Beginning at 9:45 a.m. (ET) on December 14, MSNBC
is hosting a public education forum for eight of the Democratic presidential
candidates: Michael Bennet, Joe Biden, Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg, Amy
Klobuchar, Bernie Sanders, Tom Steyer, and Elizabeth Warren.
The Alliance for Excellent Education (All4Ed) has prepared a series of education recommendations that every presidential candidate, including President Donald Trump, should consider to ensure all children have equitable opportunities to thrive and be well prepared to assume a productive role in an increasingly global economy. The future of our country rests on what we offer to our students and our actions tell our students what it is we value.
Transforming High
School into A Relevant and Meaningful Experience
Economic reality and academic preparation are at an impasse.
Eighty
percent of good paying jobs require postsecondary education, but only 40
percent of first-time college freshman graduate in 4-years. Evidence
demonstrates that students with early college experiences are five to
seven times more likely than their peers to earn a postsecondary credential.
While opportunities have grown for high school students to earn college credits,
they have yet to be systemically embedded into the high school experience,
particularly for historically underserved students.
The demands of the modern economy call for high school to be
transformed and restructured. Rather than maintaining high school and higher
education as distinct entities, presidential candidates should consider ways to
restructure secondary and postsecondary education so that high school
culminates in a degree/certificate with labor market value or substantial
transferable credits toward a bachelor’s degree, in addition to a high school
diploma. Policy recommendations include:
- Align
high school graduation requirements with college admissions requirements;
- Redesign
12th grade by allowing academically prepared high school seniors
to either graduate early with a scholarship or enroll in a full-slate of dual
enrollment (or AP/IB) courses that constitute the equivalent of the freshman
year in college and replace seat time with demonstrated mastery of core
competencies;
- Create a federal program to support the expansion of early college high school
programs and require multiple dual enrollment courses, AP/IB, etc. in all
high schools at no cost to the student or the student’s family;
- Design High
School to College and Career pathways, including pathways that incorporate
real work experiences with statewide articulation agreements that culminate in
meaningful postsecondary credentials; and
- Implement reporting and accountability systems to ensure equitable access and success in
college-level coursework enrollment, credit attainment, and completion of High
School to College and Career pathways.
Five-Point Equity Agenda
for Education
Educational equity is the civil rights issue of our time. Presidential
candidates should issue a multi-point equity agenda for education to reverse
Trump/DeVos policies and close opportunity gaps that have led to persistent
achievement gaps. Items on the agenda should include:
- Providing a pathway
to citizenship for undocumented young people brought to the U.S. by their
parents.
- Increasing
investments in core education programs (Title I) in tandem with formula
changes to ensure resources are equitably targeted to communities and students most
in need. (Note: it is essential to ensure students have support systems to
increase literacy and numeracy achievement so that success in rigorous
coursework is achievable);
- Advance resource
equity (beyond funding) to ensure historically underserved students have equitable
access to rigorous coursework, excellent educators, modern school facilities
and technology (including internet access), school counselors, social workers, etc.
(Note: the ratio of support staff, such as students to counselors and social
workers ratios, must be altered dramatically);
- Promote school
integration through new federal funding to combat the trend toward increasing school segregation
evident in recent research and to realize the promise of Brown V. Board of Education;
- Ensure schools
are safe/inclusive environments for all students, including protecting the rights
of transgender students, expanded funding for the U.S. Department of
Education’s Office for Civil Rights, Title IX enforcement, addressing
significant disproportionality under IDEA, expanding the role of Safe and
Healthy Schools programs, and banning the use of federal education funding for
firearms in schools and firearms training for educators.