Update, March 10: As voting continues across the country, Sen. Bernie Sanders is understandably cancelling upcoming rallies due to public health and safety around the coronavirus. The debate in Orlando, Florida has been canceled, making this the second cancellation of a head-to-head Democratic presidential candidate debate. On Sunday, there was an announcement from the Democratic National Committee and CNN that the March 15 debate was changed to a town hall format. This is unacceptable. Americans deserve a debate and to witness an exchange of ideas. 

Plans must adjust to offer voters a live-streamed debate!

We demand that the two final Democratic presidential candidates Vice President Joe Biden and US Sen. Bernie Sanders debate on three key issues: 

• Public Education
• Climate Change 
• Healthcare 

It is an urgent need not only to debate these issues in depth, but, at a time when homelessness and obscene wealth are both equally rampant, and white supremacist movements and institutional racism are both on the rise, that these critical issues be debated through the explicit lenses of racial justice, gender justice, and challenging income inequality.

We are union members, teachers, students, parents, activists, and community members demanding the DNC follow through and commit to a 2-hour presidential debate on these critical issues.

We have two very different candidates in Biden and Sanders. We need to urgently know their positions on Healthcare and the crisis of medical debt, especially with the threat of coronavirus looming over our country. Our youth, even if they can’t vote yet, have a right to hear from both candidates their views on Climate Change, which impacts all of us; We all deserve to hear how they plan to reinvest in our future through Public Education and how they would reverse the ill effects of privatization of our public schools and the catastrophic reign of Betsy DeVos as Trump’s Department of Education Secretary.

We call on the DNC and two candidates to engage in a 2-hour, live-streamed debate on Climate Change, Public Education and Healthcare!