Can Beto O'Rourke Catch Up On Education Policy?

[TexasTowelie]

Beto O'Rourke is one of the Democratic hopefuls who hasn't articulated much of an education plan. On his official website, education doesn't even make the list of issues. His kick-off speech included a quick mention of education with some fairly basic positions: "world class" pre-K through 12 education, living wage for teachers, graduates who are college and career ready. His public education history is somewhat mixed; he has been an opponent of vouchers, but a supporter of charters (unsurprising, as his wife founded one). But he has not had much to say beyond basic education policy boilerplate.

However, O'Rourke did show up for NEA's Strong Public School's forum. By the time he walked out on stage, Bernie Sanders had hammered home his strong education policy, and Elizabeth Warren had raised the bar for all candidates by coming out strong against high stakes testing. This was his chance to work a huge room of teachers.

His one minute opening was about a struggling community dealing with floods and, yes, it has a school in it. His first question was about how he could help rural schools in the path of opioid addiction, which allowed him to pivot to talking about the opioid problem. Then he turned to the right for teachers to organize, and to earn a living wage so that they can focus on students and not worry about their extra jobs. And then he got interesting:

That means we forget 100% of your student loan debt if you are willing to dedicate your life to public service.

There are many implications to his policy, and as always, there are devils lurking in the details. There is, in fact, a program for partial forgiveness of college loans for teachers and public service workers who meet certain requirements. The law was passed in 2007, but the current administration has been somewhat less than enthusiastic about it, and has rejected roughly nearly every person who has applied; it has become such a mess that the American Federation of Teachers this week in federal court sued Betsy DeVos and the Department of Education over mishandling of the program. This highlights one of the major problems with a college loan forgiveness program: students who complete college under one administration may find they are petitioning for loan forgiveness to a new administration that doesn't actually want to implement the plan.

Read more: https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2019/07/11/can-beto-orourke-catch-up-on-education-policy/#4107c65f4455

[YessirAtsaFact]

1. Can he drop out and run for Texas Senator again?

Beto, Hickenlooper and several other Democrats running for President would make great Senate candidates

[essadaw]

2. MJ Hegar is already running

And she is a great candidate. Beto is not going to drop out just to push her out of the race. With Beto on the presidential ticket and MJ for senate, we can win both the electoral college and the senate seat

[Amimnoch]

3. I wish you the best of luck!

I've been screaming that message for months now here and everywhere else that I discuss politics on social media.

Beto on the National ticket + Hegar running for Senate in Texas and there's a real possibility of flipping Texas for a POTUS win and a net gain of 1 in the Senate to oust the turtle.