Booker Campaign Press Release - Cory Booker Unveils Plan To Ensure Educational Opportunity for Every Child and Great Public Schools in Every Community

Cory Will Invest $200 Billion in School Infrastructure

Plan Includes Dramatic Investments to Raise Teacher Pay and Increase Teacher Diversity; Educators Serving in High-Poverty Districts Would Receive Raises Up to $15,500

Plan Outlines Vision for Traditional Public Schools and High-performing Public Charter Schools When Local Communities Call for Them

Newark, NJ — Cory Booker knows the impact a good public school education has on a child's life. When Cory was a baby, his parents fought with the help of civil rights activists to move his family into a neighborhood with good public schools, which in the 1960s were very often in all-white neighborhoods.

That story has personally impacted Cory and his commitment to ensuring every single child has access to a high quality public education. As mayor of Newark, New Jersey, Cory ran toward the tough challenge of improving Newark's schools, and the reforms he set in motion produced results: graduation rates have increased nearly 30 percent since 2008, teacher pay went up, and Newark now has more "beat the odds schools" — schools in high poverty communities with high academic performance — than any other city in the country. Over the course of his time as mayor, college enrollment among Newarkers increased 37 percent.

Today, ahead of tomorrow's Public Education Forum 2020 in Pittsburgh, Cory is outlining how he is going to make limitless educational opportunity a reality for every American child.

As president, Cory will massively increase the federal investment in low-income schools so that all schools can nurture the genius of our children. And as part of his proposal, Cory will also honor, value, and support teachers and public school professionals by increasing teacher pay, expanding loan forgiveness, and investing in teacher training and recruitment, especially to improve teacher diversity.

"Every parent in America hopes that their child will have the opportunities that come from a great public education. The education I received as a child transformed the trajectory of my life," said Cory Booker. "But to get it, my parents had to fight to move my family into a neighborhood with good public schools. 50 years later, the reality is that access to a high-quality public education still too often depends on the zip code a child lives in and the size of their family's bank account.

"We owe the same opportunity provided by a great public education to every child in our country. This isn't an academic exercise for me, it's personal — as mayor, when I saw Newark's kids in crisis, I ran toward the problem and tried to fix it. As a senator, I've continued to fight for public school students and teachers. And as president of the United States, it will be a priority for me to ensure every child has access to the great education that creates a pathway to a better life."

He'll make this vision a reality by:

• Investing at least $200 billion in school infrastructure to ensure that every school, including in low-income districts and rural areas, are in good condition and able to provide an education that prepares all students for the 21st century workforce.
• Giving teachers serving in high-poverty districts a raise of up to $15,000 by passing his RAISE Act alongside his proposal to massively expand and reimagine the Earned Income Tax Credit through his Rise Credit. In some states, first-year teachers could see a raise of nearly 50 percent.
• Improving the diversity of our educator workforce, Cory will pass his Diversifying by Investing in Educators and Students to Improve Outcomes For Youth (DIVERSIFY) Act, which would double the award amount for TEACH grants to students who want to become teachers in high-need subjects in high-poverty schools and end yearly automatic budget cuts to the program.
• Tripling funding for Title I schools to improve the quality of education for low-income students across the country.
• Creating a new grant program seeded with at least $10 billion to incentivize states to reform their school finance systems away from inequitable property tax systems and toward funding systems that ensure an equitable and quality education for every child.
• Support high-quality public charter schools as a strategy to help strengthen public school systems and meet the needs of all students.

In the Senate, Cory has fought against the nomination and harmful policies of Betsy DeVos, voted to end high-stakes standardized testing, and has introduced leading bills to help give public school teachers a raise and invest in new teacher recruitment and training initiatives. As president, Cory would nominate a Secretary of Education who has served as a public school teacher, and who understands the critical role that our public schools play in our society.