Joe Biden Stands Up For Teachers, Says Book Banners Can Go Jump In Lake
Dr. Jill's husband is down with education.
Joe Biden got back from his holiday weekend at Camp David yesterday, and even though it was supposed to be his day off, what with it being July 4 and all, he took a little time to speak via live video to the national convention of America's largest teacher's union, the National Education Association, which is meeting in Orlando, Florida. While Biden never mentioned Gov. Ron DeSantis, he didn't really need to; teachers know they're in the crosshairs of rightwingers who would like to privatize the schools and purge any teacher they consider insufficiently patriotic, which is most of them.
Biden praised teachers for the vital role they play in making American democracy work, by giving kids the education they need to be smart voters. Introducing himself as "Jill Biden's husband," he said she likes to remind him that "teaching isn't just what you do, it's who you are." Here's video of his brief remarks (We've cued it up to Joe; if you wanna rewind you can catch Dr. Jill Biden's remarks too):
Biden let the teachers know that "Educators have a champion in the White House," adding, "I know the last three years have been so difficult — we asked so much of you. I want you to know I see you, we see you, and we thank you."
Biden was talking about the pandemic, but could just as easily have been referring to the current rightwing war on education. His remarks followed by just a couple days the far-Right pro-censorship group Moms For Liberty's convention in Philadelphia, where Donald Trump vowed to "liberate our children from the Marxist lunatics and perverts who have infested our educational system" and to eliminate federal funding for any school "pushing critical race theory, transgender insanity, and other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content on our children."
Compare and contrast.
Biden also castigated rightwing politicians who have called for the threat of school shootings to be dealt with by arming teachers, who have plenty enough to do already, thanks. He pointed out that his administration had finally cleared up the bottleneck in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, which forgives student loan balances for teachers and other public servants after 10 years of payments, and urged anyone who qualifies to sign up.
And in a point that probably resonated especially well with public school teachers gathering in DeSantis territory, Biden called book banning downright un-American:
"Let’s stand with teachers and educators against politicians who are trying to score political points by banning books. Did you all ever think you’d be in a situation, in the United States of America, we’re talking about banning books? And the people deciding what books to ban? Come on. That’s not who we are."
Last month, the Biden administration announced that the Department of Education's Civil Rights Office will appoint a coordinator to help protect Americans from book banning, saying in a statement that the coordinator will "work to provide new trainings for schools nationwide on how book bans that target specific communities and create a hostile school environment may violate federal civil rights laws."
Turns out that's illegal, even if people really think God himself wants them to discriminate and take books away. We love how Joe knows things!
OPEN THREAD!
[American Independent / Daily Beast / White House ]
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