Joe Biden told members of the nation’s largest teachers’ union that if elected president, he would raise teachers’ salaries by tripling Title I funding from $15 billion to $45 billion per year.
The former vice president and 2020 Democrat contender spoke to members of the National Education Association (NEA) in Houston Friday at a forum for Democrat presidential candidates:
Following a controversy over his views on school “busing,” Biden responded to a question about how he would be “more inclusive with students of color in economically deprived areas” by stating he would increase spending.
In addition to raising teachers’ salaries, Biden said he would increase universal pre-K spending and invest $100 billion in teacher mentoring programs for school districts.
“We have to have you in the schools teaching, you shouldn’t be doing two jobs or three jobs,” he said, Education Week reported.
“We ask too much of you right now,” Biden told NEA members, vowing to pay for more aides and school psychologists in schools.
Biden also promised to give teachers more voice in education policy.
“We have to elevate teachers as the professionals they are,” he continued.
“You in the classroom should be a part of the agenda as to what you are going to teach,” he said. “Teachers should have the ability to have an input, and I think it should be regularized in terms of the school districts.”
“That’s a local decision, but I will put a lot of pressure to make sure teachers are in on deciding what the curricula is, what you’re going to teach,” Biden promised.
Under former President Barack Obama and Biden, the Common Core State Standards originated in the 2009 stimulus package. Common Core required teacher evaluations to be based, in part, on student performance on the Common Core-aligned assessments.
Teachers’ unions rebelled against that requirement, however.
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