To: Interested Parties From: Shavar Jeffries, National President of Democrats for Education Reform Date: October 13, 2015 Re: First Democratic Presidential Debate As Arne Duncan steps down after seven years as President Obama s Secretary of Education and the Obama administration enters its final year, the Democratic Party faces an inflection point: Does it continue the transformational work initiated by the two- term Democratic president and his longest- serving cabinet member, and continue to advance the cause of preparing our kids and country for a bright future of limitless possibilities? Or does it revert to the seemingly politically expedient yet ultimately self- defeating assembly- line, quality- blind traditions of the past, which threaten to handcuff our children and our country to an outlook of few options and diminished productivity? Tonight s first debate among the Democratic contenders for President will begin to answer that question. As they tackle education issues, it s important to keep two points in mind: 1. Obama s recipe for education of coupling massive additional resources with aggressive reforms is working, particularly for racial minorities and low- income students. 2. Voters want to see education reforms implemented. Any candidate trying to form a winning coalition during the primary and the general should adopt the policy positions that are overwhelmingly popular among voters. Obama s Education Reform Policies Are Working Over the last seven years, unprecedented investments in education have been coupled with reforms and an emphasis on quality, and ensuring that investments are going towards programs that work best for our nation s students. This has resulted in increased high school graduation rates, expanded opportunities for parents to send their children to high- performing schools, and clear benchmarks against which parents can measure our students progress to ensure they are succeeding. Consider the children in New Orleans, who saw their schools irreparably damaged in Hurricane Katrina. The local community has worked to build a public charter 1
school network that has driven up graduation rates and improved student outcomes. Consider the impact on countless students like Gary Briggs, Jr. Briggs was in a neighborhood school in New Orleans before enrolling in New Orleans first charter school. When it opened, parents were so hungry for an option beyond the failing schools in their neighborhood that 900 people applied for 120 spots. Briggs excelled in school after getting one of those slots, and earned a scholarship to a prestigious private high school. Katrina hit during his senior year, and as New Orleans worked in the coming years to rebuild and improve their schools, they created the Recovery School District where, now, Gary Briggs teaches. The opportunity he had, to learn and excel in school, and be in a position to give back to his community, is now available to more students than ever, thanks to President Obama. The Obama Education Record: Big Resources Coupled With Aggressive Reforms Resources Record resource investments in K- 12 education o Under the American Recovery and Investment Act, Obama invested $100 billion in education, from Pre- K through college, the largest single investment of any President in history. One in eight Recovery Act dollars devoted to education, more than any other domestic area. Record investment in student financial aid o Pell Grant funding nearly doubled. o Higher education tax credits more than tripled. Went from Hope credit of up to $3,000 over two years to AOTC tax benefit of up to $10,000 over four years. And made $4,000 of the credit refundable for those with incomes so low as to lack tax liability. Record resource investments replicating and expanding high- quality public charter schools o This Administration has invested more than $100 million to replicate and expand of public charter school management organizations that have a proven track record of high performance something no other President has done. Reforms Race to the Top resources were linked to reforms, including states lifting caps on the number of public charter schools, teacher evaluation based in part on K- 12 student achievement, and new data systems. School Improvement Grants, a multi- billion dollar program was targeted to bottom performing 5 percent of school required recipient schools to engage in overhaul reform strategies, including new curricula and reorganization. Holding higher ed programs accountable. The Administration cracked down on shady for- profit trade schools, underperforming teacher 2
preparation programs. New gainful employment and program integrity regulations cut off federal financial aid eligibility from trade schools that leave students with education debt they cannot repay. New teacher education regulations (pending) that cut off federal TEACH grant aid to underperforming schools of education. Impact 400 new public charter schools created o A projected total of 278,000 new seats in high- quality public charter schools created through targeted grants. These students would otherwise be on waiting lists, rather than enrolled in these high- performing schools. o 75 percent of students enrolled in high- performing charter management organizations are low- income; 90 percent are students of color High school graduation rate up over 10 percent since 2008 o The 4- year high school graduation rate has risen from 73% at beginning of Obama s term to 81% - an increase of over 10% (8 percentage points). Underrepresented minority student college enrollment increased by 20 percent between 2008 and 2014. o The number of racial minorities enrolled in college immediately after high school increased by over 700,000. o Proportion of black high school students immediately enrolled in college after high school graduation increased by 12 percent between 2008 and 2014 alone, an increase of nearly 300,000 students. o Latino students enrolled in college immediately after high school up 26 percent; over 400,000 individuals. After financial aid college prices flat at public universities o 2.7 million additional working class families receive Pell Grant aid; Maximum Pell Grant boosted 25%; 8 million families receive larger higher education tax benefits; 4 million receive refundable education tax credit. o Lowered minimum federal student loan payments from 15 percent to 10 percent of a borrower s discretionary income and made loans forgivable after 20 instead of 25 years. Full forgiveness after 10 years in public service. Massive change in the for- profit education space o One of the largest for- profit changes, Corinthian College Corp (Everest College) shut down. 3
o For- profit spending on instructional services is up over 25 percent as compared to spending on marketing, sales, and profit. o Graduation rates at four- year for- profit institutions have increased by nearly 40 percent, from 23.2 percent in 2009 to 31.9 percent in 2013. Focus on teacher education quality and benchmarks led to state action. o In 2011, only six states tied information on how teachers perform in K- 12 classrooms back to their teacher preparation programs. Now, 22 states do. o Tennessee and Louisiana made teacher performance results in raising K- 12 student achievement a factor in teacher education program approval and renewal. Other states are considering the same. Voters Want To Make Sure Their Children Are Getting The Education They Need To Compete In The Modern Economy While Common Core and adult accountability based on student test results have become highly politicized, the fact remains huge majorities of voters think our public schools can be improved. In a recent survey we conducted, only 9 percent of voters thought the public education system is doing a good job. Fifty percent of voters think that education today is worse than the education they received themselves, and 69 percent of voters think that the education system in America is on the wrong track. And these figures are more than simply numbers, I ve seen for myself, as a local school board member, the concern that parents expressed over their child s education, and saw as they signed up to join the waitlist for a public charter school that they embraced the opportunity to choose the school that would best address their child s specific needs. To change these trends, voters support reform. They support teacher tenure reform by a margin of 60 to 33 percent, agreeing with the statement: it s not right to protect low- performing tenured teachers over great teachers who may not have been teaching as long. Fifty- nine percent of voters agree that parents should have the opportunity to send their kids to public charter schools. And, support for public charter schools is particularly strong among parents themselves, with 63 percent supporting choice. Indeed, the opportunity to choose to send your child to the best school possible was extolled in Hillary Clinton s announcement video, which highlighted a woman moving neighborhoods to ensure that her daughter could go to a better school. Parents like her recognize that in the absence of the ability to move neighborhoods, they shouldn t be trapped in a failing school. Finally, the majority of American voters agree that we need clear benchmarks to measure effectiveness. Any Democratic candidate wishing to build a winning coalition will need to attract the voters who support reforms and reject the notion that the status quo is acceptable for our nation s students. While candidates have proposed plans to address higher education affordability, they ve done less so traditional college 4
quality. There has been very little substantive discussion about their plans for K- 12 education and whether or not they will empower local communities to ensure that public schools are working for individual students and preparing them for the modern economy. We ve seen how different their records are on K- 12 and higher education to date. Tonight s debate will hopefully shed light on their plans for the future. 5