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Carolyn Kaster/AP
What A Biden Presidency Could Mean For Education
Anya Kamanetz, Elissa Nadorny
November 10, 2020
With the eyes of the country upon him, Joe Biden shouted out education
during his speech Saturday in Wilmington, Del: "For American educators,
this is a great day for you all. You're going to have one of your own
in the White House."
Of course, the president-elect was talking about his wife, Jill Biden,
an English professor at Northern Virginia Community College. She taught
throughout Biden's two terms as vice president, and in a break with
precedent, intends to continue as first lady.
Which raises the question, as the transition planning moves forward:
How has this perspective shaped the president-elect's education agenda?
And how much of that agenda can Joe Biden hope to achieve, with the
massive challenges of the coronavirus and the economic recession, and
with Democratic control of the Senate in doubt?
Here's our overview of his policy priorities for K-12 and higher education:
Reopening schools safely
Like so much in the country, experts say, the president's education
agenda must start by confronting the threat of the coronavirus. As of
Nov. 9, according to one national estimate, 63% of U.S. students were
enrolled in districts that offered some in-person learning at least a
few days a week.
But even within those districts, many or most students are staying home
to avoid the virus. And education experts still forecast huge amounts
of learning loss and negative social and emotional impacts, especially
for younger students, those with special needs and lower-income
students.
The question of whether, and when, to reopen schools became a political
debate over the summer when President Trump called forcefully for
reopening without providing additional funding through Congress. Biden,
by contrast, has publicly noted the estimate by the School
Superintendents Association and the Association of Educational Service
Agencies that K-12 education needs at least $200 billion in emergency
funding.
This week the president-elect named a COVID-19 task force, composed of
doctors and public health experts. Some members have spoken cautiously
in favor of reopening schools, but only with proper safety measures in
place — and the resources to do it right.
For example, Dr. Vivek Murthy, the co-chair of the new task force,
wrote on Twitter in September: "3 keys to open schools: low community
prevalence of virus (critical), safety precautions (eg reduced class
sizes, universal masking), and resources for implementation."
Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, another task force member, co-authored an op-ed in
The New York Times in July that outlined safe school reopening
guidelines. "We all want schools to open, even as we recognize the
risks attached," the piece noted. But it also reinforced the idea,
"Being safe is not free." In other words, following measures such as
social distancing and smaller class sizes takes additional funding.
That includes hiring teachers and substitutes to keep schools staffed.
Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, told
NPR that by the union's estimates almost 1 million educators have been
laid off since the passage of the initial coronavirus relief package in
the spring.
Aside from funding, experts told NPR they expect a Biden Department of
Education to do more to help schools operate through the pandemic.
Scott Sargrad at the left-leaning Center for American Progress said, "I
think you'll certainly hear from the Education Department more of an
effort to actually provide guidance to school districts on ... how to
ensure that, if you're considering reopening, that they can do that
safely, how to improve their remote learning strategies."
The urgency of the pandemic — and a closely divided Senate, with
control awaiting the outcome of two Georgia runoffs in January — also
means that a coronavirus relief package could end up being this
administration's most significant intervention in public schools.
Michael J. Petrilli of the conservative-leaning Thomas B. Fordham
Institute pointed to the Obama-era Race to the Top initiative as a
potential model. In 2009, tasked with crafting a giant economic rescue
package amid the financial crisis, the Obama administration created a
funding competition for states. Race to the Top influenced the adoption
of the Common Core State Standards, high-stakes evaluations for
teachers, data systems for schools and other innovations.
This time, Petrilli said, "I think the Biden folks are likely to be
looking very carefully at what goes into this relief bill and try to
get [Senate Majority Leader Mitch] McConnell and other Republicans to
go along with as much as they can, to get some of their larger agenda."
Teacher pay and respect
The U.S. Education Department controls only around 10% of the dollars
spent on K-12 public education in this country. A lot of that comes
through the $16 billion Title I program, which goes to schools serving
the most high-poverty students. The Biden campaign pledged to triple
that funding and, first off, direct states to use it preferentially to
bump up teacher pay. Teachers consistently make about 20% less than
other professionals with the same amount of education — a number that
has risen slightly in the wake of teacher walkouts in many states in
2018.
That's a lot of money, and the fate of Biden's Title I proposal is
unknown, as is whether the federal government will be successful in
telling cash-strapped states how to allocate that money if they do pass
it.
Of course, one of the biggest ways in which the incoming administration
will signal its support for educators is through the naming of an
education secretary. "It is a teacher. A teacher. Promise," Biden told
the NEA, the nation's largest teachers union, back in July 2019.
"It seems like something we would take for granted, that the secretary
of education would be an educator," the NEA's Pringle said. "But no, it
is something we have to say out loud." And she added, "It brings a
smile to my face to say it."
However, that doesn't necessarily mean a K-12 teacher. "The most
politically savvy thing for them to do," the Fordham Institute's
Petrilli said, "is to pick somebody from the world of higher education
who can get around some of the complications with their reform wing
versus the union wing within the [Democratic Party]."
The Education Department wields a much bigger budgetary impact on
higher education, through student aid, than it does with K-12. So,
having someone in charge who's an expert in higher ed — for example the
president of a historically black college or a community college —
makes a lot of sense, Petrilli said.
Rights and equity
The education secretary wields oversight on issues of discrimination,
segregation and bias through the Office for Civil Rights. During her
controversial tenure, the current secretary, Betsy DeVos, made
headlines for rolling back rights for students who are transgender, and
for guidance on racially discriminatory discipline.
Pringle said her union will be looking to Biden's Education Department
to be a partner: "On racial justice. Social justice. The work we still
have to do for women and girls ... the rights of our LGBTQ students."
Sargrad of the Center for American Progress agreed: "I think we'll see
a real effort to actually enforce our nation's civil rights laws, and
rebuild the Office for Civil Rights and make sure that they are
investigating complaints, that they're pursuing cases, that they're
taking their role as enforcing civil rights laws seriously."
Early childhood education
The president-elect has promised a broad expansion of K-12 to include
3- and 4-year-olds in the form of "high-quality, universal"
prekindergarten.
Publicly funded preschool has been gaining momentum in the states over
the past two decades. Tulsa, Okla., adopted an influential and
high-quality program in 2001, with promising long-term results.
Washington, D.C., and New York City have programs, too, and Multnomah
County, Ore., where Portland is located, just passed a preschool
initiative of its own.
The pandemic has driven hundreds of thousands of mothers out of the
workforce, highlighting the conflict between the needs of small
children and the demands of the economy. At the Democratic National
Convention this summer, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts
delivered a remote address from an early childhood classroom, stressing
the message that child care is "infrastructure for families."
But, like tripling Title I and increasing teachers' pay, any major
expansion of pre-K is going to be expensive, likely requiring both
states and the federal government to chip in. Pringle said she'll be
looking for action from agencies such as the Department of Health and
Human Services, which oversees Head Start, and the Department of Labor
as well as the Education Department.
Higher ed
For higher education, Biden released an expensive and ambitious plan
during the campaign that included free public colleges, loan
forgiveness and more money for low-income students to pay for college.
Broadly, the federal government's approach to higher education seems
almost certain to be less confrontational. In both rhetoric and policy,
the Trump administration was openly hostile to colleges, viewing them
as liberal, elite institutions that were out of touch with the rest of
the country.
"Across most of public and private nonprofit higher ed, there is a sigh
of relief," said Robert Kelchen, a professor of higher education at
Seton Hall University.
"This will be an administration that cares about the challenges that
students are facing, that knows that the cost of college is a
significant problem and needs to be addressed both on the front end and
the back end," said Antoinette Flores, director of postsecondary
education at the Center for American Progress.
Other experts, though, are less certain how far the Biden
administration might go to fight for progressive policy proposals, some
of which were borrowed from Warren and Sen. Bernie Sanders for the
campaign.
"These plans, they look nothing like what [Biden] advocated in 2008, or
really nothing like what he's advocated for most of his career," said
Jason Delisle of the American Enterprise Institute, a right-leaning
think tank. "We should take him at his word. But you look at what he's
proposed on higher ed in the past, and you just sort of have to say,
'Do you really believe your own stuff here? How hard is he going to
fight for this?' "
Plus, there is the potential of a Republican-controlled Senate, which
will pose a challenge for progressive legislation and funding
increases. The administration will most likely rely on other ways to
make policy changes: through executive orders and regulations from the
Department of Education.
More money
As with K-12 schools, the biggest priority for higher ed is getting
through the pandemic. Just 40% of colleges are operating fully or
primarily in person this fall.
"The finances are very bad across the board right now," Kelchen said.
"[Colleges] have laid off staff members, they've laid off faculty,
they've cut majors in programs. They're doing everything they can to
preserve their money so they can get through the length of the
pandemic, and quite a few colleges are starting to run out of money
because this has gone on so long."
The American Council on Education, a group representing college
presidents, is asking for $120 billion to support higher ed. A relief
package will be a major priority for the Biden administration if the
Trump administration and Congress can't do something in the meantime.
Student loans
There was a lot of talk during the campaign, especially from Democratic
candidates Warren and Sanders, about forgiving some — or all — of the
nation's $1.5 trillion in student debt.
Congress and the Trump administration opened the door in March when
they issued a moratorium on student loan payments because of the
pandemic, which Trump later extended through Dec. 31. Higher education
groups have asked DeVos to extend that suspension of payments until
September 2021. "I expect the Biden administration to support that
plan," Kelchen wrote in an op-ed in The Chronicle of Higher Education.
The pandemic may be good cover for loan forgiveness — Biden has
proposed a number of changes to paying back loans, including canceling
$10,000 in debt for students who work in national or community service.
But it's unclear exactly how the administration would go about doing
that in a more permanent way. Warren has noted that the education
secretary does have the power to cancel loans via an obscure and rarely
used provision in a 1958 law.
"Would Biden's secretary of education use that authority to enact his
loan-forgiveness plans? I don't know," Delisle said. "Politically
speaking, the question is, how far can you take it? Trump has pushed
the envelope, in terms of power, and so for Democrats, it's really, how
much can you get away with?"
Immigration
The Trump administration has tightened restrictions on immigration,
which often directly affect higher education, notably in a roller
coaster two weeks this summer when the administration tried to ban
international students from coming to the U.S. if their classes were
held online due to the pandemic. It's possible the Biden administration
will focus on immigration ahead of any policies specific to higher
education.
"Higher education is, in general, very supportive of making it easier
for international students to come to, and stay in, the U.S.," Kelchen
said. "International enrollment went down substantially this fall, part
of it due to the pandemic and part of it due to changes in immigration
policy. And that's a big revenue loss."
A Biden administration could also push to make protections for
DREAMers, young undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as
children, permanent, and to create a path to American citizenship. That
policy has been encouraged by high education leaders and groups.
Walking back DeVos' policies
Additional policies the Biden administration may strengthen or revive
that were dismantled or weakened under Trump include "borrower defense
to repayment," a policy that allows for the cancellation of debt when
students have been misled or defrauded by their colleges and the
"gainful-employment" rule, a policy that targets programs where debt is
high in relation to income.
Another focus point: Title IX , which governs how colleges handle
sexual assault and sexual harassment. As vice president, Biden helped
craft federal guidelines around students' reports of assault — he
personally unveiled the now famous "Dear Colleague" letter that
outlined how colleges should handle reports.
Under DeVos, the rule was changed — strengthening protections for
accused students and employees. Advocates for victims' rights said that
made it harder for people to report offenses.
"I think [Biden] will continue prioritizing addressing sexual
harassment and safe school climates for students," said Shiwali Patel
of the National Women's Law Center, an organization challenging DeVos'
Title IX changes in court.
For-profit colleges
The Trump administration has been friendly with the for-profit sector,
but that is set to change under a Biden administration. As the attorney
general of California, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris prosecuted
Corinthian Colleges, a large chain of for-profit colleges that
defrauded students.
"Harris' track record prosecuting for-profits and her awareness of the
depths of the abuses is really important," said Flores of the Center
for American Progress. "I think that will inform the response in the
regulations that come out of this administration."
While several large for-profit companies were shut down under the Obama
administration, the pandemic may usher in new growth to the sector, she
noted. Already this fall, enrollment is up at for-profit colleges,
while all other types of colleges have seen declines.
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