Dive Brief:
- President Joe Biden once again called for raising teacher pay, restoring the expanded child tax credit and implementing universal preschool — sounding the same themes on education policy during his State of the Union speech on Thursday night as he had in his previous annual addresses to Congress.
- Biden did, however, for the first time briefly allude to the divisive curriculum climate in schools during his third State of the Union when he said, “Stop denying another core value of America — our diversity,” adding that “banning books is wrong.”
- U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona didn't attend Biden’s speech at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., as he was the designated survivor for the event. The designated survivor is the Cabinet member who stays in a separate, secure location to remain in line for the presidency should a catastrophic disaster occur.
Dive Insight:
This year’s State of the Union marked Biden’s last in his current term and comes in the runup to his bid for reelection in eight months.
In the shadow of the pandemic, Biden’s administration has focused on boosting the number of tutors and mentors in schools as one strategy to address learning loss resulting from the shift to remote learning during the health crisis. On Thursday, he continued that push and called for the expansion of high-quality tutoring and summer learning programs “to see that every child learns to read by 3rd grade.”
Recent years also brought forth a wave of state policies censoring K-12 curriculum in addition to a surge in local book bans often targeting lessons that share the perspectives of people of color and the LGBTQ+ community. Biden has already pushed back on these efforts impacting classrooms nationwide, and now may be stepping up his actions as the presidential election season heats up against former President Donald Trump, who has endorsed the curriculum censorship movement.
Ahead of Biden’s speech, Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., and chair of the Education and the Workforce Committee, released a statement Thursday taunting the president. Biden “will stumble through his speech,” said Foxx, adding that “Americans are tired of” the Biden administration “peddling radical policies that incite ideological warfare in America’s classrooms.”
Turning to immigration, Biden said the smuggling of illicit fentanyl is “killing thousands of children” and called on Congress to pass a bipartisan bill reforming immigration and border policies. Part of that proposal includes adding 100 drug inspection machines at the U.S. southwest border to help stop and screen vehicles and prevent the trafficking of fentanyl.
That acknowledgement of the opioid crisis’ toll on teens comes as school leaders continue to grapple with the tragedy. The teen death toll from iIllicit fentanyl and synthetics has increased dramatically since 2019, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
As in last year’s State of the Union, Biden also touched on the importance of preventing gun violence while calling attention to its impacts on schools.
One of Biden’s guests at this year's State of the Union was the sister of a student who was killed during the May 2022 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. In his speech, Biden said that he had spent hours speaking with families impacted by the horrific tragedy in which a gunman murdered 19 students and two teachers.
“We heard their message so everyone in this chamber could hear the same message,” Biden recalled. “They said, ‘Do something, do something!’ Well I did do something by establishing the first ever Office of Gun Violence Prevention in the White House.”
Biden then urged Congress to pass a ban on assault weapons and high capacity magazines.
The president also called on lawmakers to pass legislation to “protect our children online.” In last year’s State of the Union, he made a more direct ask of Congress to “stop Big Tech from collecting personal data on our kids” and sought passage of a law that would ban targeted online advertising to children. In December, the Federal Trade Commission proposed changes to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule, or COPPA Rule, that would tighten limits on the use of children’s data and a company’s ability to profit on that information through targeted advertising.
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