President Joe Biden wasted no time: Inaugurated at noon Wednesday, by the end of the day he had, among other things, extended a moratorium on student loan repayment and affirmed the existence of the DACA program, and by Thursday, he had issued a sweeping plan for reopening schools during the pandemic. He called on Congress to approve $130 billion for K-12 and $35 billion for higher ed in immediate Covid relief.
This week, we turn to two nationally known education leaders, Linda Darling-Hammond and Ted Mitchell, to give their views on President Biden’s immediate and post-pandemic priorities for schools and colleges and the potential impact for California. Darling-Hammond, president of the Learning Policy Institute, is also president of the California State Board of Education. She headed up President-elect education transition team. Mitchell, who was undersecretary of education during the Obama administration as well as a former president of the State Board of Education, is president of the American Council on Education.
For background on these issues, check out the following:
- Immigration reform proposed by Biden could alleviate anxiety, fear for thousands of California children
- Inconsistent vaccine supply, lack of state coordination complicate teacher vaccinations
- In inaugural address, Biden says it is possible to teach children ‘in safe schools’
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