Jan Resseger reviews Biden’s campaign promises about education and expresses her admiration for them. They represent a sharp departure from the harsh, punitive approach of Race to the Top.
Most of those promises require a dramatic increase in funding to close the opportunity gap.
During the campaign, President Elect Biden proposed public schools policy designed to expand the opportunity to learn: “Invest in our schools to eliminate the funding gap between white and non-white districts, and rich and poor districts. There’s an estimated $23 billion annual funding gap between white and non-white school districts today, and gaps persist between high- and low-income districts as well.”
Educators and advocates will need to hold Joe Biden accountable for these promises even as we work to support his efforts to make them a reality. A significant challenge for Biden will be passing the tax increase on corporations and the wealthiest Americans. Mitch McConnell will continue to lead a Republican majority Senate, whose members will likely not be amenable to raising these taxes.
So, one obstacle to implementing Biden’s bold promises is Mitch McConnell. Another is whether he chooses a Secretary of Education and key personnel who are still attached to the failed policies of Race to the Top. Will his new Secretary bring a bold new vision to support students, teachers, and schools instead of threatening them?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
With his choice of Rice and Garcetti, I do no t see that Biden will be doing anything we need. Same old
But not Trump!!
Rice to the Top?
At least she doesn’t lack confidence
Susan Rice: I’m qualified to become Biden’s secretary of State or Defense”
“And did I mention that I can also do General Relativity and string theory if you need me for those? Oh, and that I got a minor in college in Covid Studies”
Rice could take a lesson in humility from rock climber Emily Harrington, but I somehow doubt she will.
Rice and Garcetti? Did I miss some breaking news?
I would like to add a goal that is important. WE can spend money on public school infrastructure as we did during the Great Depression. All over this country, buildings were built with federal money for local public schools. Some are quite beautiful. a school comes to mind where a friend of mine taught in Damascus, Virginia. Built with New Deal money, it features the round rocks of the mountain stream near it.
Investment in infrastructure like this produces jobs for construction workers as well as new spaces for students and teachers. Proper ventilation might reduce absenteeism, long a problem during the winter months.
The problem is, the communities that need the investment do not have the money. This can and should be a federal government investment. Right now, expanding suburbs build top-of-the line facilities while places where older housing exists watch as their schools reflect their poverty. Time for change.
With a Republican Senate Biden will have an enormous task getting money to adequately address any of these issues.
If the ACA goes down, I hope the good people of Georgia vote for the two Democratic Senate candidates. It would level the vote and give Harris the tie breaker. Of course, that is a wishing thinking scenario.
Yes, if the senate is still under the thumb of McConnell, which appears likely, it will be as if Biden had cinder blocks shackled to his ankles. For pity’s sake, the Trump gang is not even calling Biden to set up a smooth transition and that is unprecedented.
I don’t think Biden will have the funding to keep the “bold” promises, but just a change in tone towards public school students and schools would be a big improvement from the anti public school student rhetoric of the past 20 years of lock-step ed reform control.
I was pleased to see that all the Democrats mentioned public school students in their plans- public schools and public school students don’t exist in ed reform. They’re only mentioned to provide a comparison when promoting charters or private school vouchers.
It’s ludicrous, but the bar set by ed reform is so incredibly low we’re all now hugely grateful that we may have a US Department of Education that doesn’t spend a good part of every work week bashing and denigrating public schools and public school students.
Perhaps at some point we could even ask them to provide some practical, measurable benefit to public school students. Imagine that!
Working people are going to be in shock when they pay taxes this year. Trump’s gave working people tax cuts before the election, but after there will be tax increase steps that kick in for the middle class. The big tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations are permanent in Trump’s plan.https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/31/opinion/republicans-biden-taxes.html
cx: Trump gave
The Trump “administration” (sic and sick) is making the transition as bumpy and contentious as possible. Well, actually, there is no transition so far. The point being to cripple the Biden administration before it even enters the White House. Having a smooth transition is usually a formality but not with a sick twisted character like Trump.
From the NYT: Emily W. Murphy has the legal authority to begin the transition, releasing the $6.6 million in federal funds budgeted for the effort, making office space available and empowering team members to visit agency offices and request information.
Transition officials for President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. called on a top Trump administration appointee on Monday to end what they said was unwarranted obstruction of the money and access that federal law says must flow to the winner of a presidential election.
The officials, speaking on background to reporters on Monday night, said it was nearly unprecedented for Emily W. Murphy, the administrator of the General Services Administration, to refuse to issue a letter of “ascertainment,” which allows Mr. Biden’s transition team to begin the transfer of power.
By law, Ms. Murphy, the head of the sprawling agency that keeps the federal government functioning, must formally recognize Mr. Biden as the incoming president for his transition to begin. It has been three days since news organizations projected that he was the winner of the election, and Ms. Murphy has still not acted. end quote
As if this isn’t bad enough, we have Mitch McConnell who thinks he’s going to be the co-president with Biden and micro-manage Biden’s attempt to govern and undo all the damage that Trump has inflicted on this country.
Promiscuity
Promises are like cash and
Almost never kept
Also like the trash in
The can that has been swept
it is still possible that the Democrats will win the two run-off races in Georgia. Gotta love the sound of “Mitch McConnell, Minority Leader.”
Yes, but then the Democrats will still tell us they can’t get anything done because of the filibuster. Even when Obama had a fillibuster-proof supermajority for five months they still couldn’t get anything done because “Blue Dogs”. Always an excuse.
Your cynicism knows no bounds. Sad.
d-77 has DDS, Democratic Derangement Syndrome.
Sorry for not typing out her whole name but if I do, my comment goes into moderation. Word Press is weird.
We are very lucky that Biden has won, 4 more years of Trump would be unthinkable and a horror beyond comprehension. Having Kamala Harris as VP was a genius move and historic.
I think public school students also need a strong advocate. The knee jerk reaction to budget cuts will be to cut education budgets, because it always is. Public school students got robbed after the financial crash- they bore the brunt of Wall Street’s irresponsibility. Ed reformers were lousy advocates and did nothing to prevent that result. Public school students deserved better than the weak and ineffective “agnostics” they got.
Find someone who is actually passionate about their schools and will fight for them to get a fair share when money is being passed out.
I wonder what Bill Gates is up to these days. Someone has to keep his foundation staff out of the White House for society to function properly. The only way to keep him out is to have our voices heard, and the only way to be heard is to speak. Loudly. Persistently. If we do not speak, someone will convince the Biden-Harris transition team that data are used to inform and help teachers rather than to close and privatize schools, which is — malarkey.
If Biden does not and/or cannot keep his promises about public education, keep in mind that if the Republicans and Moscow Mitch (MM) hold onto their majority in the Senate, there might not be a lot Biden can do to fulfill those promises.
Even if Biden tries to appoint a real teacher as the Secretary o Education, MM can have his puppet GOP Senators reject her, forcing Biden to keep looking for someone MM will approve.
There are lots of things Biden can do that don’t require Republican agreement
Canceling student debt is one of them.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/11/10/if-biden-wants-be-fdr-he-should-immediately-cancel-student-debt-president-elect
We will know him by his actions, not his words.