President Biden has accomplished much in his first 100 days. He’s a caring President when this is especially needed. There’s much to like about the President’s ideas and, here, for education, but his speech did not highlight some major concerns. He talked strongly about democracy, but he missed the chance to make important points about democratic public schools and teachers.
Here is the transcript of the President’s speech.
Why are clarity and consistency about schools so important?
The President once told educators and parents that he would end high-stakes testing, teaching to the test. However, earlier this year, the Biden administration said states must still test even after a year of disruption due to the pandemic.
Also, preschool is important, but in his speech, President Biden emphasized competition and the workforce. Most teachers and parents dislike connecting the economy, the workforce to children, especially using preschool.
This is the same old talk of previous Presidents, pandering to business. It doesn’t solve the nitty-gritty problems facing schools and teachers, difficulties that need to be fixed if we really want America’s students to thrive.
School Buildings In America v. Other Countries
The President’s written plan includes $100 billion for fixing schools. Still, aside from mentioning lead pipes, a critical and worthy concern for which he should be commended, he said nothing about the poor condition of school buildings.
Since the President didn’t mention school buildings in his speech, are they really a priority?
If public schools are to compete, Americans should look at school buildings in other countries. Here are two.
In Japan, they have fully equipped schools with art and even home economics. They have sliding glass doors to the outside. They have arts and crafts rooms and good school libraries.
In America, you can find some nice school buildings in the suburbs. But if we want to brag about democracy, shouldn’t all neighborhoods have great school buildings too?
Many schools are in terrible condition. Some have no libraries and no librarians! Who would call that democratic?
The Swedish people are proud of their school facilities. They call their portables whimsical. Can you imagine anyone calling America’s school portables whimsical?
Schools in the 21st Century?
President Biden seems fine with using high-stakes testing to determine how public schools progress. But he ignores charter schools and vouchers, a threat to democratic public schools.
Talk about unfair competition. The public seems to have no control over a public school takeover. Charters are not schools run by the public, but they use and often misuse public funds, sometimes involving massive fraud.
Many states are signing on to vouchers. Who’s addressing this? Who’s holding these schools accountable for when they fail?
Changing What Schools Do
The President promoted technology and AI. Technology is important, but if students are ready for the 21st Century, they will still need to understand the subjects they’ve always needed.
Nothing will replace learning about science, mathematics, English, social studies, the arts, civics, history, languages, and more.
Technology provides supplemental help for instruction, but it is not the be-all as we found with the pandemic.
It’s good to make sure children connect to the Internet and schools stay up-to-date with technology, but there are other problems.
What about Teachers?
I wish the President would have come out swinging about the need for quality teachers and great university programs, how they’re the key to a great educational system.
I wish he would have thanked teachers for all they did during the pandemic since many Americans blamed them for school closures due to Covid-19.
The President’s written plan involves teachers. There’s talk about teacher preparation, diversity, even credentialling.
But in his speech, he only mentioned teachers once, noting that they’re being vaccinated.
What will schools look like in the future without quality teachers? This is a serious issue.
In Indiana, they passed a bill that will permit anyone with a bachelor’s degree and online courses to get fast-track certification to teach. Where’s the proof that this will make good teachers or make America competitive with other nations?
Who’s Advising the President on Education?
President Biden said:
I would like to meet with those who have ideas that are different, that they think are better. I welcome those ideas. But the rest of the world is not waiting for us. I just want to be clear, from my perspective, doing nothing is not an option. Look, we can’t be so busy competing with one another that we forget the competition that we have with the rest of the world to win the 21st century.
If he were listening to teachers and parents, he would not have required high-stakes standardized testing this year after Covid-19.
The President’s speech left much out, but if he cares about democracy, he needs to listen to the voices of parents, teachers, and students and be more clear and consistent about his plans for democratic public schools.
Sadly, this administration seems content to continue the policy that has been the only place where the two sides of american politics agree: that I am the problem. Teachers can oppose Biden, and get some right wing nut job who will be even worse. What are we to do? The past week of school has been dominated by a test that is useless, serving only to provide ammo for those in the state who want to dismantle public education so they will not have to pay for it. We have to comply or die. Riduculous. The amazing thing is that there is no teacher insurgency. Similar treatment by a government in the past has produced violent reaction, even terrorism. Teachers motivated the Mexican revolution on 1911. They have been on the front lines of opposition to tyranny for years. Will it happen here?
His switch with the stance on testing was a concerning sign. His speech was filled with competition talk.
Thanks, Roy. I am sorry you’re in the thick of it.
Biden is not bringing anything that would make his predecessors uncomfortable. Testing will continue. Privatization will continue. Funneling money away from education will continue. Unless schools can be dropped on non-white people in countries with resources we want. Otherwise, sorry kids: we have some more weapons to build.
“This is the business we’ve chosen.”
– Hyman Roth, THE GODFATHER, Part 2
I’m afraid you’re right. Same old same old. But nice to hear from you, Michael.
“Look, we can’t be so busy competing with one another that we forget the competition that we have with the rest of the world to win the 21st century”.
In this quote President Joe (who I admire for a lot of other reasons) shows himself to be an old out-of-touch neoliberal in the tradition of the Clintons and Obama. Competition (albeit rigged with crony-capitalist politics) has been the FOUNDATION of the K-12 education reform movement over the past 20 years.
If competing with each other is the root of the problem then the CHANGE that he demands MUST include the elimination of K-12 (PK-14?) standards designed to commoditize education, as well as the failed attempt to create marketplaces of education offerings through rigged constructs such as charter schools, vouchers, neo-vouchers (ESA’s) and BS ed-tech offerings from edupreneurs.
In their place should be a reinvestment in democratically-run public school districts. But this doesn’t mean a return to the pre-Common Core status quo. It means living up to the same commitment Dems are making to the nation itself – an effort towards demonstrating that democracy is a far more just and effective form of governing. You cannot separate the education of our young Americans from this larger context. The movement to privatize education is one that insists that private capital and authoritarian governance will produce better educational outcomes for our children.
It hasn’t. It won’t. It’s a failure and it’s time to ditch it for good.
Amen. I think it’s telling that the buzzword is broadband with no references to teachers and all they did this past year. Thank you, Patrick.
“Neoliberal” says it all. And that’s exactly what and whom Biden represents. Our worst tendencies masking as some sort of benevolent caretaking and policing of the world while we steal everything that’s not locked down. There’s nothing to like about Biden unless you believe that being a Democrat and not being Trump are guarantees of goodness. They are not.
“It means living up to the same commitment Dems are making to the nation itself – an effort towards demonstrating that democracy is a far more just and effective form of governing. You cannot separate the education of our young Americans from this larger context. The movement to privatize education is one that insists that private capital and authoritarian governance will produce better educational outcomes for our children. ”
This quote ought to be sent directly to Biden and every legislator.
I agree. Very well said.
It took years to finally re-write the NCLB act. The 100% academic proficiency requirement (by 2014) demanded compliance to a law that was impossible to comply with despite the monumental efforts of schools.. with Sadly neither of NEA or AFT challenged it years earlier as, “unconstitutional” as they would have won in a SCOTUS slam dunk. Now that the ESSA is federal law, expecting any sudden changes regarding the testing component is futile. Teachers complaining about testing (and the perceived “accountability that goes with it) is a very bad look. especially without offering a better version, like basic skills, grade span testing. Common Core ELA standards and SBAC/PARCC tests contained vague and subjective skills while overwhelming the brain development of the vast majority of children. Calling it “rigor” was just a cheap trick. The real problem when creating tests in which virtually all items are challenging and grade inappropriate for the average renders it diagnostically useless. By middle school the majority of students were mislabeled as “reading failures’ yet most teachers could tell you that students had little trouble reading and understanding a story or a science procedure. Pandemic testing should be no big deal in a year of upheaval and uncertainty; most kids will just shrug it off and be happy they’re off Zoom for a few days, We should do the same.
Good points. Thanks, Rick. I agree about ESSA and testing, but these were strange circumstances, and even DeVos pushed aside testing. Biden and Cardona could have done the same, even if it was just until things got back to normal. Kids might not mind the testing, but the results if they’re good won’t matter but if they’re bad they’ll be used to blame schools and teachers.
I agree about reading.
I am especially worried about transitioning to nonstop online assessment. You can find a lot of anti-teacher, pro-tech folks criticizing standardized tests too.