Important question for presidential candidates: What about education?

By Nelly Escobar

Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2015 | 2 a.m.

As a Hispanic woman living in Nevada, I want to vote for a presidential candidate who represents my values and will stand up for my community. In 2016, 1 in 5 eligible voters in Nevada will be Hispanic, and we must hold candidates accountable for how their policies will affect us. This means I need to know where the candidates stand on comprehensive immigration reform, voting rights and health care, and what they’ll do to ensure I’m paid the same as my male colleagues. But after watching multiple debates among the presidential hopefuls, I’m still left wondering: What about education?

I teach fourth grade at Doris Reed Elementary School in Las Vegas, located in the Clark County School District, where more than 40 percent, or 185,000 students, are Hispanic. CCSD has one of the worst teacher shortages in the nation. As of November, Clark County reported nearly 780 classroom vacancies, with the majority being in high-need schools. If we want to ensure a quality education for all students, we must rethink how we attract, retain and support teachers throughout their careers.

However, the system doesn’t work if one of the pieces is missing, particularly for Hispanic children and families who are disproportionately impacted by unequal access and low standards. I personally know the importance of receiving a high-quality education from beginning to end. Coming from a low-income community myself, I experienced these additional barriers, and I needed to fight that much harder to succeed. I went on to college and became the first person in my family to graduate, which has opened the door to so many opportunities — but too many children aren’t this fortunate.

As Republican presidential candidates come to Nevada and file into the Venetian, I want to hear the concrete ways they’ll increase access to affordable, high-quality early learning, which sets children up for success for the rest of their lives. I also want to hear how we must continue to implement high standards of learning for students from elementary school through high school so they’re genuinely prepared for college, and how we can modernize and elevate the teaching profession so that all children are being taught by excellent teachers who are supported throughout their careers.

Candidates must address how they’re going to put high-quality, affordable child care and pre-K within the reach of millions of Americans, especially Nevada families. I see the difference in my students who have had quality early education because they have the skills to succeed in the classroom. Child care costs more than the median rent in every state, and it’s more expensive than the average annual tuition/fees for a public four-year university in Nevada and 31 other states. Access to pre-K is no better: Only 11 percent of preschool-aged children in Nevada are enrolled in public pre-K, far below the national average. Only a little more than half of Hispanic children attend pre-K nationally, and just 20 percent are in high-quality programs.

After early education, high academic standards, such as the ones Nevada adopted in 2010, are needed to raise expectations for every child, no matter their circumstances or ZIP code. Unfortunately, too many students complete high school unprepared for college or a career, causing them to take remedial courses to catch up. These remedial courses increase the cost of an already-expensive college education and lengthen the time it takes to enter the workforce. Only 46 percent of all Nevada high school graduates and only 30 percent of Hispanic graduates were prepared for college-level math coursework.

Raising expectations for all students is a good first step, but Nevada also must ensure that investments and resources are helping students reach these expectations — especially those who are the most disadvantaged. This includes but is not limited to new arrivals, English-language learners and students from low-income families.

Finally, education hinges on teachers. Instead of responding to teacher shortages by lowering standards for prospective teachers, as has happened in other regions, we should be thinking about how we can meaningfully support teachers currently in the classroom while recruiting the best into the profession. As a country, however, we have yet to make attracting, preparing, supporting and retaining great teachers a pressing, national priority.

As a Nevadan, as a teacher and especially as a Hispanic woman, many issues are important to me. But today I need to hear what the presidential candidates propose to do about our education system, from early learning to higher academic standards and the teaching profession, in Nevada and across America. Our students — the future of this country — deserve excellence. So I ask again: What about education?

Nelly Escobar teaches fourth grade at Doris Reed Elementary School.