Public school funding a hot topic for Democratic candidates at Pittsburgh forum

Pittsburgh served as the backdrop Saturday as seven Democratic presidential candidates met at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center to discuss their education policy platforms.

Front-runners Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren were joined by Sen. Michael Bennet, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Tom Steyer for the daylong, invitation-only event organized by national and local teachers’ union and public school supporters.

Sen. Cory Booker was scheduled to attend but dropped out because of the flu, according to a statement from his campaign.

Candidates each gave one-on-one interviews with Ali Velshi, host of “MSNBC Live,” and Rehema Ellis, “NBC News” education correspondent. They also fielded questions from the audience, which included more than 1,000 teachers, students, parents and community members from Pittsburgh and across the country.

Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers President Nina Esposito-Visgitis kicked off the event, urging the audience to “speak truth to power and ask hard questions” about improving public education.

“There is not better place to start asking those questions than right here in Pittsburgh,” she said.

Education policy is predominantly set at the state and local level. In Pennsylvania, most of those decisions are made by the Legislature and school boards that oversee the state’s 500 public school districts. Allegheny County alone is home to 42 suburban public school districts, plus several public charter schools, as well as dozens of private and parochial schools. Pittsburgh Public Schools, the state’s second-largest public school district with more than 20,000 students, sits at the center of the county.

Pam Harbin, a member of the Pittsburgh Public Schools board of directors and education advocate with One Pennsylvania, said she wants a candidate who will prioritize funding for public schools.

“Let’s look at how much it costs to educate those students, and we will make sure that you have that funding,” she said. “We will make sure that your teachers are supported and are well-trained and that they have everything that they need to make this work. That’s what I want to hear.”

Local education policy-watchers shared the topics they’ll be keeping tabs on as the April 28 Democratic primary in Pennsylvania approaches. Those issues include equitable funding for public schools, school choice, teacher training, affordable early education and higher education options, as well as workforce development.

Here’s a look at what candidates had to say about those issues Saturday. The forum can be viewed in full online at MSNBC.com.

Public school funding

Increasing federal funding for public schools — particularly through programs like Title I, which supports high-poverty schools, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which helps schools provide services for students with special needs — dominated the forum.

“As a nation, it’s time to make a real investment, and we can do this by asking those at the very top just to pay a little more,” Warren said, referring to her “2-cent wealth tax” plan, which she said would generate the hundreds of billions needed to fund her education policy proposals.

An annual survey of public school districts conducted by the Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials (PASBO) and the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators showed that special education costs, along with charter school tuition and pensions, are among local schools’ biggest cost drivers.

Changes in funding to federal programs like Title I and IDEA will impact schools as they try to make up those dollars at the local level, often through increasing property taxes or cuts to educational programs and staff, said Hannah Barrick, director of advocacy with PASBO.

Sanders was among those who promised to increase funding for Title I in order to fight child poverty and ending the school-to-prison pipeline.

“If you want to keep people out of jail, then you invest in education,” Sanders said. “You invest in jobs, rather than more jails and incarceration.”

Klobuchar fielded a question from a Philadelphia teacher, who pointed out that schools also need help funding repairs. Philadelphia schools have been working to test for and eradicate lead in aging school buildings.

“You can’t do an infrastructure program, an infrastructure investment — which by the way is very popular with the public and across the aisle as well — unless you include schools,” Klobuchar said, noting that schools across the country struggle to pay for basic maintenance for air conditioning or plumbing.

School choice

Parents and community members who support charter schools rallied outside the convention center in the rain ahead of the forum Saturday, angry that they were not invited to participate in the forum.

Choosing a charter school isn’t about putting down traditional public schools, said Latasha Allen of Squirrel Hill, a parent and administrative assistant at Urban Pathways K-5 Charter School in Downtown Pittsburgh. It was about choosing the school that was the right fit for her child.

I’m outside the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, where pro-charter parents and community members are rallying ahead of the #PublicEdForum. It’s raining. They’re chanting, “Our children, our choice.” pic.twitter.com/Zm0JUwPAAO

— Jamie Martines (@Jamie_Martines) December 14, 2019

“We don’t want them to just do regular, and not be able to excel because there’s too many kids in a classroom,” Allen said. “We want them to be able to get that extra help that they need, social support, special education support — things that are not always given in a public school.”

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, announced a sweeping plan to reform charter schools in September intended to improve accountability and stem the flow of money from traditional public schools to charters.

Warren was among those who argued that public dollars should stay in public schools.

“I believe it’s our responsibility as a nation, and will be my responsibility as president of the United States, to make certain that every public school is an excellent public school,” Warren said.

Teacher training

Red for Ed teachers’ strikes have taken place across the country since 2018, with some public school teachers demanding better pay and more resources for their classrooms.

Teachers — who made up most of the audience at the forum — asked candidates how they would fight teacher shortages in some states.

“They have to be paid on a scale that looks like the other professionals in their community, and I’m talking about lawyers and doctors and real estate agents,” Bennet said.

In Pennsylvania, cuts to teacher pensions and stagnant salaries could lead to similar teacher shortages, Esposito-Visgitis said.

“I’m really worried about the teacher shortage, and I hope people are listening to that,” she said.

Pittsburgh Public Schools narrowly avoided a teacher strike in February 2018.

“If we honored our teachers a little more like soldiers, as well as paid them a little more like doctors, we wouldn’t have this issue of shortages,” said Buttigieg, who argued that teachers need more than material support like higher pay or classroom supplies.

They also need training to support students’ mental health needs, he said.

Buttigieg also highlighted his plan to develop teacher training programs that would forgive teachers’ debt after seven years of teaching in high-need schools.

Several candidates, including Warren and Steyer, called for more investment Historically Black Colleges and Universities and particularly programs to train more teachers of color.

Pennsylvania’s youngest and oldest learners

More students from Western Pennsylvania have been entering the trades after a lull in recent years, said Jeff Nobers, executive director of the Builders Guild of Pennsylvania, which supports apprenticeship programs across the building, construction and manufacturing trades.

But even as apprenticeships or certification programs become a more popular option for students upon graduation, high schools still need to make sure students have the math, reading and interpersonal skills to compete, Nobers said.

“There’s definitely a lack of kids coming out of high school that are proficient,” Nobers said. “We see it every day when we’re recruiting people to the trades.”

Buttigieg was among the candidates who called for a greater focus on supporting apprenticeship and internship programs. He discussed his proposal to offer tax credits to businesses offering paid internships, so that on-the-job training is not a “luxury” reserved for those who can afford to take unpaid internships.

Biden underscored the need for free community colleges, arguing that those programs are necessary to help train and retrain workers throughout their lives.

Candidates also called for free or affordable early childhood options, including daycare and preschool programs.

Accessibility to these programs will make it easier for parents and caregivers to take jobs or pursue an education to help them support their families, Warren said.