The Schott Foundation and eleven other public education groups, including community groups, education unions, and civil rights organizations, are hosting top Democratic presidential candidates at the “Public Education Forum 2020: Equity and Justice for All” on Saturday, Dec. 14, at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh. MSNBC will moderate and exclusively livestream the forum focused on public education issues.
Currently, eight major Democratic candidates who qualified for the October debate or who are currently elected to statewide office have confirmed participation: Sen. Michael Bennet, Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Cory Booker, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Tom Steyer and Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Topics to be discussed will include school investment, student services, special education, student debt and teaching conditions, as well as key education equity and justice issues facing America’s students and public schools.
The forum will welcome more than 1,000 educators, students, parents and community members to a discussion with the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates about their plans for K-12 and higher education. Each candidate will provide opening remarks and then answer questions from moderators, forum attendees and others from across the country who submitted questions.
Forum sponsors include:
- Alliance for Educational Justice
- American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
- American Federation of Teachers
- Center for Popular Democracy Action
- Journey for Justice Alliance
- NAACP
- National Education Association
- Network for Public Education Action
- Opportunity to Learn Action Fund
- Schott Foundation for Public Education
- Service Employees International Union
- Voto Latino
Per MSNBC’s agreement, all presidential candidates who either previously qualified for the October debate or currently hold statewide office were invited to attend.
Watch the debate live here:
