Democratic candidates debate: Education | ABC News

I'd like to have an academic discussion now about education mr. gang will stay with you here in Houston the school district is facing yet another year of spending cuts like schools across the country the system faces many challenges one of them thousands of students are leaving traditional public schools and going to charter schools you're the most vocal proponent on this stage for charter schools you've said that Democrats who want to limit them are quote just jumping into bed with teachers unions and doing kids a disservice why isn't taxpayer money better spent on fixing traditional public schools let me be clear I am Pro good school I've got a kid one of my little boys just started probably school last week and I was not there because I was running for president so we need to pay teachers more because the data clearly shows that a good teacher is worth his or her weight and gold we need to lighten up the emphasis on standardized tests which do not measure anything fundamental about our character or human worth but here's the big one the data clearly shows that 65 to 70 percent of our students outcomes are determined outside of the school we're talking about time spent at home with the parents words read to them when they're young stress levels in the house income type of neighborhood we're putting money into schools and educators know this we're saying you're 100% responsible for educating our kids but you can only control 30 percent they all know this the answer is to put money directly into the families and neighborhoods to give our kids a chance to learn and our teachers a chance to teach never be judged 35 seconds to step one is appoint a Secretary of Education who actually believes in public education I believe in public education and in order to strengthen it some things are very complex for preparing for a future where knowledge is at your fingertips but we got to teach more to do with critical thinking and social and emotional learning some of it is extremely simple we've just got to pay teachers more and we've got to lift up the teaching profession I was think of a story from South Bend of friends who hosted exchange students from Japan they had a student one year who wanted to be a teacher and they kept in touch with her when she went back to Japan and to college she took the exam to try to become a teacher in a society that really regards teachers and compensates teacher as well and she came up just short so you know what she did since she was academically good but couldn't quite make the cut to be a teacher she had a fall black fallback plan she became a doctor that is how seriously some countries treat the teaching profession if we want to get the results that we expect for our children we have to support and compensate the teaching profession respect teachers the way we do soldiers and pay them more like the way we do doctors senator Warren to use mr. Yang's term are you just jumping into bed with teachers unions you know I think I'm the only person on this stage who has been a public school teacher [Applause] teacher since I was in second grade and let's be clear in all the ways we talked about this money for public schools should stay in public schools not for anywhere else I've already made my commitment I will we will have a Secretary of Education who has been a public school teacher I think this is ultimately about our values I have proposed a two-cent wealth tax on the top one-tenth of one percent in this country that would give us enough money to start with our babies by providing Universal childcare for every baby age zero to five universal pre-k for every three-year-old and four-year-old in this country thank you is the wages of every childcare worker and preschool teacher in this country cancel student loan debt for ninety five percent of the folks at Thank You senator strengthen our unions this is how we build an America that reflects our values not just where the money comes from with the billionaires and corporate exactly senator Harris 45 seconds please from my first grade teacher mrs.

Francis Wilson god rest her soul attended my law school graduation I think most of us would say that we are not where we are without the teachers who believed in us I have offered in this campaign a proposal to deal with this which will be the first in the nation federal investment in closing the teacher pay gap which is thirteen thousand five hundred dollars a year because right now in our public schools our teachers ninety four percent of them are coming out of their own pocket to help pay for school supplies and that is wrong I also want to talk about where we are here at TSU and what it means in terms of HBCUs I have it as part of my proposal that we will put two trillion dollars into investing in our HBCUs for teachers because cuz because one as a proud graduate of a historically black college and university I will say that it is our HBCUs that disproportionately produce teachers and those who serve in these many professions but only senator but this is a critical point if a black child has a black teacher before the end of third grade there are thirteen percent more likely to go to college if that child has had two black teachers before the end of third grade there are thirty two percent more likely to go to college so when we talk about investing in our public education system it is at the source of so much when we fix it that will fix so many other things we must invest in the banks in their chosen understand I strongly believe you can judge a society based on how it treats its children and we are focusing on this issue [Applause] guess what you're guessing alright here's the answer we are the wealthiest country in the history of the world and yet we have the highest child poverty rate of almost any country on earth we have teachers in this country who are leaving education because they can't work two or three jobs to support itself which is why under my legislation we'll move to see that every teacher in America makes at least $60,000 a year what we will also do is not only have universal pre-k we will make public colleges and universities and HBCUs debt-free and what we will also do because this is an incredible burden on millions millions of young people who did nothing wrong except try to get the education they need we are going to cancel all student debt in this country [Applause] by imposing a tax on Wall Street speculation Thank You senator mr. vice president I want and talk to you about inequality in schools and race in a conversation about how to deal with segregation in schools back in 1975 you told a reporter I don't feel responsible for the sins of my father and grandfather I feel responsible for what the situation is today for the sins of my own generation and I'll be damned if I feel responsible to pay for what happened 300 years ago you said that some 40 years ago but as you stand here tonight what responsibilities do you think that Americans need to take to repair the legacy of slavery in our country well they have to deal with in the book there is institutional segregation in this country and from the time I got involved I started dealing with that redlining banks making sure that we are in a position where look I talked about education I proposed that what we take is those very poor schools the title one schools triple the amount of money we spend from fifteen to forty five billion a year give every single teacher a race of equal grace of getting out the $60,000 level number to make sure that we bring into the help the student the the teachers deal with the problems that come from home the problems that come from home we need we have one school psychologist for every 1,500 kids in America today it's crazy the teachers are in kind I'm married to a teacher my deceased wife is a teacher they have every problem coming to them we make sure that every single child does in fact have three four and five-year-olds go to school school not take care school we bring social workers into homes and pears to help them deal with how to raise their children it's not that they'll want to help they don't want they don't know quite what to do play the radio make sure the television the excuse me make sure you have the record player on at night the phone make sure the kids hear words a kid coming from a very poor school a very poor background will hear four million words fewer spoken by the time they get there there's so much no I'm gonna go like the rest of them do twice over okay here's the deal the deal is that we've got this little backwards and by the way in Venezuela we should be allowing people to come here from Venezuela I know Medora I've confronted Medora number two you talked about the need to do something in Latin America I'm the guy that came up with seven hundred and forty million dollars to see to it those three countries in fact change their system so people don't have a chance to leave you're all acting like we just discovered this yesterday Thank You mr.