from the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Elections Matter website | http://www.aft.org/election2016
When the AFT hosted three of the candidates running for president in 2016 at the union's June 2-3 executive council meeting in Washington, D.C., seven AFT members from around the country got the chance to ask them questions in person. Read about the members and their questions. Read more
The AFT executive council voted overwhelmingly on July 11 to endorse Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination for president.
AFT: Today, almost 50 million students attend our nation's public schools. Along with their parents, communities, teachers, paraprofessionals and other school employees, these students have been forced to live under test—and-punish policies that include sanctions and school closings, high-stakes assessments, and federalized teacher evaluations that are counterproductive and have taken the joy out of teaching and learning.
AFT Candidate questionnaire:Hillary Rodham ClintonQ. What is your view of the current version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (also known as the No Child Left Behind Act)? What changes, if any, would you make to the law, and why? Please include positions on:
HRC: I have been working to improve and support our public schools for decades. Throughout my career I have worked to ensure that every child reaches his or her full potential, and I know a quality education is essential to reach that goal. When I was First Lady of Arkansas, I chaired the Arkansas Educational Standards Commission where I worked to raise standards for Arkansas' schools, increase teacher salaries, and lower class size. I continued in this effort as First Lady of the United States and as a Senator, working throughout my career to provide dedicated resources and support to teachers and to recruit, support, and retain more outstanding teachers. We need to attract a whole new generation to teaching because it is critical that our students have well-prepared and well-supported teachers. When the No Child Left Behind Act was enacted, I viewed it as a historic promise between the federal government and educators. I hoped that it would lead to a greater sense of shared responsibility for our schools' success. Unfortunately, that promise was largely broken because schools struggled to meet the mandates imposed by the law and the implementation at the federal level was problematic. I applaud Senator Patty Murray and Senator Lamar Alexander for coming together in a bipartisan fashion to unanimously pass the Every Child Achieves Act of 2015 out of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee to reauthorize NCLB. I believe this bill addresses some of the real challenges with NCLB while retaining our commitment to high academic standards, and to assessments that give parents and teachers the information they need to know how students are performing and if and where they need help to improve. I believe that this bill will correct for some of the real challenges that schools and communities experienced in implementing the law and will ensure that principals, educators and local communities are lifted up as full partners and innovators in improving public education. I also applaud the forward- looking investments in education contained in the bill, including a new commitment to improving early learning. One of the issues that I am most concerned about is testing. Tests are intended to provide parents and educators with an understanding of how well kids are learning. Having that understanding is crucial. And it is important to remember that testing provides communities with full information about how our low-income students and students of color are doing in comparison to other groups so that we can continue to improve our educational system for all students. But I understand the frustration many parents and educators feel about tests. Teachers and parents alike are concerned about the amount of time being spent on test preparation, and worry that children are missing out on the most valuable experience in the classroom-- a teacher sparking a student's curiosity and love for learning. So I am mindful that we need to find the right balance—and that starts with bringing parents and educators back into this conversation about how we ensure a robust and engaging curriculum that engages students in the love of learning rather than narrowing our schools to focus primarily on test preparation. I do think that Senators Murray and Alexander struck the right balance in the Every Child Achieves Act by continuing to maintain the federal requirement for annual statewide testing in grades 3-8, but ensuring that accountability for improving schools will be based on multiple measures of performance. And I think it will be critical for states and communities to continue to strike the right balance and not layer test upon test. There must be room for invigorating teaching and learning in the classroom. Q. Do you support any of the current reauthorization proposals under consideration in the 114th Congress? HRC: I applaud Senator Patty Murray and Senator Lamar Alexander for coming together in a bipartisan fashion to unanimously pass the Every Child Achieves Act of 2015 out of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee to reauthorize NCLB. Q. What role do you think the federal government can play in providing access to early childhood education? What specific policy proposals would your administration pursue? HRC: I believe we need to improve access to quality child care and early learning opportunities for all children. Every child, regardless of parental income, deserves access to high-quality pre-K. I think any discussion of improving our public schools must include universal access to pre- kindergarten. I believe we can start to close the achievement gap by investing in programs that increase children's school readiness and academic preparation while making it easier for parents to balance their responsibilities at work with their responsibilities to their children. We know children's brains develop more rapidly at this time in their lives than at any other and that high quality interventions make a real difference in the outcomes of children from low-income families. . In the months ahead, I look forward to laying out a significant agenda to improve early learning in our country. I have been highlighting the importance of early childhood education for more than forty years. As First Lady of Arkansas, I helped bring the Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters Program (HIPPY) to Arkansas. As First Lady, I hosted the first White House conference on early learning and the brain, championed the program "Prescription for Reading," in which pediatricians provided free books for new mothers to read to their infants as their brains were rapidly developing, and supported the Administration's work to create Early Head Start, which reaches children from birth to age three throughout country. As Senator, I co- sponsored the Education Begins at Home Act, which expands the Parents as Teachers program and other quality programs of early childhood home visitation. As a leader at the Clinton Foundation, I led a national initiative called "Too Small to Fail" aimed at supporting parents to improve vocabulary and brain development in the early years to close the "word gap" and better prepare children for school. As President, I will continue my lifelong work to expand early childhood and parent education programs. Q. What are your views on private school vouchers, tuition tax credits, and charter school accountability and transparency? HRC: I strongly oppose voucher schemes because they divert precious resources away from financially strapped public schools to private schools that are not subject to the same accountability standards or teacher quality standards. It would be harmful to our democracy if we dismantled our public school system through vouchers, and there is no evidence that doing so would improve outcomes for children. Charters should be held to the same standards, and to the same level of accountability and transparency to which traditional public schools are held. This includes the requirements of civil rights laws. They can innovate and help improve educational practices. But I also believe that we must go back to the original purpose of charter schools. Where charters are succeeding, we should be doing more to ensure that their innovations can be widely disseminated throughout our traditional public school system. Where they are failing, they should be closed. AFT: Access to an affordable and high-quality system of public higher education is critical to the health of the nation—both to ensure that students reach their fullest potential, and to enable the United States to continue to develop as a just society, a vibrant democracy and a land of economic opportunity. Q. Escalating tuition and fees are leading to a growing number of students leaving college with overwhelming debt from student loans. This burden of rising costs and rising debt makes access to higher education increasingly difficult for many students and their families. What is the role of the federal government in ensuring that higher education is affordable and accessible? HRC: First, too many young people are struggling under the burden of student debt and too many families are struggling to pay the rising cost of college. Second, too many students are starting but never completing college, which means they leave with debt but no degree. I will be offering my own ideas for how to make college more affordable, how to make sure no one graduates with crushing debt, and how to hold colleges accountable to help more students graduate. Among other things, we have to do more to link student loan repayments to income and to help people refinance their loans. And we have to think about both four-year colleges and community colleges. I support President Obama's free community college proposal. I will be talking about ways to reduce the burdens on those entering four-year colleges too, as well as those who are out in the world trying to start a business or a family. I intend to introduce significant proposals on these subjects in the weeks and months ahead. Q. There has been a nationwide pattern of disinvestment in public higher education such that per-student funding dropped 26.1 percent between 1990 and 2010. What would your administration do to remedy this? HRC: State budget cuts are a primary cause of tuition increases at public universities and reversing this trend is key to making college more affordable. That's why I will make incentivizing increased state funding of higher education a priority, and explore ways to make sure that the federal government is actively partnering and working with states to address the problem of college affordability. Q. Career and technical education programs help ensure that postsecondary credentials and skills are accessible to all—a necessity in today's economy. In your view, what is the role of the federal government in supporting high-quality CTE programs? HRC: In the months ahead, I will lay out my ideas for a comprehensive proposal to train millions more workers over the next decade. I am exploring a number of options to incentivize GTE programs and help provide grants to train workers for the 21st century economy. Q. What is the federal government's role in requiring appropriate transparency and accountability of for-profit institutions? HRC: We have to do a lot more to protect students and families from unscrupulous institutions and abusive debt servicers. There are a lot of non-traditional students who want to go back to school to improve their lives, but don't have access to much information or support to figure out how best to do that. Money and time are both tight, with a lot of them trying to juggle family, jobs, and school all at the same time. So they're particularly vulnerable to exploitation and deception. All students need more guidance in making decisions about where to go to school. We should protect them from institutions that will almost certainly not serve them well. The government should stop funding colleges where almost no one graduates and where most students accumulate a lot of debt but can't get the jobs that would allow them to repay their loans. In the months ahead, I will be laying out specific ideas and proposals on how to increase accountability in the for-profit sector. AFT: Having a high-quality healthcare system in the United States is a moral imperative, an economic necessity and a fundamental right for all. Underpinning this right is a healthcare system that reflects the needs of the patients, providers and community. Q. What are your views of the Affordable Care Act? What changes would you make, if any, to the ACA, including the excise tax on high-cost plans and the provisions on shared responsibility for employers? HRC: Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, more than 16 million Americans have gained new coverage. The reduction in the uninsured rate across the country has been staggering, down to roughly 12% for adults. These statistics translate into real change in people's lives. Families who no longer have to face the threat of bankruptcy because of catastrophic health care costs. Parents who now have health care when only their children were covered before. Women can no longer be charged higher rates solely because of their gender. People with preexisting conditions can no longer be denied coverage. Americans can make the leap of changing jobs or starting a business without worrying about whether they'll still be able to buy insurance — because now they know they can purchase it on the marketplace. So this is a real accomplishment we should be proud of As with any piece of major legislation, it's not perfect and would benefit from updates and fixes. One area of the ACA that I am examining is the so-called "Cadillac" tax. As currently structured, I worry that it may create an incentive to substantially lower the value of the benefits package and shift more and more costs to consumers. As President, I would work to ensure that our tax code appropriately advances the health care interests of lower-income and middle class families. We also need to take steps beyond the ACA. We should crack down on the drug companies that charge too much and the insurance companies that offer too little. And we need to tackling rising out-of-pocket health care costs for consumers across the board. Q. Do you support initiatives designed to move health insurance coverage away from an employer-based model? If so, what would you propose as an alternative to the current system for covering working adults? HRC: I've long believed that progress on health care is only possible if there is a principle of shared responsibility among every major actor in our health care system. Employers have always played a critical role in ensuring working families have access to coverage — in fact more than 96% of firms with 50 or more employees already offer health insurance. Q. Many licensed healthcare professionals, particularly RNs, are leaving hospital service because of difficult working conditions, including excessive and unsafe workloads, understaffing and mandatory overtime. What would you do to address these problems and to improve recruitment and retention of nurses and other healthcare professionals? HRC: I know that we must address the nursing shortage in this country and give nurses the training, education, and support they need to provide the care patients deserve. We need appropriate nurse-to-patient ratios in order to improve patient care and working conditions for nurses. I have a history of working for America's nurses. As Senator, I was proud to champion provisions in the Nurse Reinvestment Act that provided significant resources to recruit and train nurses, and I introduced the Nursing Education and Quality of Health Care Act. I believe it is important that all American employees are safe and protected where they work In particular, I believe that we need to consider the effects of ergonomic hazards in order to quickly and effectively address musculoskeletal disorders in the workplace. I know that this is a problem for nurses, who often suffer from back-related injuries as a result of having to move and lift patients. Q. Merger and acquisition activity continues to consolidate the U.S. healthcare system into the hands of a few corporations, many of which are for-profit. What would you do to ensure competition in the healthcare industry is fair and protects the American consumer? HRC: The federal government plays a critical role in evaluating and enforcing health care mergers to ensure that they do not stymie competition, burdening consumers with fewer choices and higher prices. Anti-competitive and costly market consolidation in health care or other markets should not be permitted. While the Affordable Care Act created incentives for providers to bettercoordinate care and pass those savings onto consumers, we need to make sure that acquisitions and integration of health care stakeholders will ultimately lower cost growth and increase quality of care. To that end, in addition to providing necessary guidance to health care providers about appropriate and beneficial ways to better integrate their services, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) should be funded and directed to be ever-vigilant in halting anti-competitive health care arrangements through robust enforcement. Q. What would you do to ensure that communities have access to public health services? HRC: I believe we must take full advantage of the movement from volume to value purchasing of health care to encourage much more of a focus on the value of prevention and the imperative of population health. My record shows my dedication to this issue. As Senator, I led a bipartisan coalition to fight for legislation to combat childhood obesity, helped pass legislation to provide extra funding for flu vaccine and proposed legislation that would raise public awareness and speed up production of the vaccine, and proposed legislation to combat diabetes, asthma and HIV/AIDS. As the chairperson of the Superfund and Environmental Health Subcommittee of the Environmental and Public Works Committee, I held the first-ever congressional hearing on environmental justice, bringing much-needed attention to the fact that certain environmental conditions cause health problems, which is often the case in low-income or underserved communities. Following the enactment of the Affordable Care Act, providers are being more appropriately rewarded on their success in ensuring wellness and good health and not on unnecessary, wasteful, expensive and, all-too-frequently, dangerous health care interventions. By focusing on prevention and the necessity of population health, we have a real opportunity to finally make long-overdue inroads in the public's health. AFT: An administration's economic policy has far-reaching implications for the United States and the world. It also says a great deal about a president's priorities and general philosophy about the federal government's responsibility to its citizens. Q. What are your priorities for revitalizing the economy, strengthening the middle class, creating jobs and ensuring fair taxation? How would your plan help restore funding for education, healthcare, transportation, public safety and many other services provided to our citizens? HRC: I want to make being middle-class mean something again. I'm going to take on four big fights in this campaign: (1) building an economy for tomorrow, instead of yesterday; (2) strengthening our families and communities; (3) fixing our broken political system; (4) protecting our country from threats. I will lay out a number of new ideas over the course of the campaign, including helping small businesses create jobs, making college more affordable, raising workers' wages and reducing cost pressures on families, balancing work and family, helping workers get the skills they need to get ahead in a changing economy, and making sure all our kids have the chance to live up to their God-given potential. Q. The United States has a $3.2 trillion infrastructure deficit according to the American Society of Civil Engineers—and that's just for repairs. What are the mechanisms (e.g., public, private, infrastructure bank) through which we can fund the rebuilding of this country, including the necessary renovation and modernization of our public schools, hospitals and public buildings? HRC: Ordinary Americans can't afford failing to invest in our infrastructure. If we don't repair our roads and bridges, and upgrade our infrastructure for the 21st Century, it's harder for Americans to get to work, and for our businesses to grow and compete. It's time for us to invest in America. That means Congress must make the investments we need in our roads and highways and that means leveraging investment by the private sector as well. I will be laying out my own proposals on how to leverage both public and private sources of funding and creative financing mechanisms to address America's infrastructure needs. Q. What would your administration do to build and strengthen retirement security for all working men and women, including protecting employees' pensions? What is your plan for sustaining and strengthening Social Security and Medicare? HRC: Let me start by saying I've fought to defend Social Security for years, including when the Bush Administration tried to privatize it. We need to keep defending it from attacks and enhance it to meet new realities. I'm especially focused on the fact that we need to improve how Social Security works for women. I also want to enhance benefits for our most vulnerable seniors. We need to reject years of Republican myth-making that claims we cannot afford it and that the only solution must therefore be to cut benefits. I will continue to oppose Republican efforts that seek to privatize or gut Medicare. We need a broader strategy to help Americans with their retirement security. I will have ideas on that. Q. What are your views on the privatization and contracting out of public services, including school services and state and local government services? HRC: I do not believe that we should be contracting, outsourcing, or privatizing work that is inherently governmental in nature, including school services and state and local government services. In the Senate, I helped secure a measure that became law that blocked the Bush administration from downsizing the Federal Protective Service. I cosponsored legislation to protect city and rural letter carriers from having their work contracted out by the U.S. Postal Service to private firms and individuals. Lastly, I was an original cosponsor of the Honest Leadership and Accountability in Contracting Act. AFT: Labor unions give workers a collective voice in the workplace and are integral to the social and economic health of our country. AFT members are interested in knowing your views on the role of labor unions. Q. Current federal laws and policies encourage and promote collective bargaining through the National Labor Relations Act. What are your views on collective bargaining for the private and public sectors? What is your view regarding agency fee and so-called right-to-work laws? HRC: The right to organize is one of our most fundamental human rights. I believe that unions are critical to a strong American middle class. Throughout my career, I have stood with all workers as they exercise their right to organize and bargain collectively and was an original co-sponsor of the Employee Free Choice Act. I'm talking to a lot of labor leaders and labor economists about what the next president can do to support 21st century organizing and collective bargaining. Q. As president, what would you do to: (a) prevent employers from intimidating and harassing workers who support union representation, (b) ensure that workers are free to organize and bargain in the workplace, and (c) protect the rights of American workers? HRC: Throughout my career, I have stood with all workers as they exercise their right to organize and bargain collectively and am an original co-sponsor of the Employee Free Choice Act. I actively opposed anti-collective bargaining provisions contained in the Department of Defense's proposed National Security Personnel System and have voted in favor of collective bargaining rights for TSA screeners. It is also vital that we modernize basic labor standards. Worker protections and basic labor standards have failed to keep pace with changes over the past half century. We need to raise wages and reduce poverty among working families, including raising the minimum wage, eradicating wage theft, promoting collective bargaining, updating overtime protections, ensuring that employers do not misclassify, true employees as "independent contractors" to skirt their obligations, and leveling the playing field for women and people of color. Q. The federal government has direct responsibility for setting labor standards. There has been a growing call for changes to those standards, including paid sick days, paid family leave and higher minimum wages. What changes, if any, would you prioritize? HRC: Experience shows that policies that are good for middle-class families are good for everyone—including businesses. These policies are pro-growth, and pro-family, and that's a pretty good twofer. It is long past time for the U.S. to join every other nation in the developed world in having paid leave, which is critical to ensuring that workers do not have to choose between caring for their family and keeping a job. I'm not under any illusions that this will be easy. We had to fight for years to pass the unpaid Family and Medical Leave Act, and the day my husband signed that law was a day I'll never forget. I look forward to talking about how we move forward on this. I have fought to raise the minimum wage for many years, and I strongly support the fast food workers and others who are out there asking for a living wage and a fair shot at success. A higher minimum wage doesn't just help those at the bottom of the pay scale, it has a ripple effect across the economy and helps millions of American workers and middle class families. As we work to raise the federal minimum wage, we should also support state and local efforts to go above the federal floor where it makes sense to do so. Q. More than 8 million public employees in 25 states currently have no OSHA protection or entitlement to a safe and healthful workplace. Do you support universal OSHA coverage for all public employees? HRC: I believe it is important that American employees are safe and protected where they work In the decades since OSHA has been enacted, we've made great strides in strengthening the safety of work environments for our workers. But there are improvements that need to be made. In particular, too few workers are protected by OSHA. That's why in the Senate I was an original cosponsor of the Protecting America's Workers Act, which would extend OSHA protections to all federal, state, and local public employees. AFT: The AFT and our members are champions of fairness; democracy; economic opportunity; and high-quality public education, healthcare and public services for our students, their families and our communities. We are committed to advancing these principles through community engagement. Our members are interested in knowing your views on the following important community issues: Q. What policies would your administration pursue to ensure that all people—regardless of who they are, where they live or where they come from—are able to climb the ladder of opportunity and participate fully in our economy and democracy? HRC: Today, there are nearly 6 million young people in America who are out of school and out of work The unemployment rate for this rising generation is double what it is for the rest of the population. It wasn't like that in 2000. Young people were getting jobs, they were climbing the ladder of opportunity. Millions more of our young people are underemployed because the jobs that are available just aren't sufficient. They don't offer the kind of income and growth potential that should be more broadly accessible. For young people of color things are even harder. And if you don't have a college degree or didn't graduate from high school, most doors just aren't open, no matter how hard you knock. That is why education at all levels—from birth through higher education—is so important to helping all people climb that ladder of opportunity. I have worked hard throughout my career to make sure that every child gets a chance to develop his or her mental capacity by developing their brain from the very earliest age, because if your vocabulary is so far behind by the time you're five years old, through no fault of your own but because the adults in your life are sobusy, so stressed or don't know how you build brain cells, by talking and singing and reading to babies, then you enter kindergarten having heard 30 million less words than a child from one of our families. And that's very hard to overcome. It's not that when you're 18 you're not trying, it's when you're five you were already left behind. Q. In your opinion, what are the elements of comprehensive immigration reform? How would your administration's stance on immigration reform fight back against inequality, promote economic justice and increase wages for all workers? HRC: I support comprehensive immigration reform (CIR) and a path to citizenship not just because it's the right thing to do, but because it strengthens families, strengthens our economy, and strengthens our country. I was a strong supporter of CIR as a Senator, cosponsoring Senator Ted Kennedy's 2004 bill and supporting the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act in 2006 and 2007. In 2003, 2005 and 2007, I cosponsored the Dream Act in the Senate. I also support President Obama's DACA/DAPA executive actions. And if Congress continues to refuse to act, as President I would do everything possible under the law to go even further. Q. What are your views on campaign finance reform? Do you support a constitutional amendment overturning the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision? HRC: We have to reduce the influence of big money in politics. As I said recently, I support a constitutional amendment to get unaccountable money out of politics. Q. What would your administration do to ensure that voting in elections is free, fair and available to all Americans? Do you oppose policies that restrict access to voting and voter registration? HRC: As I said recently, the assault on voting rights threatens to block millions of Americans from fully participating in our democracy. We need to fix the holes opened up by the Supreme Court's ruling. Congress should pass legislation to replace those portions of the act that the Court struck down, and as President I would work to ensure that all citizens have the information and access they need to fully participate in our democracy. ConclusionQ. What do you think this nation's priorities should be during the next decade? How would your presidency advance those priorities? HRC: I am committed to being a champion for everyday Americans and American families. That's what I've been devoted to my entire adult life, starting with my first job out of law school when I went to work for the Children's Defense Fund, all the way through to the work that I did as Secretary of State promoting women's rights, promoting the rights of people who would otherwise be marginalized or left on the sidelines. And I know that although we have begun to move forward again, it is still hard to imagine exactly how we're going to get to the point where people are not just getting by but getting ahead again and staying ahead. Because the deck is still stacked in favor of those at the top. We have to be focused on how we're going to bring about the changes that will ignite opportunity for everybody willing to work hard for it again. We have to build an economy that's innovative, sustainable, and producing good jobs with rising wages. We need to actually reward workers with increases in their paychecks for the increases in productivity and profitability. It's also imperative that we give people the tools through education and job training, so that they can make the most out of their own lives. And for me that starts at the very beginning. I have been a child advocate and a child development proponent for my entire adult life, because it's what I really care about and believe in. Then we have to make sure that we are doing all we can to empower our educators, to make sure that they have the support of parents so that they can do the job they have been trained to do to help prepare our kids. And then we've got to make sure that college is affordable. One of the biggest stresses in anybody's life is healthcare. I'm going to support and defend the Affordable Care Act, and I will work to fix those parts of it that need fixing. But, we have made a great step forward as a nation to provide a mechanism for people to get access to healthcare, some for the first time. We also have to address the unaccountable dark money in politics. I think the Supreme Court made a grave error with its Citizens United decision. And I will do everything I can do to appoint Supreme Court Justices who will protect the right to vote and not the right of billionaires to buy elections. Finally, we have challenges around the world. But we have to be confident and strong in understanding that there are many ways to approach the problems that America will be confronting in the world, and we must do so in cooperation with our friends, our allies, our fellow democracies around the world. I am convinced that the 21st century can once again be a century in which the United States leads and helps to set the values and standards. - See more at: http://www.aft.org/election2016/candidate-questionnaire-hillary-rodham-clinton#sthash.Ny1bYGT6.dpuf | AFT Candidate questionnaire:Bernie SandersQ. What is your view of the current version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (also BS: I voted against No Child Left Behind in 2001, and continue to oppose the bill's reliance on high-stakes standardized testing to direct draconian interventions. In my view, No Child Left Behind ignores several important factors in a student's academic performance, specifically the impact of poverty, access to adequate health care, mental health, nutrition, and a wide variety of supports that children in poverty should have access to. By placing so much emphasis on standardized testing, No Child Left Behind ignores many of the skills and qualities that are vitally important in our 21st century economy, like problem solving, critical thinking, and teamwork, in favor of test preparation that provides no benefit to students after they leave school. In my home state of Vermont, almost every school is identified as "failing" under the requirements of No Child Left Behind, despite the fact that we have one of the highest graduation rates in the country, and students from Vermont continually score among the highest in the country on annual NAEP assessments. As a member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, I have worked to reform No Child Left Behind. My top priorities during the most recent iteration of the bill have been: In addition, I strongly support increased emphasis on a well-rounded curriculum. No Child Left Behind's narrow focus on math and literacy has deprived children, especially low-income children, from critical opportunities in the arts, music, physical education, civics and STEM fields. I also believe that not enough emphasis has been placed on effective professional development for educators and school leaders. Districts and schools must provide more time and support for educators to pursue highly effective professional development. We should be encouraging innovation in professional development, and ensuring that teachers will be able to incorporate professional development into their classroom practice. Finally, we must provide the resources necessary to provide effective professional development for all teachers, and have consistently supported efforts to increase Title II funding. Q. Do you support any of the current reauthorization proposals under consideration in the 114th Q. What role do you think the federal government can play in providing access to early childhood education? What specific policy proposals would your administration pursue? BS: Every child in the United States should have access to high quality early childhood education programs, and that the federal government has a critical role to play. If elected, I would pursue a federal program to guarantee access for every child, and ensure early-childhood educators receive compensation that is commensurate with elementary school teachers. Q. What are your views on private school vouchers, tuition tax credits, and charter school accountability and transparency? BS: I am strongly opposed to any voucher system that would re-direct public education dollars to private schools, including through the use of tax credits. In addition, I believe charter schools should be held to the same standards of transparency as public schools, and that these standards should also apply to the non-profit and for-profit entities that organize charter schools. Q. Escalating tuition and fees are leading to a growing number of students leaving college with overwhelming debt from student loans. This burden of rising costs and rising debt makes access to higher education increasingly difficult for many students and their families. What is the role of the federal government in ensuring that higher education is affordable and accessible? BS: Skyrocketing college tuition has left college out of reach for hundreds of thousands of students, and left millions more deeply in debt. In an increasingly global economy, I believe it is unfair and bad economic policy to force our young people to compete with workers from other countries who can pursue a higher education at little or no cost. This is why I introduced the College for All Act which would create a federal-state partnership to eliminate undergraduate tuition at public colleges and universities. In addition, this legislation would slash student loan interest rates, and allow borrowers to refinance their loans. If elected, I would continue my work to eliminate tuition at public colleges and to alleviate the burden of student debt. Q. There has been a nationwide pattern of disinvestment in public higher education such that per-student funding dropped 26.1 percent between 1990 and 2010. What would your administration do to remedy this? BS: State disinvestment has unquestionably been a prime driver of skyrocketing tuition costs. I strongly support the creation of a federal-state partnership that will incentivize states to re-invest in their public higher education systems. Q. Career and technical education programs help ensure that postsecondary credentials and skills are accessible to all—a necessity in today's economy. In your view, what is the role of the federal government in supporting high-quality CTE programs? BS: Career and Technical Education programs are vital pathways to middle-class, family-supporting jobs. I believe it is in our national and economic interest to ensure quality CTE programs are available to every American, and effectively aligned with the needs of the 21st century workforce. Accordingly, I strongly support fully-funding the Perkins CTE program. In addition, if elected, I would work to revolutionize our nation's approach to workforce development and technical education to build effective, attainable pathways for young people to pursue middle class careers. Q. What is the federal government's role in requiring appropriate transparency and accountability of for-profit institutions? BS: In my view, for-profit colleges and career programs have perpetrated a massive fraud at the expense of American taxpayers, and hundreds of thousands of students who are now saddled with worthless degrees and massive amounts of student debt. As the gatekeeper to financial aid programs, the federal government must be far more vigilant, and do a much more effective job in protecting students and taxpayers from low-quality and fraudulent programs. I support efforts to implement gainful employment regulations, and regulations requiring that no institution receives more than 85% of its revenue from federal sources. In addition, I support efforts to increase transparency in the sector, so students and policymakers have a clearer understanding of institutions' activities and quality. Q. What are your views of the Affordable Care Act? What changes would you make, if any, to the ACA, including the excise tax on high-cost plans and the provisions on shared responsibility for employers? BS: I start my approach to healthcare from a very basic point: healthcare should be a right and not a privilege. Our healthcare system is broken, and the Affordable Care Act was an important first step. It has done a lot of good things that have improved the health and economic security of millions of Americans, including closing the prescription drug "donut hole" for seniors, allowing young adults to stay on their parents' health insurance plans, and preventing insurance companies from discriminating based on pre-existing conditions. But the ACA was not perfect, and there are some improvements we can make. Although millions more Americans have insurance now, the ACA will still leave some 30 million Americans without health coverage. Families will still face plans that have high deductibles and copays, or do not cover the medications or doctors they need. Beyond those larger improvements, any specific changes to the ACA must be done thoughtfully and with a few key principles in mind--namely, the impact any changes will have on the rest of the healthcare system. Changes to the employer shared responsibility provision should not be done in a way that leads to higher premiums for employees or reduced revenues for the government. As for the excise tax on high-cost health plans, it is important to preserve the savings Congress intended from that provision, but I want to be certain that workers who have traded lower wages for better benefits over the years are not penalized. Q. Do you support initiatives designed to move health insurance coverage away from an employer-based model? If so, what would you propose as an alternative to the current system for covering working adults? BS: As I said above, the Affordable Care Act was a good first step towards fixing our broken healthcare system--but it also heavily relies on continuing the employer-based model of health coverage. There is no reason employers should be in the insurance business, unless they actually happen to run an insurance company! I believe the best strategy is to move to universal coverage under a Medicare-for-all single payer system. Your health coverage and your level of benefits should not depend on your employer. Q. Many licensed healthcare professionals, particularly RNs, are leaving hospital service because of difficult working conditions, including excessive and unsafe workloads, understaffing and mandatory overtime. What would you do to address these problems and to improve recruitment and retention of nurses and other healthcare professionals? BS: I believe that health care is a right, not a privilege and every American should have access to the health care services they need, regardless of their income. I also believe improved access to primary care will keep people healthier and reduce reliance on emergency rooms as a first site of care. These changes in our health care system will improve the lives of patients but also of health care providers, including RNs working in hospitals, who are often the ones who bear the brunt of our flawed system. Until these types of changes can be made, we need to protect this critical workforce by ensuring they have the equipment and resources they need to provide world class health care without risking personal injury. I have long supported programs and policies, including the National Health Service Corps, designed to encourage caring and dedicated individuals to go into the health care field and serve in areas of greatest need. Q. Merger and acquisition activity continues to consolidate the U.S. healthcare system into the hands of a few corporations, many of which are for-profit. What would you do to ensure competition in the healthcare industry is fair and protects the American consumer? BS: Consolidation and concentration of power is occurring throughout every sector of our economy and it must stop. We must not allow a few companies and a few families to control every industry in this country. This is a problem in the health care industry where only a select number companies control the system and focus more on their shareholders' profits than the health of their customers. For example, prescription medications in this country are not only made by a limited number of companies but are distributed by only a few companies with the ability to set prices however they want and can limit the supply however they choose. America desperately needs a reinvigorated anti-trust system aimed at dismantling the growing concentration in many sectors of our economy. Q. What would you do to ensure that communities have access to public health services? BS: Access to public health services has been a substantial focus of my time in Congress. As Chairman of the Veterans' Affairs Committee in the Senate I worked tirelessly to make sure that every eligible veteran in this country had access to high-quality, timely care through the VA. And as Chairman of the Health Education Labor and Pension's subcommittee on Primary Health and Aging I led the efforts to reauthorize the Older Americans Act, which helps guarantee access to critical health programs for seniors throughout the country and fought hard to extend funding for three key public service programs: Federally Qualified Health Centers, Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education, and the National Health Service Corps. I am a huge supporter of community health centers as I believe they help all Americans, regardless of income, access the preventive care that keeps them healthy and well. I would like to expand these centers, making sure even more Americans can benefit. I have also fought hard to include dental care in more public health programs so more Americans aren't forced to ignore dangerous, even life-threatening oral health problems because they don't have coverage. Q. What are your priorities for revitalizing the economy, strengthening the middle class, creating jobs and ensuring fair taxation? How would your plan help restore funding for education, healthcare, transportation, public safety and many other services provided to our citizens? BS:. Creating Millions of jobs. If we are truly serious about reversing the decline of the middle class and putting millions of people back to work, we need a major federal jobs program. The most effective way to do that is to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure. That's why I've introduced legislation which would invest $1 trillion over 5 years to modernize our country's physical infrastructure. My bill would create and maintain at least 13 million good-paying jobs, while making our country more productive, efficient and safe. Raising Wages and Benefits. The current federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour is a starvation wage. The minimum wage must become a living wage — which means raising it to $15 an hour over the next few years. My goal is to ensure that no full-time worker lives in poverty. We must also bring about pay equity. It's unconscionable for women to earn 78 cents on the dollar compared to men who perform the same work. Overtime protections must be strengthened for millions of workers. It is absurd that "supervisors" earning $25,000 a year — and who may in fact supervise no one — are currently forced to work 50 or 60 hours a week with no overtime pay. We also need paid sick leave and vacation time for all. Progressive Taxation. In order to reverse the massive transfer of wealth and income from the middle class to the very rich we've seen in recent years, we need real tax reform which makes wealthy individuals and profitable corporations begin to pay their fair share of taxes. It is fiscally irresponsible for the U.S. Treasury to lose about $100 billion a year because corporations and the rich stash their profits in the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and other tax havens. I have introduced legislation which would end this legalized tax fraud. College for All. The United States must join Germany and many other countries in understanding that investing in our young people's education is investing in the future of our nation. I have introduced legislation to make tuition in public colleges and universities free, as well as substantially lower interest rates on student loans. Tax on Wall Street Speculation. At a time of massive income and wealth inequality, at a time when trillions of dollars in wealth have left the pockets of the middle class and have gone to the top one-tenth of one percent, at a time when the wealthiest people in this country have made huge amounts of money from risky derivative transactions and the soaring value of the stock market, I would impose a speculation fee on Wall Street investment houses and hedge funds. Medicare for All. The United States remains the only major country on earth that does not guarantee health care for all as a right. Despite the modest gains of the Affordable Care Act, 35million Americans continue to lack health insurance and many more are under-insured. Yet, we continue paying far more per capita for health care than any other nation. The United States must move toward a Medicare-for-All single-payer system. Q. The United States has a $3.2 trillion infrastructure deficit according to the American Society of Civil Engineers—and that's just for repairs. What are the mechanisms (e.g., public, private, infrastructure bank) through which we can fund the rebuilding of this country, including the necessary renovation and modernization of our public schools, hospitals and public buildings? BS:. For years, we have significantly underfunded the maintenance and improvement of the physical infrastructure on which our economy depends. That has to change, and that is why I have introduced the Rebuild America Act, which would invest $1 trillion over five years to modernize our infrastructure. I introduced a similar, but scaled down $476 billion measure as a floor amendment to the Senate Budget Resolution. Both efforts would be paid for by closing tax loopholes that allow profitable American corporations to stash their profits in tax haven countries like the Cayman Islands. The Rebuild America Act would invest in roads, bridges and transit; intercity passenger and freight rail; airports; seaports and inland waterways; drinking water and waste water plants; dams and levees; electric transmission and distribution; and broadband. Importantly, at a time when the real unemployment is more than 11%, the Rebuild America Act would create 13 million jobs that can't be outsources or off-shored. In terms of 21' century infrastructure technology, the Rebuild America Act would make a $25 billion investment in broadband technology over five years. There is no question this investment is needed: the U.S. ranks 16th in the world in terms of broadband access (OECD) and 12th in the world for broadband speed (Akamai). It simply isn't acceptable that businesses, schools and families in Bucharest, Romania have access to much faster internet than most of the United States. Q. What would your administration do to build and strengthen retirement security for all working men and women, including protecting employees' pensions? What is your plan for sustaining and strengthening Social Security and Medicare? BS: Expand Social Security. Today, we have a retirement crisis in this country. Only one in five American workers have a defined benefit pension plan that guarantees income in retirement. Over half of the American people have less than $10,000 in savings and have no idea how they will ever be able to retire in dignity. More than one-third of senior citizens depend on Social Security for virtually all of their income. And, twenty percent of the elderly are trying to live on an average income of just $7,600 a year. Given this reality, our job is not to cut Social Security, our job is to expand Social Security. In the Senate, I have proposed legislation to increase Social Security benefits by an average of $65 a month; expand cost-of-living-adjustments so that seniors can afford the increased prices of prescription drugs and other healthcare expenses; and lift millions of seniors out of poverty by expanding the minimum Social Security benefits that seniors receive in retirement. This legislation would be paid for by eliminating the cap on taxable income subject to the Social Security payroll tax. Right now, a Wall Street CEO making $20 million a year pays the same amount of money into the Social Security system as someone making $118,500. That is unfair. My legislation would change that. If we scrapped the cap, and applied the Social Security payroll tax on all income above $250,000, not only would we be able to expand benefits, we would also ensure that Social Security can pay every benefit owed to every eligible American for the next 50 years. Stop Pension Cuts. I would reverse the provision included in last year's appropriations bill that allows the pensions of millions of workers and retirees in multi-employer pension plans to be slashed. Expand Unions. The most important thing we can do to both preserve and expand defined benefit pension plans is to make it easier for workers to join unions. One of the most significant reasons for the decline in defined benefit pension plans is that the rights of workers to join together and bargain for better wages, benefits, and working conditions have been severely undermined. Today, corporate executives are routinely negotiating obscenely high compensation packages for themselves, but then they deny their own employees the ability to bargain for a better life. That is wrong. We have got to turn this around. That's why I support allowing workers to join unions when a majority sign valid authorization cards stating that they want a union as their bargaining representative. Today, about 68 percent of union workers have a guaranteed pension through a defined benefit plan; while less than 14 percent of nonunion workers do. Expanding union membership in this country would be the best way to protect and expand defined benefit pensions. Q. What are your views on the privatization and contracting out of public services, including school services and state and local government services? BS: I am strongly opposed to the outsourcing and privatization of public services. The reality is that many private contractors provide jobs with low pay and no benefits with little or no training. It is not a surprise that initially these private contractors out-bid their government competitors because the federal government provides better pay, health care, pension benefits and quality training to their employees. But, in the long-term, in most instances, privatization leads to poor service, high turnover, and an overall increase in taxpayer dollars. For example, on the state government level, the State of New Jersey thought they were going to save taxpayer dollars by privatizing their vehicle inspection program. What happened? According to a 2002 report, this program turned into a "mammoth boondoggle" that ended up costing taxpayers $247 million more than it would have cost if it were run by the state. As President, I would do everything I could to reverse the privatization of public services and support the creation of more good-paying public sector jobs. Q. Current federal laws and policies encourage and promote collective bargaining through the National Labor Relations Act. What are your views on collective bargaining for the private and public sectors? What is your view regarding agency fee and so-called right-to-work laws? BS: I am strongly supportive of collective bargaining for private and public sector workers. I am strongly opposed to agency fee and right-to-work laws. I will fight to make sure that workers are allowed to join unions when a majority sign valid authorization cards stating that they want a union as their bargaining representative. This is not a radical idea. Card check recognition was the law of the land from 1941-1966. Today, we have more wealth and income inequality in our country than at any time since 1928. There are lots of reasons for this. The failure to raise the minimum wage is an obvious example. Unfettered free trade that forces American workers to compete against desperate workers in China, Mexico, and Vietnam is another. But perhaps one of the most significant reasons for the decline in the middle class is that the rights of workers to join together and bargain collectively for better wages, benefits, and working conditions have been severely undermined. That will change under my Administration. Q. As president, what would you do to: (a) prevent employers from intimidating and harassing workers who support union representation, (b) ensure that workers are free to organize and bargain in the workplace, and (c) protect the rights of American workers? BS: I would strongly penalize employers that illegally fire or discriminate against workers for their union activity during an organizing or first contract drive. Q. The federal government has direct responsibility for setting labor standards. There has been a growing call for changes to those standards, including paid sick days, paid family leave and higher minimum wages. What changes, if any, would you prioritize? BS: I would raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour over a period of years and index it to inflation. I would fight for paid sick leave, paid family leave, and paid sick days. Q. More than 8 million public employees in 25 states currently have no OSHA protection or entitlement to a safe and healthful workplace. Do you support universal OSHA coverage for all public employees? BS: Of course, I support universal OSHA coverage for all public employees. Every workers should have the right to a safe and healthy work environment. It is a disgrace that millions of public sector employees do not have these fundamental rights in 25 states. Q. What policies would your administration pursue to ensure that all people—regardless of who they are, where they live or where they come from—are able to climb the ladder of opportunity and participate fully in our economy and democracy? BS: We need to make a 4-year education at every public college and university in this country free. If Germany, Sweden and Denmark can afford to do this, then so can we. We need to make health care a basic right in our society, and we need to move beyond the rhetoric about growth and prosperity and recommit to the principles of the Full Employment Act of 1946. Q. In your opinion, what are the elements of comprehensive immigration reform? How would your administration's stance on immigration reform fight back against inequality, promote economic justice and increase wages for all workers? BS: Our immigration system is broken, and it is long past time to fit it. Comprehensive immigration reform must begin with implementing a responsible path to citizenship for the more than 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. They should be given the opportunity to come out of the shadows, have the full protection of the law — including workplace safety and wage and hours protections — pay into Social Security and Medicare, and contribute to the American economy. Q. What are your views on campaign finance reform? Do you support a constitutional amendment overturning the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision? BS: In my view, Citizens United is one of the worst decisions in Supreme Court history, and I have introduced a constitutional amendment to overturn it. We need to fix our broken campaign finance system by placing limits on contributions and expenditures, requiring more stringent disclosure, and eventually instituting a system of public financing. We cannot allow billionaires and millionaires to buy our elections. Q. What would your administration do to ensure that voting in elections is free, fair and available to all Americans? Do you oppose policies that restrict access to voting and voter registration? BS: We must be doing everything we can to make it easier, not harder, for people to vote. Instead, what is happening now is that Republican governors and Republican legislators are going out of their way to put up barriers to voting. They are using unfounded scare tactics and unproven cases of voter fraud to keep people from the polls. Over two years ago, I asked the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) to look into voter fraud and the effects of voter ID laws. The GAO found that while there were very few, if any, cases of voter fraud, the ID laws were working to suppress legitimate voters. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court turned back the clock on equality when it struck down part of the Voting Rights Act, a landmark civil rights law. But the Court also challenged Congress to act, and even though this law was reauthorized unanimously only nine years ago, we still have not managed to fix this incredibly important law. ConclusionQ. What do you think this nation's priorities should be during the next decade? How would your presidency advance those priorities? BS: 1. Reversing Income and Wealth Inequality | AFT Candidate questionnaire:Martin O'MalleyQ. What is your view of the current version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (also known as the No Child Left Behind Act)? What changes, if any, would you make to the law, and why? Please include positions on: MO'M: I support the reauthorization of the ESEA. The Senate HELP Committee has preserved the integrity of the bill while avoiding the most extreme Republican amendment attempts. I urge the House to maintain that integrity and to reject any changes that would radically undermine our nation’s public education system. Though I support the reauthorization of ESEA, there are a number of areas where the law needs improvements – most notably, a requirement for turning around our lowest-performing schools. This legislation must acknowledge that equitable allocation of resources for our most vulnerable kids is not the same as equal allocation of resources. As a nation, we must commit to concentrating federal dollars where the need is greatest, including in the communities with the most underperforming schools and students. As our well-performing suburban schools find new and innovative ways to connect a child’s learning experience with their real-world environment, our lower-income urban schools can’t be left behind. Our children, regardless of their circumstances, deserve a well-rounded education, including training in the arts, that will prepare them for the needs of the modern workforce and economy. During my time as Governor, we increased the number of students enrolled in STEM or related CTE programs by nearly 400%. While the federal government plays an important role in education, that role does not include the determination of standards or curriculum in the classroom. However, in order to grow a strong workforce for tomorrow, we need an accurate way of evaluating how we’re building students’ potential today. I support performance-based assessments, which allow students the flexibility to show their learning in ways that meet their strengths and interests – and allow professional teachers to adjust in real-time so student achievement accelerates. Test score data should not be used as a hammer at the end of a teacher’s evaluation, it should be used from the start to begin an instructional improvement process. To shift test scores from a punitive measure into a supportive one, we must make additional investments in professional development for our teachers. We also need to offer adequate training for new initiatives, and engage the educator community in virtually all systemic decision-making in our schools. I’m all for modernizing and improving education for all kids, but we should be doing so in partnership with our educators, not at their expense. Q. Do you support any of the current reauthorization proposals under consideration in the 114th Congress? MO'M: I support the ESEA reauthorization currently on its way to the Senate floor, but would encourage the improvements noted above. Q. What role do you think the federal government can play in providing access to early childhood education? What specific policy proposals would your administration pursue? MO'M: The federal government plays a fundamental role providing access to early childhood education. This is one of the strengths of the current ESEA reauthorization. I support and applaud Senator Murray’s amendment creating grants to help states boost quality and access in early learning. Further, I support using federal funds, in partnership with states, to make pre-K universal. Q. What are your views on private school vouchers, tuition tax credits, and charter school accountability and transparency? MO'M: I support the strengthening of our public education system, not only as a way for all children to prepare themselves for economic success, but as a way to stronger neighborhoods, healthier communities, and a more engaged citizenry and informed electorate. I oppose vouchers for private schools, and the expanded use of tax credits to support private school tuition. I am concerned about the rapid proliferation of unaccountable charter schools. Providing excellent and innovative education should be the goal of charter schools – not expansion for the sake of profit. We need strong standards, oversight, and transparency to ensure that charters are acting in the best interest of our kids – and are serving the goals of our education system as a whole. Q. Escalating tuition and fees are leading to a growing number of students leaving college with overwhelming debt from student loans. This burden of rising costs and rising debt makes access to higher education increasingly difficult for many students and their families. What is the role of the federal government in ensuring that higher education is affordable and accessible? MO'M: The federal government plays an essential role in making higher education affordable and accessible. While states like Maryland have worked hard to hold the line on the cost of college tuition, we cannot make college truly affordable for families unless the federal government provides leadership. This is especially true when it comes to student debt: Congress helped create the student debt crisis by setting high, fixed interest rates on student loans. My administration would fight to win student borrowers the right to refinance their loans, and would make income- based repayment the default for all borrowers. The ultimate goal must be to make college debt-free for all students. Q. There has been a nationwide pattern of disinvestment in public higher education such that per-student funding dropped 26.1 percent between 1990 and 2010. What would your administration do to remedy this? MO'M: My administration would restore investments in higher education. First, I would provide additional aid to states to cover the cost of tuition at public and community college and universities, tied to states also investing more. Second, I would tie the receipt of federal aid to states and schools taking steps to reduce the underlying costs of college. This includes increasing AP and dual-enrollment courses, easing the transfer of credits from community colleges, expanding quality online learning, and making sure that aid is reaching the students who need it most. Q. Career and technical education programs help ensure that postsecondary credentials and skills are accessible to all - necessary in today’s economy. In your view, what is the role of the federal government in supporting high-quality CTE programs? MO'M: As Governor, my administration increased the number of students enrolled in STEM or related CTE programs in Maryland by nearly 400%. However, while the federal government plays a critical role supporting these efforts, the taken modest steps we have taken as a country to expand STEM or related CTE education are far from sufficient. My administration would launch a new, comprehensive national program for CTE, starting in high schools, and in partnership with community colleges and employers. This builds on successful efforts launched by the Obama Administration, where schools partner with employers – who also provide financial support – to train students and workers for the positions they need to fill now. Our program will require greater federal investment, but we will see far greater returns – in good jobs created and filled, and in reduced spending on higher education. CTE training is an equal alternative to a four-year college degree, and we must treat it as such. Q. What is the federal government’s role in requiring appropriate transparency and accountability of for-profit institutions? MO'M: I support the Protections And Regulations For Our Students Act and its efforts to protect students from the predatory practices that are too prevalent in the for-profit college sector. The federal government should not only play a strong role in cracking down on such fraudulent behavior, it should proactively seek out these bad players and cancel the federal debt incurred by students who were sold a bad deal. Q. What are your views of the Affordable Care Act? What changes would you make, if any, to the ACA, including the excise tax on high-cost plans and the provisions on shared responsibility for employers? MO'M: I agree that a high quality healthcare system is a “moral imperative, an economic necessity, and a fundamental right for all.” The Affordable Care Act is an important step in realizing that goal. My administration would build on the successes of the Affordable Care Act while being ready, as always, to support smart changes that can better provide high quality coverage and control costs. Our guiding principle would always be the triple aim: better patient experience, lower costs, and improved outcomes. For example, to promote creative solutions to healthcare challenges around the country, I support flexibility for states to pursue innovations in health care delivery and payment with the potential for shared savings, such as through the State Innovation Model program at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. One underappreciated aspect of the Affordable Care Act is its support for innovative models of health care delivery in payment. In Maryland, we adopted a creative approach with our unique hospital rate setting commission: We obtained approval to put our hospitals on global budgets covering all payers, creating a strong incentive to reduce preventable admissions and keep patients and communities healthy. Q. Do you support initiatives designed to move health insurance coverage away from an employer-based model? If so, what would you propose as an alternative to the current system for covering working adults? MO'M: I support a public option, which should have been included in the Affordable Care Act. Q. Many licensed healthcare professionals, particularly RNs, are leaving hospital service because of difficult working conditions, including excessive and unsafe workloads, understaffing, and mandatory overtime. What would you do to address these problems and to improve recruitment and retention of nurses and other healthcare professionals? MO'M: Maryland has long prohibited mandatory overtime for nurses, with some exceptions, and I support such bans. More broadly, my administration would make securing reforms to our nation’s overtime rules a priority – including raising the overtime salary threshold to 1,000 a week, limiting exemptions, and enforcing the law. Wage law violations are unacceptable and far too prevalent in the healthcare industry. My administration would invest the resources necessary to hold all employers accountable for wage theft, overtime violations, and other failures to comply with labor laws. My administration would also vocally support efforts to organize healthcare professionals, including in hospitals and among home healthcare workers. Expanding and protecting collective bargaining rights is a critical step to securing better working conditions in the healthcare industry. I applaud AFT’s efforts to organize nurses and other healthcare professionals, winning these workers a greater role in shaping the U.S. healthcare system to better meet the needs of the people they serve. Finally, my administration would proactively invest in our healthcare workforce. As we continue to transform our healthcare system and the settings and methods used to deliver care continue to evolve, it is critical that our healthcare workforce is trained and prepared for the transitions ahead. At the same time, the reforms we’re making within the healthcare system will align to help improve working conditions for healthcare professionals. Offering greater rewards for prevention and fewer avoidable admissions, for example, can reduce the burnout that results from a system that historically rewarded volume rather than value. Q. Merger and acquisition activity continues to consolidate the U.S. healthcare system into the hands of a few corporations, many of which are for- profit. What would you do to ensure competition in the healthcare industry is fair and protects the American consumer? MO'M: My administration’s strategy would be two-fold. First, I would continue to embrace proven strategies for coordinating care. In Maryland we not only put hospitals on global budgets, we established a statewide information system for patients that allows doctors and nurses to securely access patients’ health data from every hospital across the state. Even before the ACA took full effect, we used this big data approach to providing smarter health care to reduce avoidable hospital admissions by 10% in a single year. While this greater coordination is critical to providing more targeted and thus less costly care, I am concerned about consolidation that does not further these aims. Far too often, mergers and acquisitions within the health care industry are used not to achieve savings through reduced fragmentation, but to drive up prices for patients and consumers – at the cost of providing better care. That is why my administration would aggressively enforce our nation’s antitrust laws, and why I will continue to champion the need to restore competition to the U.S. economy throughout my campaign. Q. What would you do to ensure that communities have access to public health services? MO'M: My administration would look to the innovative steps we took in Maryland to expand access to public health services. For instance, we used the statewide health information system described above to pinpoint clusters of patients and diagnose public health concerns. We then used this information to charge community-level care managers with improving wellness at a neighborhood-level. We did this most importantly through the Health Enterprise Zones we stood up to improve health care access and quality, and reduce health disparities, in underserved communities. We also encouraged the development of more comprehensive women’s health centers, to provide screenings and referrals for Medicaid eligibility, WIC nutrition, substance abuse and mental health treatment alongside reproductive health care. Beyond these important steps, my administration would protect and build on the Affordable Care Act’s efforts to promote good health and prevent chronic disease. I would protect the mandatory funding stream the ACA obligated for these efforts, which has wrongly been reallocated for other purposes, and develop better metrics for measuring the effectiveness of prevention-related efforts. Q. What are your priorities for revitalizing the economy, strengthening the middle class, creating jobs, and ensuring fair taxation? How would your plan help restore funding for education, healthcare, transportation, public safety, and many other services provided to our citizens? MO'M: My administration would focus first and foremost on raising wages: by increasing the minimum wage and the salary threshold for overtime pay; restoring and strengthening collective bargaining power; and supporting families by expanding access to paid leave and safe and affordable childcare. My administration would also restore investments in the common good and future of our nation, including in infrastructure and innovation, and most of all in education. We cannot revitalize our economy without creating an education system that empowers each and every child to reach their full potential, starting with pre-k and all the way through college. We can restore funding for these better choices and investments by rebalancing our tax system so that the wealthiest Americans – not just middle class families – pay their fair share. This includes setting higher marginal rates, taxing capital gains and income at the same rate, corporate tax reform, and other long-overdue reforms. We must also restore accountability to our financial markets, to reverse the failed policies of deregulation and wealth accumulation that gutted funding for key priorities while costing millions of Americans their jobs, homes, and retirements. That’s why I have called for real structural and accountability reforms, including reinstating Glass-Steagall, charging regulators with holding law-breakers accountable, and breaking up big banks before they break us. These steps must be an explicit part of any agenda to revitalize the economy and make it work for all families. Q. The United States has a 3.2 trillion infrastructure deficit according to the American Society of Civil Engineers and that’s just for repairs. What are the mechanisms (e.g., public, private, infrastructure bank) through which we can fund the rebuilding of this country, including necessary renovation and modernization of our public schools, hospitals, and public buildings? MO'M: Repairing, upgrading, and modernizing our nation’s infrastructure will require an historic investment—one that can only be made using both public programs and other financing tools. My administration would restore the Highway Trust Fund, while redoubling successful competitive grant programs. But I would also look to credit and loan guarantee programs; to bonding programs, for both transportation infrastructure and building construction and retrofits; and to other programs that support public-private partnerships, including an infrastructure bank. However, whenever we leverage private dollars to build public projects, I would make protecting high-road labor standards a priority, as we did in Maryland. We cannot look for cost efficiencies on the backs of American workers. Q. What would your administration do to build and strengthen retirement security for all working men and women, including protecting employees’ pensions? What is your plan for sustaining and strengthening Social Security and Medicare? MO'M: My administration would expand Social Security benefits, not cut them. We are the most prosperous country the world has ever seen. In an economy that is increasingly out of balance towards the most privileged, expanding Social Security so seniors can retire with dignity—not cutting benefits, not privatization, not raising the retirement age, not means testing, not eating into their economic security—should be a top priority, and an achievable one. I would expand Social Security benefits by lifting the payroll tax cap for the highest earners, starting at 250,000. Right now, millionaires are essentially done paying into Social Security by mid-February. Those in that upper income range can afford to contribute more to expand one of our most cherished programs. I would also modify the formula that determines the level of benefits that seniors receive, including so that increased benefits are targeted towards lower and middle-income beneficiaries. These are critical steps, because we know for a fact that 401(k)s won’t leave enough for many seniors to live on in retirement. The recession took its toll on families’ ability to save and plan adequately, and further weakened state pension systems, including the one I inherited in Maryland. As a result, we had to implement balanced reforms that brought the pension system back on the path to fiscal health, while protecting the collective bargaining rights and retirement security of state employees. This was tremendously difficult, but we got it done not by demonizing teachers and state workers, as other states have, but by bringing them to the table. I have always fought to ensure the rights and benefits of Maryland workers, and my administration would do the same for all public employees. Q. What are your views on the privatization and contracting out of public services, including school services and state and local government services? MO'M: We should not privatize or contract out school services. Teachers are our partners in educating our students. We should invest more, not less, to train and equip teachers—not engage in a race to the bottom. Q. Current federal laws and policies encourage and promote collective bargaining through the National Labor Relations Act. What are your views on collective bargaining for the private and public sectors? What is your view regarding agency fee and so-called right-to-work laws? MO'M: I believe that we must make it easier, not harder, for workers to organize – by tearing down barriers to collective bargaining, while embracing new and expanded organizing models, and reversing the nearly unprecedented consolidation of corporate power. As Governor, I expanded public sector collective bargaining rights to thousands of additional state workers, and to home health aides and child care workers whose pay is subsidized by the state. I signed a Fair Share Act so that unions can do their job representing the voices of their members. And I created a Public School Labor Relations Board, as well as legislation requiring prevailing wages to be paid on public school projects. There is no question that the decline of unionization over the last 30 years has fueled growing inequality and stagnating wages, and that the steps states are taking to wipe out unions—especially those attacking teachers’ unions—are failed choices. I reject right-to-work laws that weaken the bargaining power of workers and drive down wages, as well as misguided efforts to roll back public sector bargaining rights. Chasing cheaper labor will not grow our economy or more it more competitive. Q. As president, what would you do to: (a) prevent employers from intimidating and harassing workers who support union representation, (b) ensure that workers are free to organize and bargain the workplace, and (c) protect the rights of American workers? MO'M: My administration would do everything in its power to protect and strengthen the rights of American workers. I would support efforts to make it easier to join a union by streamlining the process and reducing employers’ ability to interfere with elections. This includes the rule NLRB has moved forward to speed up union elections, which I believe is an important first step. I also support the board’s efforts to hold companies jointly responsible when their franchisees violate labor laws. We’ve allowed large corporations to largely shed their responsibilities for managing their employees and to consolidate power over markets, and we’ve seen poorer working conditions and stagnating wages as a result. I would aggressively enforce our nation’s anti-trust laws to reverse this concentration of corporate power and give workers a louder voice. Finally, I would strongly support efforts to expand collective bargaining rights to more people, including home care workers, as we did in Maryland – and to continue upgrading these jobs by fighting for higher wages and better working conditions. I applaud labor’s efforts continue organizing and engaging new and existing members even in light of what I agree was a bad decision in Harris v. Quinn. We have to use every tool at our disposal to continue making progress. Q. The federal government has direct responsibility for setting labor standards. There has been a growing call for changes to those standards, including paid sick days, paid family leave, and higher minimum wages. What changes, if any, would you prioritize? MO'M: I would make changing these labor standards my first priority as president. I would call for a 15 federal minimum wage, and—if DOL does not first complete its rule—would use executive authority to raise the threshold for overtime pay to 1,000 a week. I would fight for laws that guarantee all workers access to paid maternity leave and paternity leave, and expand access to safe and affordable childcare. I have helped lead the call for these higher standards, including in Maryland, and will continue to make these issues a central issue in my campaign. Q. More than 8 million public employees in 25 states currently have no OSHA protection or entitlement to a safe and healthful workplace. Do you support universal OSHA coverage for all public employees? MO'M: Yes, and more. The gaps in the enforcement of our labor laws should be unacceptable to everyone. Beyond health and safety, millions of people, including some of our most vulnerable workers, are victims of wage theft every year. Our enforcement agencies must be able to hold employers accountable, and to prevent these blatant violations in the first place. My administration would dedicate the energy and resources necessary to fully enforce the law. Q. What policies would your administration pursue to ensure that all people—regardless of who they are, where they live, or where they come from—are able to climb the ladder of opportunity and participate fully in our economy and democracy? MO'M: My administration would be committed to ensuring that Americans, regardless of their background and status, would have the opportunity to succeed by investing in education, raising wages, supporting families, securing immigration reform, expanding health care, and protecting the dignity of retirement. These are the better choices our national interest demands. I have also called for a new agenda for opportunity and justice in America’s cities and communities, built on investments to connect poverty to opportunity: guaranteeing every family access to affordable housing near good schools and jobs, building and upgrading infrastructure to connect poverty to opportunity, committing to reduce poverty and eradicate child hunger, and—most importantly—creating new jobs and equipping students and workers with the skills needed to secure them. Q. In your opinion, what are the elements of comprehensive immigration reform? How would your administration’s stance on immigration reform fight back against inequality, promote economic justice, and increase wages for all workers? MO'M: As Governor I urged Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform, and I would forcefully do the same as president. Bringing undocumented immigrants out of the shadows will grow the economy, create new jobs, and expand our tax base – benefiting the country as a whole. It will help all our workers, especially our most vulnerable workers, by lifting wages, and helping to drive improved labor standards. I know this from personal experience, from what we’ve done in Maryland, even without federal action—passing the DREAM Act, expanding access to drivers’ licenses, launching the New Americans Commission, and providing refuge for more migrant children per capita than any other state. That’s why, while we continue to advocate for and will achieve comprehensive reform, we can’t wait for Congress to act. My administration would also use executive action to the fullest extent of our authority: to expand deferred arrival programs to more people, including the parents of Dreamers; to end detention, especially for families and children; and to make prosecutorial discretion meaningful, by individually examining cases to assess whether people are eligible to remain in the U.S. and contribute to their family and community. Q. What are your views on campaign finance reform? Do you support a constitutional amendment overturning the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision? MO'M: I support a constitutional amendment to overturning Citizens United. But I also recognize that we can’t afford to wish and wait for a Constitutional amendment to restore our democracy. We can bring greater transparency to our elections: by updating the rules governing disclosure to ensure that big special interest spending is reported, and charging and empowering federal regulators to block unlawful outside spending. Even more important, we must return to a government where all voters’ voices are heard. Runaway election spending forces candidates to listen to big money donors over the voters they claim to represent. We should embrace citizen-funded elections, giving candidates the opportunity to raise a larger number of smaller contributions from people back home. Q. What would your administration do to ensure that voting in elections is free, fair, and available to all Americans? Do you oppose policies that restrict access to voting and voter registration? MO'M: Our democracy depends on greater participation, yet in recent years we have sharply limited access to our most fundamental right. My administration would push to restore the Voting Rights Act and tear down barriers to voting, like ID requirements. And we would work to modernize voting and voter registration to make it easier for more people to vote. We did this in Maryland, establishing on-site early voting and same-day registration, as well as online voter registration. We also restored voting rights to more than 50,000 people with criminal records, and made it easier for young people to vote. ConclusionQ. What do you think this nation’s priorities should be during the next decade? How would your presidency advance those priorities? MO'M: The most important thing that we as a people need to get done is to restore the truth of the American dream: that when people work hard, they should be able to get ahead. That dream is in danger of becoming a lie for the vast majority of Americans who see their families slipping further behind. Making it true again will require us to return to the better choices we long made as a country – and to fundamentally rebalance our economy so that it works for everyone, not just the wealthy few. My administration would focus first and foremost on raising wages, not only by increasing the minimum wage, but by strengthening collective bargaining and securing comprehensive immigration reform. At the same time, my administration would hold Wall Street accountable, ending the decades of deregulation that wrecked our economy and accumulated wealth at the top like almost never before. By asking the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share, I would restore investments in the future of our country – most especially in our students, teachers, and schools. These choices require better leadership and the ability to get things done. I have 15 years of executive experience, and I have never backed down from a fight. I fought to make these better choices in Maryland, where we put the goal of a stronger middle class at the center of every decision we made. And as a result, we made Maryland one of the top states for upward mobility for families, with the highest median income in the nation, and – since the depths of the recession – a faster rate of job creation than our neighbors in Virginia or Maryland who were mostly trying to cut their way to prosperity. These are the goals we should be setting for our nation, and I believe that with will and leadership we can achieve them. - |
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