Education Policy

This is a blog to discuss the views of the 13 contenders to fill Nikki Tsongas’ seat representing the Massachusetts 3rd District. Last week, we discussed minimum wage, and this week we will be discussing education policy. As stated last week, any candidate who does not have a website will not be discussed further in this blog, because I simply don’t have time for someone who isn’t serious when there are 12 other serious candidates.

Here is a table showing each candidate’s views on the most common liberal ideas for education. Again, I will color-code answers in terms of more liberal being bluer, more moderate being redder, and more confused being grayer. The names are listed in order from most liberal to most conservative, with ties broken by their placement in last week's table.

Name	Universal Pre-K	Charter Schools	Free Higher Ed
Das	Yes	No	Expanded educational grants, improved loan transparency
L’Italien	Yes	No	Free public higher ed, reduce loan interest rates
Chandler	Yes	No	Free Community College, reduced price state colleges
Gifford	Yes	Not mentioned	Reduce costs
Koh	Yes	Not mentioned	Reduce costs
Trahan	Improvements	Not mentioned	Reduce costs of higher ed
Malone	Yes	Not mentioned	Reduce student debt
Littlefield	Not mentioned	Not mentioned	Reduce costs of higher ed
Matias	Not mentioned	Yes	Improve Access

Abhijit "Beej" Das wants to promote skill- and jobs-based learning programs, especially for students who are not going to college. He wants differentiated instruction in the classroom.

Barbara L’Italien talked a lot about education policy when I met her in person. She supports improvements to education for children with learning differences and ELL. Two of her children are teachers. As of this posting, her website does not have an "issues" page in which she discusses her positions on individual issues.

Alexandra Chandler supports teachers, acknowledging that we are the front line of education. She also wants to reduce federal student loan rates below market rates.

Rufus Gifford doesn’t say much on the issue.

Dan Koh wants to focus on STEM.

Lori Trahan does not appear to believe in free college or pre-k, but wants to reduce the costs so that more families can afford them.

Bopha Malone took two paragraphs not to say much on this issue.

Patrick Littlefield only mentioned making higher ed more affordable on his website.

Juana Matias has only one sentence on education policy on her website, but this article claims she supports charter schools.

Next week, the topic will be healthcare.

The following candidates do not talk about specific education policies on their websites.
• Jeff Ballinger
• Keith St. John