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Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) speaks during a town hall on May 4, 2019 at the Fort Museum in Fort Dodge, Iowa. (Photo: Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)
Sen. Bernie Sanders on Saturday unveiled the public education plan for his 2020 presidential campaign, calling for “a transformative investment in our children, our teachers, and our schools, and a fundamental re-thinking of the unjust and inequitable funding of our public education system.”
The senator’s “Thurgood Marshall Plan for Public Education” is named for the lawyer who successfully argued Brown v. Board of Education--the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that made racial segregation of public schools unconstitutional in 1954--before he joined the court as its first black justice more than a decade later.
Recalling Marshall’s words from a dissenting opinion for Milliken v. Bradley--a case the high court ruled on in 1974--Sanders tweeted Saturday that he aims to “guarantee every person in our country a quality education as a fundamental human right.”
\u201cThurgood Marshall said that all children have a right \u201cto an equal opportunity to reach their full potential as citizens.“\n\nIn my view, the only way to accomplish that goal is to guarantee every person in our country a quality education as a fundamental human right.\u201d— Bernie Sanders (@Bernie Sanders) 1558193781
According to the campaign page that lays out Sanders’s plan, his broad goal is to address “the serious crisis in our education system by reducing racial and economic segregation in our public school system, attracting the best and the brightest educational professionals to teach in our classrooms, and reestablishing a positive learning environment for students in our K-12 schools.”
Improving education on a national scale requires, in the senator’s view, banning new for-profit charter schools. As Common Dreams reported Friday, he is the first 2020 Democratic primary candidate to call for such a ban, and his proposal comes as Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is working to increase the number charter schools.
The charter school moratorium is just part of the 10-point plan the senator officially put forward Saturday:
Some of the specific proposals include boosting federal funding for community-driven desegregation efforts; expanding access to English as a second language instruction; increasing accountability for existing charter schools; and ensuring “schools in rural communities, indigenous communities, Puerto Rico, and other U.S. territories receive equitable funding.”
Waleed Shahid of Justice Democrats said on Twitter that the presidential candidate’s plan “seems like the most aggressive national anti-segregation policy” proposed in decades, while others noted how it comes in “stark contrast” to the past positions of former Vice President Joe Biden, who is also seeking the Democratic nomination for president.
\u201cBernie\u2019s plan seems like the most aggressive national anti-segregation policy put forward since the 1970s.\n\n\u201cThe plan would try to revive the force of the federal government\u2019s efforts in the 1950s and 1960s to end the separation of students by race.\u201d\n\nhttps://t.co/BBp5dcs2g2\u201d— Waleed Shahid (@Waleed Shahid) 1558192543
\u201cIt’s hard not to see the busing component of Sanders’ plan, specifically, as a stark contrast to Joe Biden, who fought against busing and desegregation in the 1970s. (The law currently prohibits federal $$ from being used to fund busing.) https://t.co/wU3dvmrSso\u201d— Molly Hensley-Clancy (@Molly Hensley-Clancy) 1558189846
Under Sanders’s plan, the federal government would spend $5 billion annually to expand access to summer and after-school programs, teen centers, and tutoring--and another $5 billion so community schools can “provide a holistic, full-service approach to learning and the well-being of our young people” through dental and mental health care, substance abuse prevention, community and youth organizing, job training classes, art spaces, GED, and ESL classes.
On the educator side, Sanders calls for increasing teacher pay “by working with states to set a starting salary for teachers at no less than $60,000 tied to cost of living, years of service, and other qualifications; and allowing states to go beyond that floor based on geographic cost of living.”
\u201cIf we are a nation that can pay baseball players hundreds of millions of dollars, don’t tell me we can’t afford to pay teachers the salaries they deserve.\u201d— Bernie Sanders (@Bernie Sanders) 1558198278
Sanders introduced his public education plan in a speech in South Carolina on Saturday. Watch:
\u201cI am proud to introduce my Thurgood Marshall Plan for A Quality Public Education for All. Read our plan to transform our education system here: https://t.co/3XojUVewly https://t.co/24uvOCjd5x\u201d— Bernie Sanders (@Bernie Sanders) 1558189923
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Sen. Bernie Sanders on Saturday unveiled the public education plan for his 2020 presidential campaign, calling for “a transformative investment in our children, our teachers, and our schools, and a fundamental re-thinking of the unjust and inequitable funding of our public education system.”
The senator’s “Thurgood Marshall Plan for Public Education” is named for the lawyer who successfully argued Brown v. Board of Education--the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that made racial segregation of public schools unconstitutional in 1954--before he joined the court as its first black justice more than a decade later.
Recalling Marshall’s words from a dissenting opinion for Milliken v. Bradley--a case the high court ruled on in 1974--Sanders tweeted Saturday that he aims to “guarantee every person in our country a quality education as a fundamental human right.”
\u201cThurgood Marshall said that all children have a right \u201cto an equal opportunity to reach their full potential as citizens.“\n\nIn my view, the only way to accomplish that goal is to guarantee every person in our country a quality education as a fundamental human right.\u201d— Bernie Sanders (@Bernie Sanders) 1558193781
According to the campaign page that lays out Sanders’s plan, his broad goal is to address “the serious crisis in our education system by reducing racial and economic segregation in our public school system, attracting the best and the brightest educational professionals to teach in our classrooms, and reestablishing a positive learning environment for students in our K-12 schools.”
Improving education on a national scale requires, in the senator’s view, banning new for-profit charter schools. As Common Dreams reported Friday, he is the first 2020 Democratic primary candidate to call for such a ban, and his proposal comes as Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is working to increase the number charter schools.
The charter school moratorium is just part of the 10-point plan the senator officially put forward Saturday:
Some of the specific proposals include boosting federal funding for community-driven desegregation efforts; expanding access to English as a second language instruction; increasing accountability for existing charter schools; and ensuring “schools in rural communities, indigenous communities, Puerto Rico, and other U.S. territories receive equitable funding.”
Waleed Shahid of Justice Democrats said on Twitter that the presidential candidate’s plan “seems like the most aggressive national anti-segregation policy” proposed in decades, while others noted how it comes in “stark contrast” to the past positions of former Vice President Joe Biden, who is also seeking the Democratic nomination for president.
\u201cBernie\u2019s plan seems like the most aggressive national anti-segregation policy put forward since the 1970s.\n\n\u201cThe plan would try to revive the force of the federal government\u2019s efforts in the 1950s and 1960s to end the separation of students by race.\u201d\n\nhttps://t.co/BBp5dcs2g2\u201d— Waleed Shahid (@Waleed Shahid) 1558192543
\u201cIt’s hard not to see the busing component of Sanders’ plan, specifically, as a stark contrast to Joe Biden, who fought against busing and desegregation in the 1970s. (The law currently prohibits federal $$ from being used to fund busing.) https://t.co/wU3dvmrSso\u201d— Molly Hensley-Clancy (@Molly Hensley-Clancy) 1558189846
Under Sanders’s plan, the federal government would spend $5 billion annually to expand access to summer and after-school programs, teen centers, and tutoring--and another $5 billion so community schools can “provide a holistic, full-service approach to learning and the well-being of our young people” through dental and mental health care, substance abuse prevention, community and youth organizing, job training classes, art spaces, GED, and ESL classes.
On the educator side, Sanders calls for increasing teacher pay “by working with states to set a starting salary for teachers at no less than $60,000 tied to cost of living, years of service, and other qualifications; and allowing states to go beyond that floor based on geographic cost of living.”
\u201cIf we are a nation that can pay baseball players hundreds of millions of dollars, don’t tell me we can’t afford to pay teachers the salaries they deserve.\u201d— Bernie Sanders (@Bernie Sanders) 1558198278
Sanders introduced his public education plan in a speech in South Carolina on Saturday. Watch:
\u201cI am proud to introduce my Thurgood Marshall Plan for A Quality Public Education for All. Read our plan to transform our education system here: https://t.co/3XojUVewly https://t.co/24uvOCjd5x\u201d— Bernie Sanders (@Bernie Sanders) 1558189923
Sen. Bernie Sanders on Saturday unveiled the public education plan for his 2020 presidential campaign, calling for “a transformative investment in our children, our teachers, and our schools, and a fundamental re-thinking of the unjust and inequitable funding of our public education system.”
The senator’s “Thurgood Marshall Plan for Public Education” is named for the lawyer who successfully argued Brown v. Board of Education--the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that made racial segregation of public schools unconstitutional in 1954--before he joined the court as its first black justice more than a decade later.
Recalling Marshall’s words from a dissenting opinion for Milliken v. Bradley--a case the high court ruled on in 1974--Sanders tweeted Saturday that he aims to “guarantee every person in our country a quality education as a fundamental human right.”
\u201cThurgood Marshall said that all children have a right \u201cto an equal opportunity to reach their full potential as citizens.“\n\nIn my view, the only way to accomplish that goal is to guarantee every person in our country a quality education as a fundamental human right.\u201d— Bernie Sanders (@Bernie Sanders) 1558193781
According to the campaign page that lays out Sanders’s plan, his broad goal is to address “the serious crisis in our education system by reducing racial and economic segregation in our public school system, attracting the best and the brightest educational professionals to teach in our classrooms, and reestablishing a positive learning environment for students in our K-12 schools.”
Improving education on a national scale requires, in the senator’s view, banning new for-profit charter schools. As Common Dreams reported Friday, he is the first 2020 Democratic primary candidate to call for such a ban, and his proposal comes as Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is working to increase the number charter schools.
The charter school moratorium is just part of the 10-point plan the senator officially put forward Saturday:
Some of the specific proposals include boosting federal funding for community-driven desegregation efforts; expanding access to English as a second language instruction; increasing accountability for existing charter schools; and ensuring “schools in rural communities, indigenous communities, Puerto Rico, and other U.S. territories receive equitable funding.”
Waleed Shahid of Justice Democrats said on Twitter that the presidential candidate’s plan “seems like the most aggressive national anti-segregation policy” proposed in decades, while others noted how it comes in “stark contrast” to the past positions of former Vice President Joe Biden, who is also seeking the Democratic nomination for president.
\u201cBernie\u2019s plan seems like the most aggressive national anti-segregation policy put forward since the 1970s.\n\n\u201cThe plan would try to revive the force of the federal government\u2019s efforts in the 1950s and 1960s to end the separation of students by race.\u201d\n\nhttps://t.co/BBp5dcs2g2\u201d— Waleed Shahid (@Waleed Shahid) 1558192543
\u201cIt’s hard not to see the busing component of Sanders’ plan, specifically, as a stark contrast to Joe Biden, who fought against busing and desegregation in the 1970s. (The law currently prohibits federal $$ from being used to fund busing.) https://t.co/wU3dvmrSso\u201d— Molly Hensley-Clancy (@Molly Hensley-Clancy) 1558189846
Under Sanders’s plan, the federal government would spend $5 billion annually to expand access to summer and after-school programs, teen centers, and tutoring--and another $5 billion so community schools can “provide a holistic, full-service approach to learning and the well-being of our young people” through dental and mental health care, substance abuse prevention, community and youth organizing, job training classes, art spaces, GED, and ESL classes.
On the educator side, Sanders calls for increasing teacher pay “by working with states to set a starting salary for teachers at no less than $60,000 tied to cost of living, years of service, and other qualifications; and allowing states to go beyond that floor based on geographic cost of living.”
\u201cIf we are a nation that can pay baseball players hundreds of millions of dollars, don’t tell me we can’t afford to pay teachers the salaries they deserve.\u201d— Bernie Sanders (@Bernie Sanders) 1558198278
Sanders introduced his public education plan in a speech in South Carolina on Saturday. Watch:
\u201cI am proud to introduce my Thurgood Marshall Plan for A Quality Public Education for All. Read our plan to transform our education system here: https://t.co/3XojUVewly https://t.co/24uvOCjd5x\u201d— Bernie Sanders (@Bernie Sanders) 1558189923
Democratic lawmakers are vowing to investigate the Trump administration's pressure campaign that may have led to ABC deciding to indefinitely suspend late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) announced on Thursday that he filed a motion to subpoena Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr one day after he publicly warned ABC of negative consequences if the network kept Kimmel on the air.
"Enough of Congress sleepwalking while [President Donald] Trump and [Vice President JD] Vance shred the First Amendment and Constitution," Khanna declared. "It is time for Congress to stand up for Article I."
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, also said on Thursday that he was opening an investigation into the potential financial aspects of Carr's pressure campaign on ABC, including the involvement of Sinclair Broadcasting Group, which is the network's largest affiliate and is currently involved in merger talks that will need FCC approval.
"The Oversight Committee is launching an investigation into ABC, Sinclair, and the FCC," he said. "We will not be intimidated and we will defend the First Amendment."
Progressive politicians weren't the only ones launching an investigation into the Kimmel controversy, as legal organization Democracy Forward announced that it's filed a a Freedom of Information Act request for records after January 20, 2025 related to any FCC efforts “to use the agency’s licensing and enforcement powers to police and limit speech and influence what the public can watch and hear.”
Democratic lawmakers on Thursday vowed to fight back against US President Donald Trump's efforts to attack and dismantle liberal and progressive organizations.
Led by Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), the Democrats introduced the No Political Enemies Act aimed at protecting organizations' free speech rights from retaliation from the federal government.
During his speech touting the new legislation, Murphy recounted recent actions by Trump and his administration, including the president's threats to "arrest members of the Soros family simply for funding groups that oppose his agenda," as well as Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr's pressure campaign to get ABC to fire late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel.
Murphy then said that the No Political Enemies Act was necessary because "Donald Trump is right now instructing his Department of Justice to go on the hunt for his political enemies" for challenging him.
"Trump is making it 100% clear that he is going to ramp up his efforts to use the power of the federal government to punish his critics," he said. "This is legislation that makes sure that the law is on the side of free speech and the right to dissent."
The proposed law would give political organizations and individuals new tools to combat political harassment from the federal government, and would allow them to both recover attorney fees and more easily file lawsuits against federal officials who abuse their authority for political purposes.
Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), who also expressed support for the legislation, put the stakes facing Americans in stark terms.
"We are in the biggest free speech crisis this country has faced since the McCarthy era," he said. "The murder of Charlie Kirk was a horrific crime, and it's clear that Trump wants to hijack that horrific crime to silence anyone who disagrees with the president about any issue."
Casar, the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, also took a shot at major corporations who have been caving to the president's demands in recent months.
"As we saw last night, far too many billionaires and corporate-owned media companies are bending the knee: Disney and ABC, Paramount and CBS, the Washington Post editorial board, Facebook," he said. "Let's be clear, the ultrawealthy men who own these companies are making a choice. David Ellison, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Bob Iger—these men are enriching themselves, auctioning off the United State's First Amendment to a wannabe dictator and tyrant."
Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) pointed out that the FCC's pressure campaign on ABC to fire Kimmel is particularly nefarious given that Sinclair Broadcasting Group, which is the network's largest affiliate, is currently involved in merger talks that will need FCC approval.
"All of this ties back to money and people enriching themselves, and bending the knee to Donald Trump to make it happen," he said.
The Democrats' proposed legislation comes after Trump announced late Wednesday night that he planned to designate “antifa,” a movement of autonomous individuals and loosely affiliated groups who oppose fascism, as a “major terrorist organization."
It also comes comes days after Trump adviser Stephen Miller began pushing a plan to "dismantle" the organized left using the power of the federal government.
During a recent appearance on Fox News, Miller described the entire left as a "domestic terrorism movement in this country," and vowed "to dismantle and take on the radical left organizations in this country that are fomenting violence."
President Donald Trump's Department of Education has announced that it will partner with right-wing think tanks and organizations to develop a new curriculum for “patriotic education” in American classrooms.
Earlier this week, the Trump administration redirected $137 million initially meant for programs aimed at minority students toward what it described as "American history and civics education."
Education Secretary Linda McMahon announced Wednesday that the money will be directed toward discretionary grants aimed at K-12 schools that adopt a new curriculum being drawn up by the 250 Civics Education Coalition—a consortium of more than 40 right-wing groups that launched on same day. The goal, McMahon said, was to advance education that "emphasizes a unifying and uplifting portrayal of the nation's founding ideals" in advance of the nation's 250th anniversary in 2026.
It is not Trump's first crack at instilling the nation's youth with a "patriotic education." In the waning days of his first term in office, Trump unveiled the 1776 Report, which, education columnist Jennifer Berkshire recently noted in The Baffler, "was widely panned by actual historians for its worshipful treatment of the Founding Fathers, its downplaying of slavery, and its portrayal of a century-old 'administrative state' controlled by leftist radicals."
While little has been publicized yet about what McMahon's new endeavor will look like, it is known who will be crafting it. The initiative is being led by the America First Policy Institute, a MAGA-aligned think tank that has been responsible for staffing Trump's second administration and has received over $1 million from his political action committee, the Save America PAC. Until 2023, McMahon herself served on the board of AFPI.
In 2022, the group presented a piece of model legislation for a "Civics Course Act" to be introduced in states. It included requirements for students to spend ample time studying the nation's founding documents and figures while banning the teaching of what it called the "defamatory history of America’s founding," which suggests that slavery or inequality are in any way inherent to the nation's institutions.
It also banned the concepts of "systemic racism" and "gender fluidity" and forbade teachers from giving students course credit for engaging with "social or public policy advocacy."
Also included in the coalition is Hillsdale College, a private Christian liberal arts school in Michigan that has proposed its own K-12 curriculum, which Vanity Fair notes "has been criticized for revisionist history, including whitewashed accounts of US slavery and depictions of Jamestown as a failed communist colony."
Another participant is PragerU, the overtly partisan and often factually loose YouTube channel that has been tasked with creating children's educational content in nearly a dozen red states.
The group has produced content venerating figures notorious for practicing slavery, like colonist Christopher Columbus and Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. Its videos have argued, among other things, that climate change is a myth, that European fascism was a "far-left" ideology, and that Israel has "the world's most moral army."
The pro-Trump youth group Turning Point USA will also be involved in crafting the curriculum. Its longtime leader, Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated in Utah last week, went on a crusade last year to, in his words, "tell the truth" about Martin Luther King Jr., whom he described as "an awful person," while claiming his signature achievement, the 1964 Civil Rights Act, was a "huge mistake."
An offshoot of Kirk's group, Turning Point Education, said Kirk's assassination has increased its resolve to promote a "God-centered, virtuous education" in US public schools.
The 250 Civics Education Coalition has not yet published a curriculum. But according to the Department of Education, it will be rolling out "a robust programming agenda" over the next 12 months.
During Trump's second term, he has undertaken an effort to purge federal museums and national parks of what one executive order called "improper ideology," which has resulted in the erasure of exhibits and monuments to Black and Native American history. Last month, he lamented that the Smithsonian Museum focuses too much on "how bad slavery was" and ordered a review of the museum's content.
Federal websites, meanwhile, have systematically eliminated many pages that acknowledged the accomplishments of nonwhite historical figures or important events in women's and LGBTQ+ history.
Critics in the education world view Trump's effort to use grants to induce them to adopt his preferred curriculum as an illegal effort to propagandize children.
"The law is clear," said education historian Diane Ravitch in a blog post. "Federal officials are prohibited from seeking to influence or direct curriculum in any way."
Since 1970, the federal government has been barred by law from "any direction, supervision, or control over the curriculum" of public schools.
"Civic education is and must be non-partisan," said Ted McConnell, the executive director of the Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools. "While the funding is long sought, this is the wrong approach and smacks of authoritarianism."