Former Vice President Joe Biden, who is running for president in the 2020 elections, pushed his plan for education during a town hall in Houston on Tuesday afternoon.
According to ABC News, Biden’s plan pushes to reinstate an Obama-era plan aimed to diversify schools, as well as raise teachers pay, direct more resources to schools and push for greater investment into early childhood education, among other issues.
Biden announced plans to “triple funding for Title I, the federal program funding schools with a high percentage of students from low-income families, and require districts to use these funds to offer educators competitive salaries and make other critical investments prior to directing the funds to other purposes.” This proposal will allow for teachers to receive a raise that “will allow school districts and educators to decide what the biggest need is for their communities instead of using a one-size-fits-all approach.”
There is also a push to help educators pay off their student loans.
“If you’re teaching, you should be able to have your student loan basically paid off,” Biden said.
The presidential hopeful is also pushing to improve public school infrastructure, noting that the condition of some schools are making the children and their teachers ill. Such funding will first be allocated to address health risks, with any remaining funds going towards creating “energy-efficient, innovative schools with technology and labs to prepare our students for the jobs of the future.”
Although not included int he plan his campaign released, Biden also announced his belief that community college should be free.
“I believe we should have free community college for every single person qualified in America,” he said during the question and answer period after the town hall, according to ABC. “And by the way, it costs a lot of money. It costs $6 billion”
He proposed paying for it by getting rid of a tax loophole for capital gains tax, the “stepped up basis,” something he has spoken on before, ABC notes.
That being said, there was no budget placed on the rest of his plan, and Biden did not mention how the majority of his proposals would be paid for.