Biden tells teachers their profession is ‘the most important’ on same day Trump trashes public schools
“You are, and I’m not joking about this, you are the most important profession in the United States,” Biden said. “You are the ones that … give these kids wings. You give them confidence. You let them believe in themselves. You equip them.
“And I promise you, you will never find in American history a president who is more teacher-centric and more supportive of teachers than me.”
Biden noted his wife, Jill Biden, is a veteran educator — and a member of the National Education Association — and his late first wife was a teacher as well. He has promised to name an educator as education secretary to succeed Betsy DeVos, Trump’s controversial choice.
Biden’s tone and view of public education was in sharp contrast to that of Trump, who said in his Friday speech at Mount Rushmore in South Dakota that public schools are teaching kids to “hate our country” with “a new far-left fascism that demands absolute allegiance.”
Trump, in a smack at public schools and teachers, said, “Against every law of society and nature, our children are taught in school to hate their own country and to believe that the men and women who built it were not heroes but that [they] were villains. The radical view of American history is a web of lies. All perspective is removed, every virtue is obscured, every motive is twisted, every fact is distorted, and every flaw is magnified until the history is purged and the record is disfigured beyond all recognition.”
Biden was vice president for two terms to President Barack Obama, whose Education Department pushed a school agenda that included high-stakes use of students’ standardized test scores to evaluate teachers, the expansion of charter schools and the Common Core State Standards. CONTINUE READING: Biden tells teachers their profession is ‘the most important’ - The Washington Post
