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Teach Away
Deep Dive
What do leading K-12 organizations expect from a Biden presidency?
Feelings are mixed, but hope remains as to how much Biden may be able
to impact areas including IDEA, COVID-19 relief and civil rights.
Naaz Modan
Nov. 11, 2020
In his victory speech Saturday night, presumptive President-Elect Joe
Biden called for national unity. But educators, education organizations
and associations and legal experts are far from united in their views
on what a Biden presidency might mean for K-12.
Although the final outcome of the election will not be certain until
the Electoral College votes in December and legal challenges are
settled, the education community is responding to Biden’s presumptive
win with mixed feelings.
Unions and associations eager for collaboration, COVID-19 relief
Many organizations and associations are hoping to collaborate with the
new administration. The National Education Association and American
Federation of Teachers, for example, told Education Dive they want to
strengthen public schools. Principals’ organizations — National
Association of Elementary School Principals and National Association of
Secondary School Principals — expressed similar sentiments.
Others are focused on COVID-19 relief in the short term. National Head
Start Association Executive Director Yasmina Vinci said in a statement
the organization is pushing for at least $1.7 billion for Head Start
and Early Head Start programs to address rising costs.
Meanwhile, Chip Slaven, chief advocacy officer for the National School
Boards Association, said he hopes the administration focuses on public
schools specifically, saying that’s where “most [students] are right
now.”
But Slaven emphasized any successful effort needs to be bipartisan.
“Local school board members that are on the frontlines who are
bipartisan, or nonpartisan, we can help lead many of these efforts,” he
said.
In the meantime, Mike Petrilli, president of the Thomas B. Fordham
Institute, a right-leaning think tank, suggested Biden may try to get
some checklist items — like teacher salaries and Title I funding
increases — passed through the COVID-19 relief bill that will be making
its way through Congress.
“They might see this as their only chance in a while to get some of the
rest of their items moved,” Petrilli said. “[Biden] might not have an
opportunity on the spending front for a while, probably until the
budget bills are ready from a year from now.”
Jury split on whether Biden will benefit or harm school choice
Although some have said Biden was “aggressively” against school choice,
others disagree on what exactly his win means for education reformers.
Nina Rees, president and CEO of the National Alliance for Public
Charter Schools, said in a statement the organization is “counting on
the incoming Biden-Harris administration” to support public charter
schools and provide parents with flexibility following “significant
enrollment spikes” in light of the pandemic.
But American Federation for Children President John Schilling said in
an email to Education Dive that while the Trump administration
increased federal charter school spending by over $100 million, that
will likely not be the case in a Biden White House, which may only show
“modest charter school support.”
Biden’s and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris’ opposition to vouchers,
tax credit scholarships or education savings accounts to support
tuition payments at nonpublic schools puts them at odds with a number
of key constituencies in the Democratic Party, including Latinos,
African Americans and millennials, Schilling said.
“A Biden presidency offers a pretty big dichotomy,” added Jeanne Allen,
founder and CEO of the Center for Education Reform, which closely
tracks school opportunity. While Biden favored national teachers unions
on one hand to pave his road to the White House, Allen said,
educational opportunity rather than traditional public schooling
“increased its foothold” in the states and in Congress this election.
“That’s going to be his challenge.”
Schilling added: “Republicans will have to fight [to] expand
educational choice at the federal level and use their bully pulpits to
offset the influence of the teachers’ unions.”
But Petrilli said despite his track record for being “more antagonistic
to charter schools than any other presidential candidate,” Biden could
still be better for school choice than the Trump administration.
“We are going to be able to have a more constructive conversation
around education reform again,” Petrilli said. “It’s been very hard for
the last four years,” he added, saying those in the center and left
“got blasted for being linked with Donald Trump and Betsy DeVos” if
they supported school choice matters.
“Trump promoting school choice was not good for school choice; you need
bipartisan consensus and that was just impossible given Trump’s tone
and rhetoric,” Petrilli said.
Nevertheless, Allen added, “It’s going to be harder to get your message
across ... and frankly some people are even afraid that [the new
administration] might be vengeful and start launching investigations.”
Caution abounds for increased funds for traditional schools
Many organizations, including NSBA and AASA, The School Superintendents
Association, have emphasized long-term changes around internet
connectivity, modernizing education to prepare students for the
workforce, and teacher recruitment and retention — all policy
priorities during the Biden campaign.
However, with a Republican-controlled Senate, Petrilli expects Biden to face an uphill climb.
“A lot of Biden’s plan for education and in other areas won’t go
anywhere or he won't be able to carry them out as boldly as he would
have liked,” Petrilli said. He added Senate Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell (R-Kentucky) “would be open to do some negotiating,” and he
expects public education funding to increase more than it would have
under Trump.
“There will be partisan fights but we tend to pull better in a crisis,”
Slaven said. “This is a tipping point moment for all, not just public
schools, and so that is what I will hope they focus on.”
Special educators hope for full funding of IDEA
Many in the special education community are hopeful a Biden
administration will advocate for fully funding the additional costs of
serving students with disabilities — or about a $30 billion increase
for services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
“We’ve been so far behind on the federal contribution. It would be
great if that number could increase,” said Stephanie Smith Lee, who
served as director of the Office of Special Education Programs from
2002-2005 and is a member of the 43 Alumni for Biden group, referring
to political appointees from George W. Bush’s administration.
Lee said she also hopes the next secretary of education has an interest in people with disabilities.
“For families of students with disabilities and for students with
disabilities, it’s been an ongoing effort to focus on improved academic
achievement and outcomes,” said Lee. “Strategies that are good
practices for students with disabilities, such as universal design for
learning, are good for all students.”
The Council of Administrators of Special Education, in a statement sent
to Education Dive by Executive Director Phyllis Wolfram, expressed hope
the new administration will consider maintaining public funds within
public education, addressing mental health issues for all children
through school and community collaboration, and ensuring federal
funding covers 40% of the additional costs of providing services to
students with disabilities.
“COVID-19 has had a significant impact on students and teachers, we
need to be sure we provide the funding and support needed for continued
implementation of [a free, appropriate public education] under these
challenging circumstances,” the CASE statement said.
However, Noelle Ellerson Ng, associate executive director for advocacy
and governance at AASA, doesn’t think the administration will be able
to move far-left agenda items, like full IDEA funding, through Congress.
“But I think if we convince them to do a sizable increase [to IDEA],
that’s a step in the right direction,” she said, adding “there’s room
to have a conversation about investing in education.”
Civil rights ‘ping-pong’ policy reversal on the horizon
Organizations on the right and left expect a Biden administration to
reverse many of the civil rights changes that took place under Trump.
Miriam Rollin, director of the Education Civil Rights Alliance,
convened by the National Center for Youth Law, said she would like to
see more attention focused on vulnerable students and the prevention of
discriminatory practices. “We need to use this COVID crisis as a
turnaround opportunity for education for the most marginalized students
— we can make schools more equitable and caring for our students,”
Rollin said.
In that vein, Petrilli said he expects Biden to “get right to work” on
reversals of Trump’s school discipline guidance, as well as the new
Title IX rule. However, whether Biden reverts to Obama’s policies or
preserves parts of DeVos’ efforts in those areas remains to be seen.
“I’m sure [districts] feel like they’re being whipsawed or watching a
game of ping-pong,” he said of the drastic changes that may come with
an administration change.
Would a complete reversal of Trump-era policies be helpful for districts? Some don’t think so.
“As problematic or controversial as those actions were by Betsy DeVos,
that doesn’t necessarily mean that every single change she made was
horrible,” Ellerson Ng said. “If it was just a matter of completely
reversing everything Betsy did just for the sake of undoing what Betsy
did, that’s not much more prudent.”
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