Bernie Sanders' "Thurgood Marshall Plan for Public Education" will desegregate schools, defund charters, pay teachers, end the school-to-prison pipeline

Bernie Sanders has released A Thurgood Marshall Plan for Public Education, a detailed and bold suite of public education reforms reminiscent of the kinds of policy planks being laid down regularly by rival candidate Elizabeth Warren (I'm a donor to both Sanders' and Warren's campaigns).

The plan -- a pun on the Marshall Plan for rebuilding Europe after WWII -- is also a tribute to Thurgood Marshall, the attorney who successfully argued for school desegregation in the landmark Brown v Board of Ed Supreme Court case. Given the name, it's no surprise that the centerpiece of the plan is a group of measures designed to increase racial integration in US schools, including funding for bussing, "community-driven" desegregation strategies, Title I grants, ESL instruction, improved outcomes for tribal schools, etc, as well as non-financial measures like appointing judges to issue desegregation orders, ending the disciplinary strategies that create the school-to-prison pipeline, etc.

Closely related is a commitment to curb public funding for Charter Schools, whose origins are in a backlash to Brown v Board of Ed, as a means of securing continued funding for racially segregated schools, by providing vouchers to parents to use to pay for tuition at private schools that practiced the discrimination that was banned in public schools by Brown.

Beyond tackling racial discrimination, Sanders' plan adds teeth and resources to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA); increase teacher pay and autonomy, with more money for classroom supplies and more flexibility to adapt or ignore standardized curriculum; and increase access to school lunches, after-school care and summer care. Read the rest