Kamala Harris is looking to improve needy schools with her $315 billion dollar plan. The plan includes raising teacher pay in an effort to improve the students’ outcomes. Unlike Obama in 2008, Kamala announced her strategy during the primaries. It may work to her advantage, but is the $315 billion going to benefit students or just the teachers’ wallets?
Harris has suggested a raise of $13,500 across the country for teachers, nearly a 23 percent average increase in their salaries. It would also provide additional help for teachers in needier schools. Her plan overall is to make teachers hold a more prestigious position in the workforce and attract more qualified teachers who would genuinely make a difference in how students do in school.
Similarly to Kamala Harris, Secretary of Education Devos has brought back similar ideals to Obama circa 2008. After these ideas had been suggested, California decided that they want to create their own regulations. Some of the goals of the new bills include: “reintroducing gainful employment rules that would measure student debt against the salaries of graduates; require the attorney general to approve the sale of non-profit college to a for-profit college; attempt to close loopholes that allow for recruiting quotas; and give students more rights to compensation in the event an institution closes.”
A major flaw of Harris’ plan is that it is way too harmful to the pockets of hard-working Americans. How does she expect to pay for this? $315 billion is a hefty sum of money and even though the first 10 percent is presumed to be paid by the states, the rest will need to be collected from taxpayers. There are many other ways to improve teachers and help students without spending an enormous amount of money.
Overall, this could be done for way cheaper than $315 billion. It is unfair to assume such a large amount of money can just be given without any repercussions for our economy. It begs the question of will we see yet another tax like the gas tax to pay for this?
