Top Biden Aide Talks Reopening Schools, Education Funding, Charters and More - Education Writers Association

Top Biden Aide Talks Reopening Schools, Education Funding, Charters and More - Education Writers Association

Top Biden Aide Talks Reopening Schools, Education Funding, Charters and More

Provides on-the-record comments in pre-election webinar

President-elect Joe Biden has a far-reaching education agenda that begins with actions to help schools reopen for in-person instruction, as well as plans to reverse key Trump administrative actions and more.

In a recent, on-the-record webinar, the Biden campaign’s national policy director, Stef Feldman, fielded questions from the Education Writers Association and its members from around the country.

Below are key excerpts from that wide-ranging, one-hour conversation on October 22, 2020. Journalists and others are welcome to quote from the transcript here, though we ask that you cite the EWA webinar as the source. You can also watch the full video.

On some issues, Feldman declined to make firm commitments. For example, she stopped short of saying whether a Biden administration would grant states a waiver for a second year of statewide testing required under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act. “This is an important question that a Biden/Harris transition team would have to look at,” she said. “In some ways, the answer to this question depends on how much CONTINUE READING: Top Biden Aide Talks Reopening Schools, Education Funding, Charters and More - Education Writers Association

With DeVos out, Biden plans reversals on education - The Washington Post

With DeVos out, Biden plans reversals on education - The Washington Post

With DeVos out, Biden plans series of reversals on education

 

President Trump tried to bully schools into opening their buildings, a hard-edge pandemic tactic that succeeded in places and backfired elsewhere. President-elect Joe Biden is hoping to pry them open with money for increased coronavirus expenses and clear guidance on how in-person schooling can resume safely, a shift that signals a new era for education policy in the United States.

Follow the latest on Election 2020

Under Trump, the Education Department has been led by Secretary Betsy DeVos, who alienated many by casting public schools as failures and promoting alternatives to them. Through executive action and negotiations with Congress, Biden wants to bolster public schools.

He has promised hundreds of billions of dollars in new education spending, for preschool through college. He has proposed college debt forgiveness. And he wants to overturn a controversial regulation on sexual harassment and assault that universities and others strongly opposed.

He has also promised to appoint an educator as education secretary and likes to tell people that a teacher will join him in the White House. Jill Biden, an English professor at a community college in Northern Virginia, has said she plans to continue teaching as first lady.

“Teaching isn’t just what she does — it’s who she is,” Joe Biden said Saturday in a victory speech after being declared the winner of the presidential race. “For America’s educators, this is a great day: You’re going to have one of your own in the White House.”

‘Jill is always grading papers,’ Michelle Obama told People magazine

With the election results clear, transition teams for every federal agency are beginning the work of assessing the state of each department, cataloguing Biden’s promises, determining what can be done by executive action and what needs congressional action, and setting priorities.

Next secretary

For the Education Department, the transition committee is being led by Linda Darling-Hammond, president of the California State Board of Education, several people said. Darling-Hammond, who was considered for education secretary by President Barack Obama in 2008, is under consideration again, people familiar with the process said. Also under consideration are two teachers-union leaders: Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, and Lily Eskelsen García, former president of the National Education Association CONTINUE READING: With DeVos out, Biden plans reversals on education - The Washington Post