Biden was at a candidates event in Houston with National Education Association members in July 2019 when he said: “First thing, as president of United States — not a joke — first thing I will do is make sure that the secretary of education is not Betsy DeVos. It is a teacher. A teacher. Promise.”
That promise has led many K-12 teachers from public schools to expect that he would pick an education secretary from their ranks, and many will be disappointed if that doesn’t happen.
Obama’s long-serving education secretary Arne Duncan infuriated teachers with school overhauls that used standardized test scores as key metrics for evaluating schools and teachers as well as other measures. They are expecting a different education agenda from Biden, whose platform includes big supports for teachers and public schools.
But Biden’s promise of a teacher as education secretary could also mean someone from higher education — even though the word “teacher” usually refers to the K-12 world. Speculation that the nomination might come from the higher education sector was fueled on Oct. 22, when Stef Feldman, the Biden campaign’s national policy director talked about education issues during a conversation with CONTINUE READING: