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Kamala Harris’ Education Election Platform

I appreciate that Senator Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign site is also available in Spanish because that is reflective of the growing demographic change in America, which includes becoming linguistically and ethnically diverse. It’s interesting that her “Fighting for Racial Justice” blurb is last on her list of issues page. Was it an add-on or is she giving it special significant placement in the middle to offset some concerns people have about her record as a prosecutor and the convictions and sentencing of African Americans?

In searching for her educational platform, besides “Raising Teacher Pay” and “Debt-Free College and Student Debt” plans, I don’t see where she addresses P-20 issues. Hopefully these issues are addressed under her “Economic Justice” and “Fighting for Racial Justice” platforms since economic equality seems to be the way Senator Kamala Harris thinks we should go to achieve racial justice. I personally believe that a high quality “education for all” is a civil rights issue and would like to see detailed positions on how we can achieve this as a country.

“Raising Teacher Pay”

Teacher pay is one of her top platforms if we go with issue placement on her platform page. I will be delving into this policy more as time goes on.

“Fighting for Racial Justice”

It’s under this platform issue that Kamala Harris mentions the inequitable American educational system by citing Brown v. Board of Education. According to her site, “That’s why her teacher pay plan is designed to build a pipeline of teachers of color and inject billions of federal dollars into schools serving students of color. If a Black child has a Black teacher by 3rd grade, it makes them 13% more likely to go to college.” This is a sound idea backed by educational research. In fact, research shows that White students benefit from having Black teachers as well. Increasing the number of teachers of color is imperative since the student population is increasingly ethnically, racially, and linguistically diverse as the United States’ heads toward a minority majority in the near future.

I think that seeding into teachers of color will also provide promising career opportunities for men and women who would not otherwise have this career option, which also helps with economic opportunities . . . Especially if we improve teacher pay.

Reference
https://kamalaharris.org/
https://kamalaharris.org/es/

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Joe Biden’s Education Election Platform

Former Vice President and Senator, Joe Biden, is a democratic presidential candidate for Election 2020. When looking at his educational platform, “Joe’s Plan for Educators, Students, and our Future,” I agree with many of Biden’s ideas. Like Biden, I believe that the government and our local communities should provide our teachers with all the support that teachers need to provide high quality education to our children from early learning pre-K to college (P-20). Additionally, closing the opportunity or achievement gaps is an educational issue I am passionate about; I believe a solution for this is focusing on the equitable resource allocation of educational funding in public schools. The unequal distribution of education funding is a civil rights issue—a detrimental factor in giving every American citizen an equal opportunity to live the American dream.

PRO: Joe Biden’s wife, Jill, has been an educator for over 30 years, so she should have a solid understanding of educational issues to assist with guiding her husband’s educational policies.

Increasing Teacher Pay

I will never understand why we don’t place the teaching profession in high esteem. We trust teachers with our most precious gifts, our children, why not pay teachers what they are worth? We claim that we want high quality teachers in our public schools, however, we are not willing to pay the price for high quality teachers, which requires increasing teachers’ salaries. The old saying “you get what you pay for” is so true. If teachers’ morale are low, which can partly be attributed to low pay because teachers cannot afford to earn a comfortable wage, how can we expect them to pour their best care and knowledge into our children?

Comprehensive Plan for Educators & Students

Biden’s educational platform is well-rounded, not just focusing on the political buzz phrase for the 2020 campaign: eliminating student loan debt. Biden’s plan is comprehensive, covering P-20. I will have to do a further review because he provides many details.

Reference:
https://joebiden.com/education/

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What is Critical Literacy Education?

Baker-Bell, et al. (2017) and Lewison & Van Sluys (2002) provide good overviews of the major components of critical literacy education. Social justice goals fueled critical literacy education because critical literacy education’s goals were to disrupt power relationships in language and literacy (Baker-Bell, et al., 2017; Morrell, 2005) across “four interrelated dimensions: (a) disrupting the commonplace, (b) interrogating multiple viewpoints, (c) focusing on sociopolitical issues, and (d) taking action and promoting social justice (382)” (Lewison & Van Sluys, 2002, qtd. In Rodesiler and Premont, 2018, p. 82).

Critical literacy education (Janks, et al., 2014; Lewison, et al., 2002, & Morrell, 2005) is rooted in a sociocultural perspective of literacy learning (Heath, Gee, Streeter), New Literacies studies, critical theory (Freire), and critical race theory (Derrick Bell).

Researchers use critical race theory as a framework to examine the intersection of race with society as a whole, as well as individuals and institutions (Allen, 2015).

Foundational, Morrell’s (2005) notion of Critical English Education was “explicit about the role of language and literacy in conveying meaning and in promoting or disrupting existing power relations”.