How Would You Grade the Biden Administration on K-12 Education?
Why I gave it a “D”
When my friend
reached out to me to grade the Biden Administration on education, I gave it a “D.” That was mostly in line with what Tim heard from other people.What grade would you give it?
The Biden Administration tried but ultimately failed to enact a broader early childhood agenda through the Build Back Better initiative. It cut child poverty rates in half, briefly, but it was unable to convince Congress to sustain that funding. On higher education, it will mainly be remembered for its attempts to reform student loan programs. That has been breathtakingly expensive, and it’s now tied up in legal battles. But let’s agree to narrow the question just to K-12 education.
I almost gave the Administration an "N/A,” because I think Biden and his team have been largely absent on K-12 education policy. They could have used their bully pulpit to speak out about attendance and getting kids back in school and on track academically. Instead they've been mostly silent (absent one small and super late push).
The Biden Administration also lacked vision on any sort of improvement agenda for American public education, other than more money. They were bad on charter schools specifically, but it's not like they had some other pet ideas they were promoting instead. The Biden Team didn’t take a strong stance in favor of CTE programs or arts or foreign languages or pre-k or really anything other than more money and more staff.
And Biden delivered on both the money and the staffing fronts. The first two rounds of the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) Fund were passed under President Trump, but the last and biggest tranche of money came under Biden’s American Rescue Plan (ARP). That money helped fueled widespread staffing shortages across the country as schools raced to hit all-time highs in per-student staffing levels.
I suspect ARP will be the one defining feature of the Biden Administration’s work on education. It was probably too big for the moment and too unfocused for all of the challenges students actually faced, but it helped schools start to spend money more freely, and I'm persuaded that it had positive impacts for kids. As a counter-factual, I think it’s fair to say schools would be in worse shape today if not for the money.
But I’m not willing to go much further than that. When Biden took office in late January of 2021, he could have been much more vocal about the need to get kids back in school as quickly as possible. He could have appeared at summer programs, or made a pitch for college students and retirees to serve as tutors in their communities. Instead, his administration gave too much cover to too much COVID theater, which kept more kids out of school unnecessarily.
And with Biden’s silent acquiescence at the top, he let Democratic party leaders downplay the academic and social and emotional harms to children caused by lengthy school closures. Throughout 2021, 2022, and 2023, Biden had ample time to see the consequences those decisions had on children and to adjust his messaging and policies accordingly. He never did.
With a different approach, the Biden team could have helped close the urgency gap on achievement or been a cheerleader on attendance, but they never took up that mantle.
So that’s my rationale for giving Biden a “D” on K-12 education. I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments, or go check out the responses Tim Daly heard, which also touch on student loan forgiveness and the FAFSA debacle.