The Story:
Senator Amy Klobuchar (D – Minn), one of the Democratic Party’s candidates for President, announced what she calls a “Progress Partnership” plan last week. This is a program to provide federal aid to states that agree to: increase teachers’ pay in their public schools, update the high school curricula, and demonstrate an equitable system to repair their schools.
Background:
Klobuchar is languishing in the polls, oscillating between 1% and 2% support. She is doing somewhat better in Iowa, site of the first actual primary season vote (a caucus, scheduled for February 3, 2020). Iowa borders Minnesota, so Klobuchar is more familiar to voters there than to voters in much of the rest of the country. Still, even there she is only in the mid single digits.
She may reasonably hope to improve her position by stressing important issues thus far largely unexplored in this campaign, and education policy is among them.
The Thing to Know:
Klobucher spoke about her plan at a forum hosted in Houston, Texas on Friday, July 5 by the National Education Association. She described herself there as the daughter of a teacher, adding that her mother “taught second grade until she was 70 years old.” That, even more than her policy specifics, won a warm response from the crowd.
