Every family should expect that their child can get a good public education, one that provides skills, builds on innate talent and creates citizens capable of succeeding anywhere in the world. And we need a West Virginia good enough so those highly talented kids choose to stay – to raise families, create healthy businesses and build communities right here at home.

But West Virginia’s education system sends a different message. Our public education system suffers from chronic underfunding, leading to teacher shortages, underpaid school employees, a lack of social services available in schools, and even a lack of basic school supplies. The “solution” of privatizing schools through educational savings accounts and charter schools serves only to drain resources from the public school system and make it even harder for kids from non-wealthy backgrounds to get ahead.

A decade and a half of failed education reforms have imposed burdensome standardized testing on teachers and students. Given that the best predictor of test scores is family income, these testing requirements serve mainly to punish students and schools from poorer areas, rather than helping children learn.

At the same time, 70% of West Virginia college graduates are leaving school saddled with an average debt of nearly $28,000. High student debt makes our educational system into a one-way ticket out of West Virginia. We educate people, saddle them with debt and send them into a local job market too weak to provide for a family income and to pay back the debt. How can our young people follow their dreams of becoming educators, social workers, small business owners, or even simply staying in West Virginia when they are so burdened with debt?

In the last two years, striking West Virginia school employees demanding better public education have inspired the nation. Our education battles have been fought in Charleston but the federal government needs to step up for public education. I will fight to:

• Reform the ineffective and burdensome standardized testing regime that forces teachers to “teach to the test” instead of focusing on real learning
• Oppose the Betsy DeVos agenda of privatizing schools and ban for-profit charter schools that take resources away from our public education system
• Secure and grow federal funding for our public schools in West Virginia, particularly to provide much-needed support services, such as mental health counseling
• Ensure that public education is truly for all students and that anti-discrimination laws are enforced to protect students of color and children with special needs.
• Pass Medicare for All (see “Healthcare for All”) so that teachers and public employees do not have to fight every year against cuts to PEIA, the public employee health plan
• Make higher education debt-free and forgive existing student loan debt so that our students can have greater freedom to pursue the careers they want