Education priorities - 10-yr & 3-yr goals

Perhaps the long-term vision for progressives (25 years) in public education should be to expand public education to include pre-school (universal HeadStart) and college (college can be fully funded through publicly-supported loans). Progressives will be setting their own agenda, rather than simply defending the status quo (preventing conservatives from privatizing K-12 through vouchers). Three and 10-year objectives can then be thought of as benchmarks toward achieving this end -- perhaps a 3-year priority can be expanding the student loan program by 20% and a public interest campaign about the importance of pre-school; and the 10 year priority can be adding one additional publicly-supported, pre-school year to education and expanding the student loan program by 50%. Implicit in the promotion of expanded public education is the importance of all public education.

1. Get into public awareness that:

public education is fundamental to the American ideal that each generation has the opportunity to better itself

public education is an investment in the workforce and America's future competitiveness

sending your children to private elementary, secondary schools is: harming public education, depriving your children of meeting diverse people

2. everyone who wants to go to college, should be able to do so with interest-free loans until they graduate.

3. we need to pay teachers more. why do we pay your lawyers, accountants, garbarge man more than teachers? (though we need to consider making teachers work 11 months/year or "adjusting their income" when we look at it for the summer break they get off...)