Marianne Williamson on Education Author & Democratic Presidential Challenger

Getting rid of college debt will stimulate economy

Fund schools with federal mandate, not property taxes

Wipe out college loans burdening the young

Favors Universal pre-school & free college

Universal pre-school; more teacher retention programs

If elected, I will work vigorously for the following:
• Universal pre-school for all children.
• Increased funding for free and reduced-price lunches, so that they cover breakfasts as well.
• A far more expansive array of educational approaches, including social and emotional learning; conflict resolution skills; meditation and mindfulness; comparative religion; anti-bullying programs; and the fostering of other life skills to help prepare children for a meaningful life.
• We need to reduce the amount of high-stakes testing required and the associated model that unfairly associates teacher and school performance with the results of those high-stakes tests.
• Teacher training programs and teacher retention.
• Better management of education infrastructure. Buildings and buses are some of the largest budget items for public schools. Multi-purpose use for buses would improve communities and drive down school costs. The same can be said for school facilities.

Free college via public service; and student loan amnesty

If elected, I will work vigorously for the following:
• Free college or technical school tuition for every qualified student. If we cannot find ideal offsets for this expense, I'm open to exploring ways that students can repay some of these costs with a small payroll tax once they start working (based on Oregon's efforts) or through public service.
• Student loan amnesty. need to reduce the interest rate for repayment of loans to a nominal, if not zero, percentage rate. We need to eliminate the origination fee on federal student loans.
• The most advanced matrix of technical schools in the world. Going to a liberal arts college is not the only option for higher education; we should create more opportunities for people who want to work in the trades or technical areas.
• Low-cost education for those in middle and older age who have been dropped from our economy yet still retain, as all people do, the God-given potential to create meaning for themselves and others.

Free college; low cost education for older adults

Teach children HOW to think, not WHAT to think

This is an outlook that the perpetuation of democracy requires, but that an industrialized economic system came more and more to resist. As we became dominated economically by the rule of industrialization, the tacit pact that American education made with industry was to provide the system with masses of Americans who would show up on time, do as they were told, & not to ask a lot of questions.

A child would enter kindergarten excited and passionate. By the sixth grade at the latest, his or her passion was squelched. Passion is messy for an authoritarian system and frightening to those who live under it.