Presidential candidate Kamala Harris is hoping a proposal to drastically increase funds for teachers will curry favor among a key Democratic demographic. | Curtis Compton/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP Education Kamala Harris' teacher pay price tag: $315B Her policy proposal is by far the most aggressive and expansive education proposal among the 2020 field.

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris proposed Tuesday spending a staggering $315 billion over 10 years to boost teacher pay, a move that would have an immediate pocketbook impact on a large and influential group of voters who are in high demand.

Women dominate the teaching ranks and represent a diverse and politically active bloc with an outsize voice in labor across the country, and Harris is betting that her proposal will make her stand out with a critical demographic in the Democratic Party.


The policy proposal is by far the most aggressive and expansive education proposal among the 2020 field. The California senator’s campaign said it would give the “average teacher in America” a raise of $13,500, or a 23 percent increase in base pay. Harris’ proposal would represent a significant expansion of federal spending on education, and it would be the largest federal investment in teacher pay in U.S. history.

Harris proposes paying for the plan by strengthening the estate tax and cracking down on loopholes that let the very wealthiest, with estates worth multiple millions or billions of dollars, avoid paying their “fair share,” according to her campaign.

The plan, which she announced in broad terms at a Saturday rally in Houston, is her response to what she says is a teacher pay “crisis” that has triggered a wave of strikes beginning in West Virginia last year and now roiling her home state of California.

“The truth is, we are a nation and a society that pretends to care about education — not so much the education of other people’s children,” Harris said Saturday. “And we’ve got to deal with that.”

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Her plan would increase education funding by the rough equivalent of the entire Pell Grant program for low-income college students, which costs about $30 billion a year.

“People in the private sector have understood that if you want to be smart in the way you run anything, you understand that you invest,” Harris said Saturday. “You understand that your analysis is not, ‘How much does it cost?' The question is, ‘What’s the return on investment?’"

“And in this,” she added, “the investment will be our future.”

Overall, the average teacher earns $1,000 less than 30 years ago adjusted for inflation, according to her campaign. She points to a report by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute that shows public school teachers make 11 percent less than similar professionals with college degrees. Her campaign says she is committed to entirely closing the teacher pay gap within her first term.

“It could be transformative in terms of how we think about elevating and modernizing the teaching profession and the federal role in doing so,” said Catherine Brown, a senior fellow with the Center for American Progress Action Fund who was consulted on the plan.

But the massive plan, if Harris is elected, would be sure to meet resistance. Once Washington allocates major funding for teacher pay, lawmakers on both the left and right would call for conditions on that funding, perhaps including accountability metrics for teacher performance or other qualifications, said Rick Hess, a resident scholar and director of education policy studies at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, who spoke about the concept without knowing the specifics.

“I don’t know that it’s being proposed as actionable legislation so much as a marker,” Hess said. “Republicans, in particular, are nervous about once you open that barn door, just how involved Washington winds up getting in local education decisions and deciding who gets hired, how they get compensated.”

The Department of Education would work with state education agencies to set a base salary goal for beginning teachers in every state, according to the campaign. States and school districts would increase every teacher’s salary until, at a minimum, the goal is met. They would be required to use funds to increase teacher pay, not replace existing education funding.

The federal government would make an immediate investment in every state, providing the first 10 percent of funding to close the pay gap. The next step would be incentives. For every $1 a state contributes to increasing pay, the federal government would invest $3 until the pay gap is closed. States would have to maintain their share of the investment over time to receive the funding.

States would have a “strong incentive” to participate, just as they did for the Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act, said Brown.

“Given how important the teaching profession is for the economy and democracy and the strong support among the public for elevating the teaching profession, I think you would see a lot of states participate,” Brown said.

The campaign is considering several potential options for estate tax reform to bring in additional revenue. Among them: lowering the estate tax exemption, making the estate tax progressive or eliminating loopholes that allow people to avoid paying any estate tax.

Teachers in highest-need schools, which disproportionately serve students of color, would see their pay rise even further. The campaign would not provide an exact number, but the idea is to help boost recruiting and retention in these schools.

And the federal government would support programs dedicated to teacher recruitment, training and professional development, particularly at historically black colleges and universities. That means a “multi-billion-dollar investment” in programs to elevate the profession and support school leaders, such as teacher and principal residencies, early-career induction programs that pair new teachers with mentors and master teachers, career ladder models and “Grow Your Own” programs that help increase teacher diversity.

Half of this funding would be dedicated to high-quality programs at HBCUs and other institutions serving minorities, the campaign said.

Michael Stratford contributed to this report.

