Network Schools – Wayne Gerseny to https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/04/03/magazine/thomas-piketty-interview u w B l.html?h I’ll smid=url-share the Is for

During the primaries I did not pay close attention to Joe Biden because I viewed him as complicit in the test-and-punish policies advocated by Barak Obama and Arne Duncan. Worse, from my perspective, I felt Biden’s record of compromising with his colleagues on civil rights issues made him less than desirable as compared to the Progressives on the ticket– most notably Bernie Sanders whose ideas seemed to bring Donald Trump’s racist and pro-business stances into the forefront.

But despite my misgivings, Joe Biden is the Democratic Party standard bearer and speeches by Biden and Trump this weekend make it abundantly evident that any teacher who supports Trump, like anyone outside the 99% who votes for him, is voting against their well-being. Here’s Washington Post columnist Valerie Strauss’ take on the two speeches:

The notion that public school teach students “to hate their own country” is clearly untrue, but speaking untruths is nothing new for our President nor is creating an “other” category. Being more teacher-centric than any President in American history is, alas, a low bar… but Biden’s speech offered some specific ideas on how he would operate if he were elected:

Biden has said that as president he would, among other things, triple federal funding for high-poverty schools, increase teachers’ salaries and ban for-profit charter schools. He has also expressed opposition to standardized testing.

That sounds like a good platform to me… far better than the President’s efforts to make public teachers into political messengers of anti-Americanism.