Sen. Kamala Harris’s (D-CA) campaign fleshed out the first big policy proposal of her presidential campaign Monday morning, detailing a plan that would raise the average public school teacher pay by $13,500 per year.
The proposal addresses an issue that has had growing political potency in recent years, and has led to successful strikes for higher pay from red states like West Virginia and Oklahoma to blue cities like Harris’s adopted hometown of Los Angeles.
“Our country’s success is a product of the two groups who raise our children: parents and teachers. We are not paying our teachers their value,” Harris said in a statement. “Teachers should not have to work two or three jobs to pay the bills. This proposal will lift up teachers and families across America, give every American teacher a raise, and make a much-needed investment in our country’s future.”
Harris has assiduously looked to court minority voters and women in her presidential bid, the two largest voting blocs by far in Democratic primaries, and this policy would disproportionately affect those groups. Roughly three quarters of public school teachers are female, and about half of public school students are nonwhite, a number that continues to rise.
Harris’s advisers say the plan would cost $315 billion over a decade and could be paid for by increasing the estate tax and closing tax loopholes for wealthy earners.
The plan also calls for a multi-billion-dollar investment in teacher training programs, half of which would be given to historically black colleges and other minority-focused institutions.
She originally floated the plan over the weekend during a visit to a historically black college in Dallas, Texas.
While I like this idea, schools are a very local issue and many communities don’t have the resources to pay this much money. What I would like to see the ending of taxpayer money to private schools and the taxing of churches to help fund public schools.
I do like Harris. This talks past Trump. It good and appropriate policy. Has roots in fairness as teachers are way underpaid commensurate to the requisite education for the work and it’s a profession with a strong female majority.
It’s smart.
I think that others like Warren are great having in the race in order to throw things like wealth tax into the discussion, but ultimately the party can really only rally around one big issue and I think we should focus on pushing for Medicare for all, and settle for the Buy-in to Medicare as the public option of a strengthened ACA.
I think Harris is it.
Then she selects Sherrod Vrown as her VP and we lock out the upper midwest from Trump and make a play for GA and NC
I think you may be missing the point, here. Harris’ plan isn’t to require every community to increase teacher salaries. Rather, it’s to require taxpayers in high tax states, like where I live, to subsidize the wages of teachers in low tax (or no income tax) states. It’s no surprise that she got a rousing response to her proposal in Texas, because Texas - with all its natural resource wealth - doesn’t pay its teachers jack, while my state spends a lot on doing better by its teachers, and taxes it’s citizens a lot to do so. So, Senator Harris had better have a good answer for that before she comes to my community. By the way, the donor states would be just all of Blue America, while the recipient states would be all of Trump’s Red America. Thank you, Kanala. Great idea.
Smart move. Teachers have been on strike all over the country, in AZ, OK, KY, CA in particular. There isn’t a more networked, organized constituency. If you get the teachers on your side, that moves the needle.
On the other hand, this shows Harris’s potential weakness, because running on a bunch of expensive small-bore bits-and-pieces of policy is very risky in an election in which authenticity and a broad vision are vital.
It’s an interesting proposal but, i wonder if it could backfire? In any case, i agree that teachers need to be paid more