Education
Support education and teachers. Our teachers are underpaid, overworked and rarely supplied with the resources necessary to do their work. It is time to stop disinvesting in education, and start placing it at the top of our social and economic agenda.

Fully fund public daycare. With so many parents working, quality daycare is a necessity. Yet it's hard to find and difficult to afford. Children who do not get good quality care early in life do not do as well later on. The govenment should publicly fund daycare, including after school care for children under the age of ten.

Increase teacher and staff pay. Teachers and other staff at the K-12 levels should be given professional status and salaries comparable to related professions requiring advanced education, training and responsibility. Increase pay for education assistants and other staff.

Expand access to post-secondary education. In an economy that demands higher skills and a democracy that depends on an informed, educated electorate, opportunities for universal higher education and life-long learning must be vastly expanded. Tuition-free post secondary (collegiate and vocational) public education should be available to all who have the desire to attend school, but not the financial means. Federal college scholarship aid should be increased and offered to any qualified student.

Equalize school funding. Educational funding formulas need to be adjusted to stop gross inequalities between districts and schools. Educational grants should provide balance to ensure equal educational access for minority, low income, special needs, and exceptional children.

Stop weakening the public school system. School vouchers transfer money out of the public school system. Charter schools and the administration of public schools by private, for-profit entities have the same effect. These programs undercut the public school system and will only lead to a separate and unequal educational system.

Repeal the "No Child Left Behind Act". There is plenty of evidence that this program is actually harming schools by defunding those that need extra resources, by leading school districts to tailor their education programs to the exams, and by curtailing innovative education programs.

Get the military and corporations out of our schools. Schools are becoming more than institutions of learning. As schools have become defunded, they have looked to replace that revenue with corporate sponsorship. Schools should not be vehicles for commercial advertising - our children should not be sold to in the classroom. Schools must safeguard students' privacy rights and not make private student information available on corporate (or federal government) request. The military and corporatations should not be in control of the priorities and topics of academic research at our colleges and universities. The military should not be given access to student records. The "No Child Left Behind Act" must be repealed.

Fund adult education. Learning is a life long activity. It is doubly so in an economy that is changing as rapidly as ours is. Government should be helping to fund a host of innovative and critical educational efforts, such as bi-lingual education, continuing education, job retraining, mentoring and apprenticeship programs.