I am perhaps the only presidential candidate to ever hold a Masters degree in Educational Supervision and Administration, and I will be a huge advocate for education. The role of education ( remove in a democracy) has long been seen as crucial in a democracy, and yet the quality of the education our children receive is tremendously disparate and usually determined by their parents zip code. We must equip all our young with nothing less than the finest education, and it must include a civics component.
Education is the domain of the local and state, and must include parents input. While education should not be controlled by the federal government, Washington can serve by making resources available to states and localities, serving as a clearinghouse for curriculums and programs that are effective, as well as a national curriculum of what our children should know. New programs encouraging cooperation, communication, collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking must be enacted. There must be resilience and research components, as children learn both life skills and how to navigate the abundance of content today to determine fact from fiction. I want all the arts curriculums restored to positions of importance at all levels of education. I want fresh, successful approaches, such as those used in Finland, to be considered and when possible implemented.
Higher education has degenerated into a big business, as jobs and profits go for large bureaucracies, student amenities, and luxurious facilities and not towards teachers and actual education. It must be made more affordable, and this can be done by reducing bureaucracy.
While I affirm the value of promoting science, math, and tech education for the jobs of the future, I also promote the value of trade schools for practical and good paying jobs that may not require college degrees.
We have a serious teacher shortage we have to address. Good teachers burn out and leave the education field due to excessive paperwork, harassment from administrators out to make names for themselves, excessive responsibilities besides actual teaching, or abusive or non-cooperative parents. All these things that make the profession a nightmare most be addressed and removed or we will never attract the young adults to make teaching a career. We also need to make the education needed to prepare for the teaching profession more affordable.