The final Democratic primary is underway in Washington, D.C. and Hillary Clinton is presumably the presidential nominee for the Party resulting to many names surfacing on the possible Vice Presidential picks and most of them have made significant contributions in the field of education.
Education Week reported that the names surrounding the position are Julian Castro, Elizabeth Warren, Time Kaine, Sherrod Brown, and Clinton's co-presidential candidate Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.
Castro is the United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. He has touched on the topic of education earlier this month after he joined forces with Secretary of Education John B. King Jr. and Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx who top penned the letter Dear Colleague that encourages leaders in education, housing, and transportation to take action regarding the promotion of racial diversity as well as socioeconomic factors.
Castro is also best known for his work on expanding pre-kindergarten via an increase in the sales tax as well as his "Café College" initiative. The initiative aims to provide various resources in order to help students in San Antonio to enter higher education.
As for Warren, the Massachusetts Democrat served on the education committee of the Senate and has contributed on the Every Students Succeeds Act (ESSA). She is best known for her views on students loans for higher education.
Kaine is the Democratic senator from Virginia and has been pushing for career and technical education. He has introduced an amendment making career and technical education a core subject. He also ordered a review on the participation of minority students in gifted academic programs.
Brown, on the other hand, is an Ohio Democratic senator but does not have that much experience in education-related matters as compared to the first three possible VP picks of Clinton. He did urge President Barack Obama's administration not to forget the rural schools when awarding money. He also co-authored Ready for Schools Act with former North Carolina Democratic Senator Kay Hagan in order to prepare elementary schools to educate all children.
Sanders served on the Senate education committee and voted for ESSA. One of his strongest platforms for the campaign trail was the proposal of making public colleges and universities tuition-free.
Clinton and her team have not yet released any names nor confirmed the reports about these people being linked to take on the post. She did say, however, that they will announce their pick during the July convention.
