The American Families Plan: increasing education rights after the pandemic

The Covid-19 pandemic has generated an unprecedented health, economic and political crisis. However, the way in which this multifactor crisis has been tackled in each country has differed significantly. Education has been one of the sectors most impacted by the pandemic (due to school closures and the rise in distance learning methods, among other factors) and it has also been one of the sectors that governments have been most active in reformulating.

Recently, the Biden Administration approved the American Families Plan, which consists of a package of educational, labour and tax measures. Among the educational measures, the following are noteworthy:

• Adding four years of free education, both in early childhood education (by providing free education in the 3–4 years stage) and in the higher education system (offering two years free of charge in community colleges). It should be noted that compulsory education in the USA is from the ages of 6–17 years, meaning that the Biden plan implies an extension of the non-compulsory lower and higher stages. The estimated budget is $200 billion for the extension of pre-school education and $109 billion for higher education.

• Providing direct support to children and families, including grants so that low-income families do not spend more than 7% on pre-school tuition. It also includes more nutrition assistance, as it increases school meal grants for schools in socio-economically complex environments and extends food cards during the summer period. Both plans have a budget of $17 million and $19 million, respectively.

• Extending tax cuts for families with children (initiated in the previous American Rescue Plan, a stimulus package to tackle Covid-19). The budget is estimated at over $200 million.

The post-pandemic crisis has facilitated a favourable political context in which to transform education, generate a new consensus in public opinion, and make costly investments.

The approval of this ambitious new plan once again demonstrates that economic and health crises can also be political opportunities. Accordingly, the post-pandemic crisis has facilitated a favourable political context in which to transform education (in particular, by increasing coverage in the 0–3 and 17+ stages), generate a new consensus in public opinion, and make costly investments, which would have been highly unlikely in a different context. However, the sustainability of these reforms beyond the crisis remains to be seen.

Likewise, the American Families Plan highlights the fact that there are political initiatives that generate a strong consensus and are able to overcome political divisions. As we will discuss below, these are initiatives that increase accessibility to new education services for groups that are usually excluded from them. Consequently, in a polarised context, and despite fierce criticism from Republicans, the policies proposed in this Plan have broad support among the American electorate as a whole: 86% of Democrat voters, 54% of Independents and 25% of Republicans have given their support (source: Politico).

The plan highlights the fact that there are political initiatives that generate a strong consensus and are able to overcome political divisions.

Lastly, the Plan promoted by the Biden Administration also highlights the growing prominence in the political agenda of educational spaces, experiences and services that go beyond the compulsory school stage (in the case of the USA, 6–17 years). Both the pre-school stages (0–3) and later stages (17+), as well as extracurricular activities, are spaces of great socialising and pedagogical value. Indeed, extracurricular activities have for a long time formed part of the right to education in a broad sense (as recognised in the Equity and Education in Spain report by Oxfam Intermón).

The Biden plan also highlights the growing prominence in the political agenda of educational spaces, experiences and services that go beyond school.

Therefore, the approval of the American Families Plan by the Biden Administration offers us some potential lessons that we can apply to Catalonia:

• The need to appreciate educational spaces (in school and out of school), especially those that are face-to-face, in a context of health and social crisis. The pandemic has highlighted the great importance of school both in terms of academic and psycho-social benefits for students. It has also shown that schools are a key mechanism for family reconciliation (without this meaning that schools are reduced to a mere “nursery” role). However, the resources and capital from families to face these situations varies extremely, and this has had highly negative consequences for families with fewer resources. Thus, educational inequalities have increased even more in a context already heavily impacted by the economic and social crisis. From the perspective of educational equity and social justice, this is dreadful news.

Out-of-school or extracurricular activities have great potential in pedagogical and community terms, as they enrich the school experience of students.

• The importance of extracurricular and lifelong education... but its unequal distribution. As the plan highlights, educational processes go beyond the compulsory school stage. In fact, the process of education is constant and sustained throughout life, occurring in different stages of life (childhood, adolescence, adulthood, old age) and varying categories (formal and informal education; initial and occupational education). Out-of-school or extracurricular activities have great potential in pedagogical and community terms, as they enrich the school experience of students and heighten their emotional bonding. They also have moderately significant impacts on both the academic performance and the social and psycho-emotional skills of students (as demonstrated by academic literature). Unfortunately, recent studies indicate that the distribution of extracurricular activities in Catalonia is unequal, largely on account of their financial costs, which tends to underpin the dynamics of school segregation, as warned on many occasions by the Catalan Ombudsman, the aFFaC parents’ association and the IERMB (Barcelona Institute of Metropolitan Studies). This inequality can constrain the right to education, and powerful policies are needed to end this situation.

• The importance of consensus in order to make firm progress in educational reforms. Paradoxically, at the time when the importance of education has been most vociferously expressed, it is also the period in which the Catalan education system has been most lacking consensus. Thus, the management of schools during the pandemic, the proposed reforms (the new syllabus and school timetable) or indeed the perverse and Manichaean politicisation from some parties against linguistic immersion have disrupted certain forums of shared dialogue that allowed the educational community – in a broad sense – to play a more pivotal role and participate in political decision-making. As demonstrated by the Plan, the generation of consensus makes it much easier to move forward with far-reaching reforms.

The generation of consensus makes it much easier to move forward with far-reaching reforms.

• The importance of ambitious funding to accompany educational reforms (including digitalisation). The Catalan education system has historically been underfunded, and the Catalan policy agenda in the post-crisis period of 2008 consisted of austerity measures that unjustifiably punished the public sector. Current European management of the crisis differs notably to that of 2008, and the austerity policies of more than a decade ago have been replaced by an ambitious funding plan in the form of a NextGeneration programme. The Spanish translation of this programme includes policies aimed at implementing the energy transition and digitalisation of the administration. Indeed, this may serve as an opportunity for the Catalan education system.

• The consensus generated by political initiatives that increase the right to education. Educational policies that increase access to education (both in school and out-of school) have the capacity to generate broad support: among the education community, civil society, and institutional actors and parties. They are, therefore, political opportunities that are worth using. However, from a perspective that emphasises educational equity, it is necessary to bear in mind that – although they do increase accessibility, inclusiveness and universality of educational services and spaces – these policies fall short since they concurrently require policies that are redistributive in nature (for example, those that are part of the fight against school segregation, and which include aspects relating to school choice policies, zoning, etc.). The latter, however, have much higher political costs.

Educational policies that increase access to education (both in school and out-of-school) have the capacity to generate broad support: among the educational community, civil society, and institutional actors and parties.

The flexibility, imagination and room for manoeuvre that different administrations benefit from in overlapping areas of authority. The areas of authority of the administrations may be limiting, but imagination and political will allow for flexible reinterpretations of these areas. There is room for action at all levels: state, autonomous community, local. In relation to the latter, examples of best local practices (for example, municipalities against school segregation) demonstrate the considerable room for manoeuvre that local authorities have, and the ample space to fill in terms of education policies. As the former Mayor of Vitoria, José Ángel Cuerda, famously said: “where my powers end, my responsibilities begin”.