from Vox.com
Democratic candidates scrambled to talk about raising teachers salaries during the debate.
By Ella Nilsenella.nilsen@vox.com
Sep 12, 2019, 11:35pm EDT
Teachers got their moment at the third Democratic debate when Democratic candidates rushed to defend public education and proposed raising teachers salaries.
Education and raising teachers’ salaries are issues that are often decided at the state and local level. But even so, there was a robust education discussion during the ABC News/Univision debate — and candidates often returned to the idea of paying teachers more,even when pressed on more controversial education topics such as the role of charter schools.
“Some of it is simple, we just have to pay teachers more,” South Bend Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg said. “And we have to lift up the teaching profession.”
Candidates didn’t shy away from embracingteachers unions. At one point, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) was asked point blank by a moderatorwhether she was “just jumping into bed with teachers unions.” It was a question easily deflected by Warren, a former public school teacher herself.
“We will have a secretary of education who has been a public school teacher,” Warren said, repeating a line taking direct aim at current Trump administration Secretary of State Betsy DeVos, a conservative billionaire who is a proponent of school vouchers andcharter schools. “Let’s be clear in all the ways we talk about this, money for public schools should stay in public schools. Not go anywhere else.”
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