Investing in Public Education
Our public schools created the prosperous, democratic America we live in today. If you’re like me, you have become the person you are today thanks in no small part to the gift of a great public education. I am from a middle class family, and I am a product of Colorado public schools. And Lisa and I are proud that our three kids are graduates of East High School in Denver, where I continue to volunteer as a Constitutional Law coach.
Education is central to who I am, and what I care most about: Twenty years ago, I helped found an early childhood education non profit organization here in Colorado called Invest in Kids. Invest in Kids has partnered with the state of Colorado and now works in all 64 counties, helping thousands of families with crucial, evidence-tested early childhood education programs. And because I am proudly bilingual, I also serve on the board of a dual-language Spanish English school here in Denver that seeks to educate a new generation of Latino and Anglo leaders who are bilingual and bicultural.
But there is so much more to do. As overall public school funding has stalled and even declined, we are putting our future opportunities and prosperity at risk. And our public colleges and universities have become far more expensive, forcing too many college students to take on a lifetime burden of student debt to afford what was once affordable with a summer job and work-study programs.
It does not have to be this way. Now is the time to recommit ourselves, as a nation, to ensuring that public education is well-funded and high quality for all. But the Trump administration is taking us in exactly the opposite direction — Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is moving full-force to privatize our entire education system. It won’t work. As the Washington Post summed it up: “We know better. With the experience of two centuries of public education, we have no excuse to believe public education can be left to the whims of well-meaning philanthropists… Our public schools are not ‘charity.’”
Good public education is an unparalleled engine of wealth and opportunity. Why should we hand over control of our public education system to billionaires like Trump and DeVos, who didn’t attend public schools, have no intention of sending their kids to public schools, and do not have the needs or best interests of public schools at heart?
We must reverse this dangerous national trajectory, and invest in public schools so that children from every single family in every single zip code have access to high quality public education: the same high quality public education that helped create the American middle class and our democratic society.
As Colorado’s next U.S. Senator, I will once again make public education a top national priority. I will fight to increase federal support for early childhood education programs. I will fight to ensure that our teachers are paid more for the crucial work that they do with our kids, and that class sizes are cut to create the best learning environment possible. And I will fight to lower the cost of college and replace what has become an unaffordable system of student debt with programs that give all Americans the financial opportunity to pursue higher education, whether in four-year colleges, community colleges or skill-based apprenticeship and certification programs
John Walsh — Candidate for U.S. Senate in Colorado
