Editor’s note: This is an excerpt of Planet Money’s newsletter. You can sign up here.
Democratic presidential candidates have been watching a historic wave of teacher strikes and protests sweeping the nation — and they want to give teachers a raise.
Kamala Harris wants to spend $315 billion over 10 years to increase the annual salary of an average teacher by $13,500. Joe Biden wants to triple spending on a federal program for low-income schools and use much of those funds for “competitive salaries.” And Bernie Sanders wants to work with states to set a minimum $60,000starting salary for the nation’s teachers.
But there’s something missing from these proposals, and it reveals a dramatic shift from a decade ago in how the Democratic Party wants to fix education.