Voters will help determine America’s educational future across issues like school choice, teacher shortages, budget challenges and more on Election Day. Ahead of Nov. 5, Teachers College virtually convened experts for a wide-ranging discussion on policy across all levels of government — from city hall to the White House — that will have a measurable impact on schools.
“There is so much at stake in this election…But, as essential as education is to our society, discussion of the topic as a policy issue has been glaringly absent from the public discourse,” President Thomas Bailey said in opening remarks. “As the nation’s leading graduate school of education, we at Teachers College have a responsibility to engage around policy and civic education, and raise awareness of what can and must be fixed to support our educators, our schools and our future leaders.”
Liz Willen, Editor-in-Chief of The Hechinger Report; Jonathan Gyurko (Ph.D. ’12, Politics & Education), president and co-founder of the Association of College and University Educators; and Ian Rowe, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. (Photos courtesy of speakers)
But what can voters actually expect from this year’s presidential nominees, who have spent relatively little time discussing education on the campaign trail? Liz Willen, Editor-in-Chief of The Hechinger Report, moderated the 90-minute conversation with Jonathan Gyurko (Ph.D. ’12, Politics & Education), president and co-founder of the Association of College and University Educators; and Ian Rowe, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
Schools have always played a role in creating the society we want, and in that regard, the two candidates have very different visions of what America is all about and what our future is all about. If we are going to continue in a tradition where schools serve a democracy that is expanding to bring more people in, then there’s really only one candidate that is supportive of that vision of schooling in service of the country.
What’s missing [right now] is complete transparency on where we are as a nation…It’s really important to start from the perspective of a parent, who wants their child to have a shot at the American dream, and when the very schooling in your own neighborhood isn’t giving you that, what is a parent to do?