Grading Biden’s First 100 Days on Education – The Dispatch
Joe Bidens election prompted spasms of joy in education circles. Before he was sworn in, a story in Inside Higher Education gushed over his transformative victory, cheered that he believes in research, and judged that community colleges are likely ecstatic. The Washington Posts Valerie Strauss promised that Biden would fix the inequity that has long existed in the education system. Ken Wong, Brookings scholar and Brown Universitys Annenberg chair in education policy, proclaimed that Bidens education agenda represented a return to responsible governance.
Now, 100 days into Bidens term, his education agenda is taking shapeand its anything but a model of responsible governance. His administration has exacerbated educational culture wars despite his promises to be a uniter. Hes done little to persuade recalcitrant teacher unions to lead on school reopening (other than perhaps threaten to smother them with bales of cash). And hes pushed for stupefying levels of new school spending with no obvious interest in whether the funds are spent wisely or well.
When it comes to education, President Bidens first 100 days have been nothing to write home about. Lets take a closer look at the four subjects that have absorbed the lions share of the administrations energy and that constitute his 100-day report card.
School reopening:A majority of school districts remain at least partly closed over a year into the pandemic, despite the widespread availability of vaccines, the vast majority of educators having been fully vaccinated for well over a month, data making clear that schools are not a significant source of COVID spread, and the copious evidence demonstrating that children learn better and have better mental and emotional health when theyre in school.
Despite all of this, Bidens push to reopen schools has been half-hearted and lacking in urgency. In principle, Biden has extolled the benefits of in-person schooling and urged schools to bring students back. Indeed, back in December, before taking office, Biden pledgedthat my team will work to see that the majority of our schools can be open by the end of my first 100 days.
In practice, Biden balked at setting clear expectations for reopening or using his relationship with teacher unions to accelerate things. On his first day in office, Bidenwalked backhis reopening goal by announcing that it no longer included high schools. That same day, first lady Jill Biden hosted the presidents of the two major teachers unions, praising their heroic commitment to students.
In February, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky announced at an official White House press briefing, Vaccination of teachers is not a prerequisite for safely reopening schools. Hours later, press secretary Jen Psaki walked that back, claiming that Walensky was speaking only in her personal capacity. A few days later, Psaki sparked ridicule when she stipulated that, in scoring Bidens 100-day reopening goal, schools should be considered open if they offered a single day of in-person instruction each week.
Biden eventually clarified that he expected schools open five days a weekbut rejected proposals to reserve federal aid for schools that actually did so. Ultimately, of course, the Democrats party-line American Recovery Plan included more than $120 billion for schools, with no expectation that schools actually be open (even part-time) to collect these funds. Its nice that Biden has said that hed like schools to open, but his stutter steps and deference to the unions have made him an embodiment of all talk, no action. Grade: D+
The proposed student debt jubilee: Before Biden even took office, progressive activists were pressing him to use executive action to forgive $50,000 per borrower in student debt. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, despite all evidence, termed student debt the time bomb that could throw millions of families over a financial cliff. To his credit, Biden has usefully pushed back (a bit).
In December, Biden observed that the president probably lacks the legal authority to forgive student debt. At a CNN town hall in February, Biden reiterated his opposition to forgiving $50,000, arguing the government shouldnt forgive loans for those who attended "Harvard and Yale and Penn.
Biden has, however, heartily endorsed less ambitious debt forgiveness. In January, he called on Congress to forgive $10,000 for all borrowers (even those who went to Harvard and Yale and Penn). In recent weeks, hes hinted that hes willing to forgive even more, even though blanket debt forgivenessof whatever amountwould disproportionately benefit the affluent, give colleges an excuse to hike prices, and tempt students to borrow even more.
The troubling thing is that this is one place where theres substantial bipartisan agreement on how to protect those who havent completed college or are wrestling with economic hardship, without embracing the kind of regressive, ridiculous giveaways that Warren craves. But Biden has shown no appetite for offering an alternative vision. Grade: C-
The culture war: For all his high-flown campaign talk about bringing America together and uniting our people, Bidens education moves have shown a president seemingly content to stoke the culture wars. On his first day in his office, he issued an executive order suggesting that schools must allow biological males to compete on female sports teams. He abolished the Trump-established 1776 Commission, whichin response to the New York Times 1619 Project and its kinwas charged with enabl[ing] a rising generation to understand the history and principles of the founding of the United States. He issued a Title IX executive order intended to undermine due process in college sexual assault investigations, while promising to restore Obama-era regulations under which the accused sometimes werent even informed of the charges against them (and which prompted hundreds of lawsuits from accused students).
Ol Centrist Joe Biden couldve approached these issues differently. He might have suggested that a presidential order should be preceded by a presidential panel that would help weigh the rights of biological girls, transgender individuals who identify as female, and issues of fairness and safety. (Recall that this is how George W. Bush effectively handled the contentious stem cell question.) Biden mightve nodded to the value of a reconfigured 1776 Commission and moved to retool it, or else quietly retired the effort in a less ostentatious manner. He mightve acknowledged that the current Title IX framework was adopted via a formal rulemaking process and that, whatever his concerns about it, hes sensitive to the importance of due process and believes theres value in moving deliberately.
Instead, throughout the past 100 days, Bidens administration has seemed eager to spark hot-button culture clashes in education. Now, the administration is revising the rules regarding the broadly popular American History and Civics Education program so as to prioritize grantees who embrace the woke agendaname-checking materials like the New York Timess historically challenged 1619 Project and the precepts of anti-racist darling Ibram X. Kendi.
Candidate Biden promised to lower the temperature of our culture wars and bridge some of our bitter divides. In education, early signs are that his administration has something very different in store. Grade: D-
Spending: Before Biden took office, Congress had already earmarked nearly $70 billion in emergency COVID aid to K-12 schools. As of February 2021, most of that money still hadnt been spent. (As the Wall Street Journal editorial board drily noted, Its hard to spend money when schools arent open for classroom instruction since unions have resisted returning to work in much of the country.)
But Biden doubled down in his American Rescue Plan, providing $130 billion more in additional K-12 aid. For reference, thats double what the federal government typically spends a year on K-12 schooling. Meanwhile, states are already so swamped with relief money that it may be years before Bidens bailout is fully spent. The Congressional Budget Office, for instance, estimates that nearly half of Bidens emergency COVID K-12 aid will be spent between 2024 and 2028. On top of that, Bidens proposed budget calls for a massive 41 percent increase in federal K-12 aid.
Theres a case to be made that schools needed some additional dollars (though its easier to make the case that families should receive these education fundsespecially in all those locales where schools are open only part time). But its tough to justify this decision to helicopter tens of billions into even the most inert of public school systems. Grade: D
All in all, surveying Bidens first 100 days, hes earned a gentlemans D. The best one can probably say is, remembering when it looked during parts of 2019 and 2020 like Warren and then Bernie Sanders might claim the Democratic nomination: Things could always be worse.
Frederick M. Hess is the director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute.
View original post here:
Grading Biden's First 100 Days on Education - The Dispatch
- What's killing the media goes all the way back to a famous 100-year-old culture wars trial: critic - Alternet - July 6th, 2025 [July 6th, 2025]
- Opinion | The culture wars: Trumps takeover of the Kennedy Center - Toronto Star - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- Walter Kim: Reaching Every GenerationCuriosity, Connection, & Culture Wars - ChurchLeaders - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- From Cornbread to Culture Wars - iHeart - July 2nd, 2025 [July 2nd, 2025]
- As a visibly Muslim woman, I'm so tired of bearing the brunt of the UK's toxic culture wars - Glamour UK - June 29th, 2025 [June 29th, 2025]
- Eamon Ryan: We cant afford to let the climate crisis get swallowed up in the culture wars - The Irish Times - June 24th, 2025 [June 24th, 2025]
- Bikinis and burgers: How the culture wars are remaking advertising - AFR - June 20th, 2025 [June 20th, 2025]
- Conservatives lose culture wars because they don't show up - Washington Examiner - June 20th, 2025 [June 20th, 2025]
- Revolutionary Ideas || Marxism and Culture Wars: How We Fight Oppression - International Socialist Alternative - June 20th, 2025 [June 20th, 2025]
- The dangers of imported American culture wars on Scottish women's rights - TheNational.scot - June 20th, 2025 [June 20th, 2025]
- Paul Elie on Culture Wars in Music and Art - Christianity Today - June 18th, 2025 [June 18th, 2025]
- Co-Learning Intersectionality and Social Justice during Culture Wars - E-International Relations - June 12th, 2025 [June 12th, 2025]
- How the word womyn dragged the National Spelling Bee into the US culture wars - The Guardian - May 28th, 2025 [May 28th, 2025]
- EDITORIAL | Student Speech: Schools that wade into culture wars should expect pushback - Texarkana Gazette - May 28th, 2025 [May 28th, 2025]
- Jerry Falwell and the Chistian Culture Wars - CounterPunch.org - May 28th, 2025 [May 28th, 2025]
- Kudlow: President Trump Is Gradually Winning The Culture Wars - Real Clear Politics - May 24th, 2025 [May 24th, 2025]
- Larry Kudlow: Trump is gradually winning the culture wars, but much more must be done - Fox Business - May 24th, 2025 [May 24th, 2025]
- Here come the culture wars: can Queenslands LNP resist wading into the ideological mire? - The Guardian - May 24th, 2025 [May 24th, 2025]
- Trump Is Gradually Winning the Culture Wars but Much More Must Be Done - The New York Sun - May 24th, 2025 [May 24th, 2025]
- From Barbiecore to the Culture Wars: Alex Clarks Podcast Pivot Exposes the Right-Wing Media Machine - CEO Today - May 24th, 2025 [May 24th, 2025]
- John Rustad: It's time for B.C. NDP to end culture wars and wedge politics - Vancouver Sun - May 24th, 2025 [May 24th, 2025]
- Gary Lineker, the culture wars and why his BBC exit became a sad inevitability - The Athletic - The New York Times - May 24th, 2025 [May 24th, 2025]
- Why culture wars and anti-wokeness is really nothing new - NZ Herald - May 15th, 2025 [May 15th, 2025]
- In the way it addresses culture wars, Labor is acting more like a truly liberal party - ABC Religion & Ethics - Australian Broadcasting... - May 15th, 2025 [May 15th, 2025]
- Religious freedom laws: Albanese has shied from culture wars. This one waits for him when parliament resumes - The Sydney Morning Herald - May 15th, 2025 [May 15th, 2025]
- Trumps firing of Hayden brings culture wars to the Library of Congress - Baltimore Sun - May 15th, 2025 [May 15th, 2025]
- Culture comes first in cybersecurity. That puts cybersecurity on the front line in the culture wars - theregister.com - May 8th, 2025 [May 8th, 2025]
- While His Admin Delights In The Culture Wars, Trump Tiptoes Around Abortion. At Least For Now. - Talking Points Memo - May 8th, 2025 [May 8th, 2025]
- Australians have soundly rejected Trump-style culture wars. Now Albanese must act with courage and vision - The Guardian - May 8th, 2025 [May 8th, 2025]
- Culture wars, political polarization and deepening inequality: the roots of Trumpism - The Conversation - May 8th, 2025 [May 8th, 2025]
- THE OCEANSIDER: An Aside About the School Board Elections Culture Wars Trickle Down to Tillamook - Tillamook County Pioneer - May 8th, 2025 [May 8th, 2025]
- OPINION: Book bans draw libraries into damaging culture wars that undermine their purpose - The Hechinger Report - May 8th, 2025 [May 8th, 2025]
- PG Tips enters the tea culture wars with NCA - More About Advertising - May 8th, 2025 [May 8th, 2025]
- Debate over partisanship, culture wars in Mansfield ISD at center of school board race - Fort Worth Report - May 3rd, 2025 [May 3rd, 2025]
- Oklahoma Watch: The Supreme Court had classroom culture wars on top of mind in oral arguments - Duncan Banner - May 3rd, 2025 [May 3rd, 2025]
- The Supreme Court Had Classroom Culture Wars on Top of Mind in Oral Arguments - notus.org - May 3rd, 2025 [May 3rd, 2025]
- Culture wars and costings: election special podcast with Michelle Grattan and Amanda Dunn - The Conversation - May 3rd, 2025 [May 3rd, 2025]
- Online pile-ons and culture wars: how did we get here? - The Sydney Morning Herald - May 3rd, 2025 [May 3rd, 2025]
- Opinion | Can the Catholic Church Quit the Culture Wars? - The New York Times - April 30th, 2025 [April 30th, 2025]
- Morning Mail: Dutton switches to culture wars in last debate; Canada heartbroken after car ramming; Liverpool win league - The Guardian - April 30th, 2025 [April 30th, 2025]
- How your showerhead and fridge got roped into the culture wars - Grist.org - April 30th, 2025 [April 30th, 2025]
- Libraries have been in the crosshairs of culture wars throughout history - Houston Public Media - April 30th, 2025 [April 30th, 2025]
- Symbol of Injustice and the culture wars: Volleyball trans athlete and her teammates are caught in the middle - Genetic Literacy Project - April 30th, 2025 [April 30th, 2025]
- Fundamentalists in the Public Square: Evolution, Alcohol, and Culture Wars after the Scopes Trial - The Gospel Coalition - April 30th, 2025 [April 30th, 2025]
- Culture Wars talk New Single Typical Ways, And New Upcoming Album - Soundsphere magazine - April 30th, 2025 [April 30th, 2025]
- Can culture wars win elections? - Australian Broadcasting Corporation - April 30th, 2025 [April 30th, 2025]
- Peter Dutton flicks switch to culture wars as cost of living proves tough egg to crack - The Guardian - April 30th, 2025 [April 30th, 2025]
- VIDEO: Costings and culture wars as last week begins - Australian Broadcasting Corporation - April 30th, 2025 [April 30th, 2025]
- Justices Consider the Culture Wars During LGTBQ Storybook Hearing - Law.com - April 30th, 2025 [April 30th, 2025]
- Laura Tingle's Election: polls and culture wars in the final week - Australian Broadcasting Corporation - April 30th, 2025 [April 30th, 2025]
- Capitol Update: Rep. Brandon Woodard says GOP put culture wars over real solutions this session - Johnson County Post - April 21st, 2025 [April 21st, 2025]
- How Emerging Adults Have Historically Responded To Culture Wars - Forbes - April 21st, 2025 [April 21st, 2025]
- Campfire and culture wars: the history of the American summer camp - MSN - April 21st, 2025 [April 21st, 2025]
- The charts that show youngsters are rejecting the Lefts culture wars - The Telegraph - April 3rd, 2025 [April 3rd, 2025]
- Beyond the culture wars: How mysticism can get us beyond polarisation - Catholic Outlook - April 3rd, 2025 [April 3rd, 2025]
- Work and money worry young people more than culture wars or climate, UK poll finds - The Guardian - April 1st, 2025 [April 1st, 2025]
- Ag Secretary Uses Purse Strings to Press Culture Wars in States - DTN Progressive Farmer - April 1st, 2025 [April 1st, 2025]
- Lionel Shriver: Trump has ended US culture wars but UK is lagging - The Times - April 1st, 2025 [April 1st, 2025]
- No 10 happy to dip its toe into culture wars in row with Sentencing Council - The Guardian - April 1st, 2025 [April 1st, 2025]
- Canada ditches divisive culture wars for focused hyper-nationalism thanks to Donald Trump - Daily Maverick - April 1st, 2025 [April 1st, 2025]
- Disneys New Snow White Film Fights Culture Wars and Wins - Bloomberg - March 22nd, 2025 [March 22nd, 2025]
- Culture wars reach the classroom: What is the best way to teach children about gender and identity? - The Irish Times - March 22nd, 2025 [March 22nd, 2025]
- 'I thought we were done with the culture wars': Democrats push back on measure clarifying what makes school books 'harmful to minors' - Creative... - March 22nd, 2025 [March 22nd, 2025]
- Letter: Culture wars drove me away from the GOP - Bangor Daily News - March 9th, 2025 [March 9th, 2025]
- Beth Ann Rosica: Pennsylvania culture wars to be waged in the courtroom - Broad + Liberty - March 9th, 2025 [March 9th, 2025]
- I have a pathological need to be right: Ash Sarkar on culture wars, controversy and Corbyns lost legacy - The Guardian - March 7th, 2025 [March 7th, 2025]
- Alex Gibney to Exec Produce Doc About College Culture Wars and Freedom of Speech (EXCLUSIVE) - Variety - March 7th, 2025 [March 7th, 2025]
- Embrace of authoritarianism in US fueled by culture wars more than economy, study finds - The University of Kansas - March 7th, 2025 [March 7th, 2025]
- Memo to Hollywood: Theres No Running or Hiding From the Culture Wars - TheWrap - March 7th, 2025 [March 7th, 2025]
- Culture wars reach warfighters as area military bases ordered to scrub online content - Fredericksburg Free Press - March 7th, 2025 [March 7th, 2025]
- The WA election campaign has been about big promises, but culture wars are inescapable in contemporary politics - The Conversation Indonesia - March 7th, 2025 [March 7th, 2025]
- How the Right Hijacked the Working Class for Culture Wars - Social Europe - March 1st, 2025 [March 1st, 2025]
- Culture wars: Trumps takeover of arts is straight from the dictator playbook - The Guardian - March 1st, 2025 [March 1st, 2025]
- A correspondence from the Culture Wars - Carter County Times - March 1st, 2025 [March 1st, 2025]
- Hands on Wisconsin: School children are pawns in the culture wars - The Daily News - March 1st, 2025 [March 1st, 2025]
- Is a Trump backlash on its way? Well, eggs are as expensive as ever and you cant eat the culture wars - The Guardian - March 1st, 2025 [March 1st, 2025]
- How Donald Trump and his MAGA inner circle plan to win the culture wars - New York Post - February 9th, 2025 [February 9th, 2025]
- Gaming Is Becoming More Diverse, Opening a New Front in the Culture Wars - New Lines Magazine - February 9th, 2025 [February 9th, 2025]
- The Creed vs. the culture wars: Hunkered down in the Catholic demilitarized zone - America: The Jesuit Review - February 9th, 2025 [February 9th, 2025]
- The Guardian view on class politics: it has faded as culture wars have risen | Editorial - The Guardian - February 9th, 2025 [February 9th, 2025]