Subject: Re: K-12
From: "Ann O'Leary" <[email-masked]>
To: John Podesta <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 9 Mar 2016 09:30:52 -0800

What do you think of this:

*outline of hillary’s K-12 agenda *

*I. What American Schools Look Like Today*

·    If you walk into many schools in America today, you will see that
great things are happening. Our students are graduating from high school at
a higher rate than ever before. More Hispanic and black Americans are going
off to college. And in the next two years, 99 percent of our students will
be connected to broadband and high-speed wireless Internet.

·    The public school system is one of the pillars of our democracy. And
increasingly it represents the great strength of American diversity,
with students
of color accounting for the majority of public school students for the
first time in U.S. history.

·    But in too many communities across the country, the promise of
education in America has not been fulfilled. In cities like Detroit,
children are sitting in classrooms with rodents and mold. In states like
North Carolina, the average teacher salary can barely support a family. And
after leading the world in education for much of the 20th century, the
United States now lags behind most other industrialized countries in math
and science.

*II. THE CHALLENGES WE FACE IN THE FUTURE*

·    If we want to continue to break down the barriers our children face,
and provide them ladders of opportunity to the future they deserve, there
are three areas in particular that I believe we must focus on today:

·    *First, lets **begin a national campaign to modernize the teaching
profession and reward teachers as if the future of our country was in their
hands—because it is.*

·    An effective teacher can spark a student’s love for learning and can
significantly impact a child’s life trajectory. Let’s focus on supporting
our teachers and ensure the 1.5 million new teachers we’ll need in the next
decade enter a profession that is valued for the true nature of its worth.
Let’s stop the bleeding that is happening – with half of all new teachers
in America quitting within the first five years of starting their teaching
career. We're asking more of our educators then ever before but we aren't
setting them up for success. Let's provide them clinical training,
opportunities for leadership, and higher pay.

·    *Second, lets re-commit to a uniquely American principle: that the
circumstances of a child’s birth should never dictate the quality of
education they receive.*

·    More than sixty years after Brown v. Board of Education, our public
schools are more segregated by race and income than they were in the
1960’s. And for the first time, more than half of our public school
students come from low-income families. It’s time to re-commit to the
original principles that informed the federal role in education: equity,
diversity, and opportunity for *every* child.

·    Lets provide every child access to high quality early learning
programs. Lets ensure that at-risk students get more, not less resources
than their peers. And lets encourage diversity. It’s America’s strength.
When Republican candidates like Donald Trump deride diversity, they
discount our best asset for the future.

·    And let’s make sure that as we work to make America whole, we focus on
the whole child – and acknowledge that toxic stress created by poverty does
impact learning and that teachers cannot do this work alone. We need to
support parents through two-generation approaches to learning. We need to
provide schools the resources to hire guidance counselors and mental health
providers, and make sure that children from low-income communities once
again have music and art education and opportunities to participate in
gymnastics and ballet. These activities cannot be reserved for only those
who can pay for them.

·    *And third, lets scale what we know works—great schools and innovative
practices that are preparing our students to excel in the future.*

·    There are examples all across the country. Schools that offer cutting
edge coding and computer science classes. Full-service community schools
that provide health and counseling supports to students and their families.
Traditional schools and charter schools that help at-risk students not only
enter, but complete college, by supporting them even after they
matriculate. We should learn from them, deploy their ideas and innovations
in schools across the country, and expand schools that are setting students
on a different trajectory.

*III. Hillary’s Approach*

·    There is so much more work to do. We can all agree that simply adding
more and more tests will not improve the quality of a child’s education. We
can all agree that our teachers should be supported, not scapegoated. And
we can all agree that states, schools, and teachers need flexibility to
serve the needs of their students.

·    The bi-partisan Every Student Succeeds Act that President Obama singed
into law represents these basic agreements and allows us to turn the page
on the era of No Child Left Behind.

·    With it, I believe we must turn the page on the education wars that
have been waged in our country. To focus on the common ground and the
common goal we all share. Let’s talk the best ideas for how to improve
outcomes for children based on real evidence and agree that evidence will
drive our work, not tired finger-pointing.

·    I also believe deeply that the federal government must continue to
play a critical role in ensuring that schools provide *all* children a
quality education—particularly our low-income students, students of color,
English Language Learners, and students with disabilities.

*IV. Education contrast*

·    It’s often lost in the offensive comments and the obscene antics of
the Republican primary, but every Republican running for president wants to
abolish the Department of Education. They cannot be more wrong.

·    Our nation’s future has never been more dependent on our ability to
prepare students for the demands of a global economy. And as our country
becomes more diverse and inequality grows, it has never been more important
to close the unacceptable gaps in opportunity that exist in our education
system.

·    That was the original vision for the federal role in education. To end
segregation in the south. To lift up impoverished schools in rural
Appalachia. To ensure that the children of California farmworkers had a
chance to succeed.

·    It’s why President Johnson signed the Elementary and Secondary
Education Act in 1965. It provided dedicated funding to the nation’s
poorest schools for the first time. “By passing this bill,” Johnson said,
“we bridge the gap between helplessness and hope for more than 5 million
educationally deprived children.”

·    We’ve come a long way since 1965, and we’ve knocked down many barriers
along the way. But that gap is not yet closed.

On Wed, Mar 9, 2016 at 9:13 AM, John Podesta <[email-masked]> wrote:

> if we have to say what our 3 or 4 point plan is, what is it?

-- 
Ann O'Leary
Senior Policy Advisor
Hillary for America
Cell: 510-717-5518