Candidate Khazei emphasizes education in speech
US Senate candidate Alan Khazei, who built City Year into a national service program for young adults, outlined his education priorities yesterday, calling for higher teacher salaries, bigger investments in early childhood education, and an expansion of charter schools.
“We need to make public education the civil rights issue of the 21st century,’’ Khazei said in a speech outside TechBoston Academy in Dorchester. “This is both a moral issue and an economic issue. And we need to have a greater sense of urgency about taking action.’’
It was Khazei’s first major policy speech of the campaign, and it covered an issue that none of his opponents in the Democratic primary have focused much attention yet on.
Much of Khazei’s plan entails supporting existing legislation or promoting existing programs, rather than forging new approaches. But in a race that has centered so far on health care and economic issues, he is clearly trying to stake a claim on education.
“The students are not failing,’’ he said. “We as adults, leaders, and policy makers are failing them.’’
Khazei is running in the Dec. 8 Democratic primary against US Representative Michael E. Capuano, Attorney General Martha Coakley, and Boston Celtics co-owner Stephen Pagliuca.
Khazei said one of his top priorities as senator would be to help President Obama to once again make the United States the country with the highest proportion of college graduates. He also wants teacher salaries to increase and called for recruiting more than 1 million new teachers over the next five years.
He said he wants to change the No Child Left Behind law; Edward M. Kennedy had coauthored the law but was disappointed with how the Bush administration implemented it. Khazei said he would push for additional education funding; critics of the law say it fails in part because the government does not match its achievement mandates with federal money.
Khazei said he supports retaining the federal estate tax and dedicating a portion of the proceeds to education, bringing what he said would be an estimated $1.3 trillion over 10 years.
Coakley has laid out an education policy that includes many of the points that Khazei highlighted yesterday, including changing No Child Left Behind, making higher education more affordable, and improving teacher pay.
On his campaign website, Capuano lists positions on 10 major issues, including Sudan, the economy, and heath care, but does not address education. A position paper released yesterday by the campaign cites his votes against No Child Left Behind and to increase funding for Pell Grants, for higher education. Capuano also received the endorsement yesterday of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, the state’s biggest union.
Pagliuca, on his website, offers a statement in bold: “Simply, we need better schools.’’
Matt Viser can be reached at maviser@globe.com. 
