The candidates aspire to cut the cost of child care, boost support for public K-12 schools and expand access to higher education
by SARAH BUTRYMOWICZ, ARIEL GILREATH, MEREDITH KOLODNER, JACKIE MADER, NEAL MORTON, CAROLINE PRESTON, JAVERIA SALMAN, CHRISTINA A. SAMUELS, OLIVIA SANCHEZ and NIRVI SHAH
August 13, 2024
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Education vaulted to the forefront of conversations about the presidential race when Democratic nominee Kamala Harris announced Tim Walz as her running mate. Walz, the governor of Minnesota, worked for roughly two decades in public schools, as a geography teacher and football coach. He has championed investments in public education: For example, in March 2023, he signed a bill to make school meals free to all students in public schools.
Harris, a former U.S. senator and attorney general in California, has less experience in education than her running mate. But her record suggests that she would back policies to make child care more affordable, protect immigrant and LGBTQ+ students and promote broader access to higher education through free community college and loan forgiveness. Like Walz, she has defended schools and teachers against Republican charges that they are “indoctrinating” young people; she has also spoken about her own experience of being bused in Berkeley, California, as part of a program to desegregate the city’s schools.
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Harris and Walz have been endorsed by the country’s two largest teachers unions, the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, which tend to support Democratic candidates.
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