Education
It has been said that at the starting line of life, everyone deserves an equal opportunity. That’s what education is all about. From early education to adult education, we need to make changes in order to become more competitive, and to make our economy more rewarding for more Americans.
Every person in America needs and deserves a high-quality education in a safe environment. Every teacher needs and deserves support, respect and resources. Every school must be competitive enough to teach our youth how to succeed in a global market.
Investments made today in both our public schools and in our institutions of higher education will ensure America a strong and secure place in the world. Our challenge with this priority, as with so many others, is finding the funding for it when we are $9.3 trillion dollars in debt.
Investing in Early Education
Study after study has shown that Head Start is an effective tool for helping kids—especially poor kids—to get off on the right foot and reduce the achievement gap that often forms over time. For every dollar we put into Head Start programs, experts estimate our society gets $9 of benefit out of increased opportunity. Increased funding to this program is a winning issue for our country and our children.
Overhauling No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act
While NCLB had its heart in the right place in its effort to increase accountability in the school system, it has done a poor job of achieving those ends. Dan proposes three major changes to the law.
First, NCLB has to be fully funded—No Child Left Behind has not lived up to its obligations to fund school districts, and then penalizes those districts for not living up to unrealistic standards. Second, we need to increase the flexibility of standards to take into account the different subgroups (such as ESL or Special Needs students) at each school, rather than treating all students as identical. Third, we need a more comprehensive way of measuring progress. An overemphasis on test-taking has forced teachers to teach to the test—which isn't the same as teaching. By reforming this act we can make schools more accountable and effective, in the interest of creating further education.
Making Higher Education More Accessible and Affordable
A college diploma today is what a high school diploma was for our nation's previous generation. It is a requirement to fully participate in today's global economy and is also the key to a better life. Yet, since 2001, the average cost of tuition at a public universities alone has risen 40%—from $3,739 to $6,185—pricing out an estimated 200,000 students every year.
While our tax code is meant to make it easier for our children to go to college, it offers too much complexity and not enough help. Many families face confusion when deciding to send their children to college. The IRS 970 booklet, which outlines tax benefits for education, is over 80 pages in length and details 12 different higher education tax benefits, which apply to different income levels, expenses, and kinds of schools. As a result of this complexity, the Government Accounting Office estimates that over 600,000 tax filers every year fail to claim higher education tax benefits they are entitled to.
That is why Dan has proposed collapsing all of the different higher education tax incentives into one, easy-to-understand $3,000 tax credit, which would cover half of the cost of tuition at the average public university. He has advocated for expanding access to the credit to more families middle class by making it available to individuals making up to $80,000 and married couples making up to $160,000. Also, under the current law, families who have no income tax liability—nearly half of all families with children—are not eligible for the available tax credits. Seals' proposal would benefit these families for the first time by making the credit partially refundable.
Strengthening Adult Education
In a knowledge based economy, education can no longer be something that we only do in the first quarter of our lives. To stay competitive, today’s workforce needs to have a way to sharpen its skills or add new ones. A strong network of community colleges can do just that.
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