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION.
There is no Constitutional provision that empowers the federal government to provide for and regulate the education of our children.
All current federal legislation related to education should be repealed. No new federal laws subsidizing or regulating education should be enacted.
Source: Constitution Platform adopted by 2020 presidential hopeful
May 2, 2020
Justin Amash:
Education key to fixing wealth gap, leave it at state level
I think there is a gap between the rich and the poor that is widening, and you can see it in businesses. You can see that people who have professional skills are often advancing while people with blue-collar skills are being left behind.
I think this starts with the education system. And these are mostly state-level issues, not federal issues. But finding ways for adults who are in difficult circumstances to get education and training in new fields, I think, is really important.
Source: Reason magazine on 2020 presidential hopefuls
May 1, 2020
Joe Biden:
Plan to forgive federal student debt & ease repayment burden
I've directed my team to develop a plan to forgive federal student debt relating to the cost of tuition currently held by low-income and middle-class people for undergraduate public colleges and universities, as well as private Historically Black
Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and private, underfunded Minority-Serving Institution (MSIs). This proposal would be in addition to my existing student debt proposals:- Immediately cancel a minimum of $10,000 of student debt per person
-
Those earning less than $25,000 per year will not have to make monthly payments and will accrue no interest
- Those earning more than $25,000 per year will pay no more than 5% of discretionary income toward payments
- After 20 years, the remainder
of federal student loans will be forgiven without any tax burden
- Those who participate in public service will be eligible for additional federal loan forgiveness, including $10,000 per year of forgiveness for up to five years.
Source: Medium.com blog on 2020 presidential hopefuls
Apr 9, 2020
Andrew Yang:
Pay teachers enough to attract and retain the best
I think it's policy number 14 on my website, Yang2020.com, is pay teachers more. This is an investment in ourselves. The data shows that a good teacher is worth his or her weight in gold, in terms of the increased education outcomes for all of the
children in their classrooms. And when you look at the data, teachers are the most important variable consistently. We need to attract and retain the best teachers we can find, and we will all be better off for it.
Source: CNN Town Hall: 2020 presidential hopefuls
Apr 14, 2019
Julian Castro:
Invest in public schools, pre-K through higher ed
The thing that I'm most proud of was that when I was mayor of San Antonio, we took to the voters a ballot initiative to raise the sales tax by an eighth of a cent to expand high quality full-day Pre-K for our 4-year-olds.
Science is very clear that if you have a dollar to invest in education, the best time to invest it is when a child is young. We need universal Pre-K for 3- and 4-year-olds in our country.
We have to improve K-12 education by investing in our public schools, paying teachers what they deserve, making sure that the needs of a child can be met at the school that they attend. We need to make higher education universal, so that people
can go to a public university, community college, and apprenticeship program, some sort of job training program, at least tuition free so that everybody gets the knowledge and the skills that they need to compete.
Source: CNN Town Hall: 2020 presidential hopefuls
Apr 11, 2019
Jay Inslee:
Cut college tuition; provide assistance to neediest
One of the things we've done is we've reduced tuition. We haven't cut it in half, but we've reduced it. We have dramatically increased access to financial aid, and we've done it in a really smart way.
We've probably 20 percent or 30 percent increase eventually we will have as to the number of students who are getting financial aid.
We have targeted the financial aid to those who were really most in the need, which are the lower, you know, quintile or quartile of our students.
And we've given them not just free tuition, but we've given them the full meal deal You have to be able to eat when you're going to school and you have to be able to buy books and take care of your transportation needs.
Source: CNN Town Hall: 2020 presidential hopefuls
Apr 10, 2019
Kirsten Gillibrand:
Strongly support education, but one size doesn't fit all
I think we need a much broader approach to fixing our public school education system than just charter versus non-charter.
When a child shows up to school hungry, it means making sure you have breakfast program, a lunch program, maybe even a dinner program.
If a child has to walk through a bad neighborhood to get to school, or there's gang violence in their community, they need to have after school program, and we need to have summer school. They need to have internships. I think you need to have a
solution that is broad based enough to meet the needs of all public schools. We want all public schools to rise in all parts of the country. We need to support our teachers. We need to make sure that we fully fund special ed.
Source: CNN Town Hall: 2020 presidential hopefuls
Apr 9, 2019
Wayne Messam:
Relieve graduates of "crippling debt" from college loans
Messam wants to relieve students of more than
$1.5 trillion in debt from universities. "Every day people are graduating from universities with crippling debt, stifling their opportunity for financial mobility," he said in his campaign video.
Source: Townhall.com on 2020 presidential hopefuls
Mar 28, 2019
Cory Booker:
Support public education including some charter schools
I fought for excellent schools no matter whether they were magnet schools or charter schools. In fact, I fought to close low- performing charter schools.
Local leaders need to find the best solutions for public education that work for them.
Whether it's charter or district, local leaders have to support it. On the federal level my goal is that everyone in America regardless of ZIP Code has a great public school.
And we do that by funding our public schools, by supporting public schoolteachers, forgiving their debt, increasing their salaries, and making sure we're drawing more people into the profession.
Source: CNN Town Hall: 2020 presidential hopefuls
Mar 27, 2019
Cory Booker:
Free community college; loan forgiveness; apprenticeships
Student loan [debt] is changing the culture of an entire generation who are putting aside buying their first home, starting businesses, even getting married because of crushing student debt, at the same time that other countries are lowering their cost
of college. The most offensive part is that the federal government is profiting off of the backs of our students. The student loan program makes billions of dollars. [We should have] a system of debt-free college free community college, and make sure
that certain professions, like teachers, we are going to forgive your debt.I am just as determined to have apprenticeship programs. If I am president, we will have robust apprenticeship programs for kids to learn the skills of a 21st century economy,
like advanced manufacturing, to learn and earn at the same time. If you're a person that's older and lose your job, this country should say to you there is a place for you, as well, to get a midcareer apprenticeship.
Source: CNN Town Hall: 2020 presidential hopefuls
Mar 27, 2019
John Hickenlooper:
Free skills training & free community college
Look at the existing debt that kids have now--$1.5 trillion for college debt. The first thing is, "how do we structure those loans?" But the other question is, "why is it costing so much that these schools, every year, are raising their tuition by 8% or
12%?" That is a national issue that we all have to address.We often forget about the 70% of kids in this country who are never going to get a four-year degree. We have backed away from all our vocational training at the very time when automation and
artificial intelligence are going to turn our workplace upside-down. Now is the time to look at how do we make sure those kids get a chance to acquire the skills so that they can be successful in this rapidly evolving economy.
In Colorado, we started with apprenticeship programs. Here's my vision. I think we should have the largest expansion of free skills and free community colleges in the history of this country.
Source: CNN Town Hall: 2020 presidential hopefuls
Mar 20, 2019
Amy Klobuchar:
Free community college; expand Pell Grants
I think we have to do everything to help our students afford college. My idea is to make it easier to refinance, to start with two-year degrees, the community colleges being free.
We need to make it easier to afford college, by making it easier to refinance these loans, by extending Pell Grants so it includes more students.
Source: CNN Town Hall: 2020 presidential hopefuls
Feb 18, 2019
Bill Weld:
Control of education by states and parents, more choice
Parents need more options regarding the education of their children. We need to support school choice. We need to support home schooling. We need to support charter schools. And we need to consider abolishing the U. S. Department of
Education, transferring decision-making authority to the States and the parents of school-age and college-age children. Oh, and the current federal provision which prevents the renegotiation of student debt? We need to repeal it immediately.
Source: Speech in New Hampshire by 2020 presidential hopefuls
Feb 15, 2019
Howard Schultz:
Hold colleges responsible, but help students handle debt
If students are not graduating from their college, those colleges should not get federal aid from the government. We should look at ways for bringing those kids back into college and figuring out a way to delay the payments so the burden of
responsibility is still there, but they can live a life in which they're not burdened every day by the trillion dollar-plus debt on the backs of students today.
Source: CNN Town Hall: 2020 presidential hopefuls
Feb 12, 2019
Kamala Harris:
Free tuition at four-year public colleges
- Education: Free tuition at four-year public colleges for most Americans. Create national prekindergarten program.
- Harris would enact the "College for All Act" proposed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.
- That would create a government funding
program that would pay for tuition and fees at public colleges and universities for students with incomes of $125,000 a year or less.
-
This would be funded by a fee on Wall Street firms of 0.5 percent per stock trade.
- She supports expanding Head Start and Early
Head Start, and would create a "national universal prekindergarten," though she has not yet offered specifics for that plan.
Source: PBS News hour on 2020 Presidential hopefuls
Jan 21, 2019
Elizabeth Warren:
Support teacher unions on this time of crisis
- Education and college costs: Wants to make public college free.
- Warren has supported efforts aimed at lowering college costs. She backed a 2017 bill--introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.--that would have eliminated out tuition for
many students attending public colleges.
- She also backed a proposal from
Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, that would have let students attend public colleges without having to take on any loans to pay for tuition, room and board, books, or other expenses.
-
She said in a July, 2018 speech that "this is a time of crisis" for the country's teachers, and has supported teachers unions.
- This week, she tweeted support for the Los Angeles teachers who began striking on Tuesday.
Source: PBS News hour on 2020 Presidential hopefuls
Jan 17, 2019
Kirsten Gillibrand:
Make public higher education debt-free
- Gillibrand says she wants to create a path to college for those that can't afford it by creating better education programs for low-income students and creating tax deductions on college tuition.
- She co-sponsored the "Debt-Free College Act of
2018," which offers federal matching funds to states to help students pay for two- and four-year public colleges without taking on debt.
- The bill would help pay for tuition and room and board, but it does not specify how it would fund the plan.
Source: PBS News hour on 2020 Presidential hopefuls
Jan 16, 2019
Tulsi Gabbard:
Tuition-free community college for all
Gabbard backs Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders' proposal to cut or eliminate higher education tuition for most Americans. She would make community college tuition-free for all Americans, and four-year public colleges tuition-free for
students whose families make $125,000 or less per year. The plan would pay for that tuition by imposing a new tax on stock and bond trades.
Source: PBS News hour on 2020 Presidential hopefuls
Jan 14, 2019
Julian Castro:
Two free years of higher education
- Education: Establish universal pre-K education. Provide two free years of higher education.
- As mayor of San Antonio, Castro convinced voters to raise taxes one-eighth of a cent to create the city's pre-kindergarten program for four-year-olds.
- He supports "universal pre-kindergarten" nationally and would like to make the first two years of higher education free.
- He has not yet offered specifics on his plans.
Source: PBS News hour on 2020 Presidential hopefuls
Jan 12, 2019
Beto O`Rourke:
Investment in public education pays off
When you have schoolteachers in this state, half of whom work in a second or third job just to make ends meet, that's not right. Investment in education, starting public education not in kindergarten, but in pre-K doesn't come cheap. It's an investment
that pays dividends. If we put $76 billion up over the next 10 years, for every dollar we put in, we get $9 back. That's a $650 billion return on that $76 billion that we put in. That ensures that we have the educated workforce for the future.
Source: CNN Town Hall: 2020 presidential hopefuls
Oct 18, 2018
Marco Rubio:
Bad idea to arm teachers against school shootings
The mass shootings in Newtown, Orlando, and even Fort Lauderdale didn't get Sen. Marco Rubio to seriously reconsider his position on guns. But Rubio shifted on firearms as he weathered the righteous anger of a parent and of the students who survived the
Valentine's Day massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and who then faced him onstage at a CNN town hall.Jeered and booed by the crowd, buffeted by tough questions, Rubio stood alone as the only Republican onstage. He broke with President
Trump on whether to arm teachers. Rubio said it was a bad idea. He said he would favor raising the minimum age to purchase an assault rifle from 18 to 21. And he said he would consider restricting the size of magazines for firearms.
It was a striking
turnabout for Rubio, who never met a gun-rights bill he didn't vote for in the Florida Legislature and, later, in Congress. But Rubio said he wanted to prevent another massacre and said it was time for everyone to start rethinking their positions.
Source: Caputo & Morin in Politico.com on 2020 presidential hopefuls
Feb 21, 2018
David Koch:
Push for education savings accounts on state ballots
A major focus for the Koch network--known formally as the Seminar Network--is state legislation, with an aim to remake the nation's education system via referendums and new state laws. The Kochs are particularly enthusiastic about education savings
accounts: a mechanism that upends traditional K-12 education by, in some cases, giving parents lump sums they can use to pay private schools or even online institutions to educate their children.
A top priority for 2018 is in Arizona, where a measure allowing education savings accounts for all students goes on the ballot in November. Arizona Governor Doug Ducey pushed the idea and attended the
Koch network's weekend seminar to chat with donors about it. A similar bill is moving through the New Hampshire Legislature and is supported by Americans for Prosperity [another Koch-funded organization].
Source: Boston Globe on 2020 presidential hopeful, "Koch Rally"
Jan 29, 2018
Oprah Winfrey:
Changing the way people think starts with education
The other way it started - the reason why I wanted to do a school is because I had tried other things and failed. I had tried creating my own Big Sisters program when I first moved to Chicago. I tried moving families out of the projects to give them
a new lease, a chance on life, and what I recognized with all of my failed projects is that unless you change the way people think, you don't change them. You have to start at the core of how they think. So that's why education is so important to me.
Source: Huffington Post speculation on 2020 Presidential hopefuls
Dec 6, 2017
Tom Steyer:
Opportunity Institute: cradle to career approach
The Opportunity Institute will take a "cradle to career" approach to improving education outcomes. It is also backed by philanthropist Tom Steyer, who is the organization's board chair. "Every child needs access to a quality education,
clean air and water, and economic security in order to realize their full potential," he said. "Yet today too many children grow up in poverty and without the basic building blocks˙of opportunity and prosperity."
Source: L.Fredberg in edsource.org on 2020 presidential hopefuls
Feb 17, 2016
Bernie Sanders:
Fix No-Child-Left-Behind with Every-Student-Succeeds-Act
President Obama signed into law the Every Student Succeeds Act, a bipartisan fix to the much-criticized No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. The ESEA bill gives states more power over what to do with failing schools. Federally required testing is no longer
tied to any federal consequences. Rep. Bernie Sanders voted in favor of the initial NCLB bill in May 2001, but voted against the final version in December 2001. Sen. Hillary Clinton voted in favor of both the initial NCLB bill and the final bill.
On the new ESEA bill, Sanders voted for the initial bill in the Senate education committee; then voted in favor on the Senate floor and in favor of the conference committee version. Hillary Clinton announced her support for the
Every Student Succeeds Act, which is widely considered a fix to No Child Left Behind's worst flaws.
Source: Washington Examiner on 2020 presidential hopefuls
Dec 10, 2015
Bill de Blasio:
Add two Muslim holidays to public school vacation schedule
New York City will add two Muslim holidays to its public school calendars, making it the largest school district in the United States to do so, Mayor Bill de Blasio said. Starting next fall, New York City's 1.1 million students in the nation's biggest
public school system will get days off for the most-observed holidays in Islam, Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. "This is a common sense change, and one that recognizes our growing Muslim community and honors its contributions to our City," de Blasio said.
Source: Religion News Service on 2020 presidential hopefuls
Mar 5, 2015
Page last updated: Nov 01, 2021