Joe Biden wants to increase teacher wages, boost funding for school districts with low-income students, and offer universal preschool for young children.
The Biden campaign’s first policy proposal calls to triple funding for Title I, the federal program that directs funding to schools with many students from low-income families. The plan demands school districts use the additional money to pay teachers competitive salaries, and would modify the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program to help teachers pay off student loans.
“How do we increase the dignity of work, how do we increase the professionalization of how you’re treated, unless we pay you what you are remotely entitled to?” Biden said during a town hall event in Houston with the American Federation of Teachers on Tuesday shortly after the plan was released.
Expanding Title I funding would also mean 3- and 4-year-old children would have access to preschool. Additionally, the proposal also calls for doubling the number of psychologists, guidance counselors, nurses, social workers, and other health professionals so children receive the mental healthcare necessary to succeed.
The proposal vows the former vice president will pass legislation to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines to make schools safer.
Biden is one of more than 20 candidates running in the Democratic primary.
