OnTheIssuesLogo

Joe Biden on Education

Former Vice President; previously Democratic Senator (DE)

 


FactCheck: Attended U.Delaware, not Delaware State HBCU

Trump said to Biden, "You said you went to Delaware State, but you forgot the name of your college. You didn't go to Delaware State." Is that true? OnTheIssues found this article from the Wilmington (DE) News-Journal:

"No, Joe Biden did not say he attended Delaware State University, the only historically Black university (HBCU) in the state. Biden said he got his "start" at DSU, and what followed was a slew of media reports slamming Biden for claiming to have attended an HBCU. Trump's campaign has even cited the claim as one of the "17 questions Joe Biden must answer" in the first presidential debate.

"In the video, Biden was referring to the support he received from the school when he announced his bid for Senate on the DSU campus in 1972. In the decades since, Biden has maintained close ties with DSU, serving as commencement speaker in 2003. Biden has often referenced to his time as a student at the University of Delaware, where the Biden School of Public Policy bears his name."

Source: OnTheIssues FactCheck on First 2020 Presidential Debate , Sep 29, 2020

Student debt should not crush young college graduates

An education system that trains our people for the best jobs of the 21st century, where cost doesn't prevent young people from going to college, and student debt doesn't crush them when they get out.
Source: Acceptance speech at 2020 Democratic National Convention , Aug 20, 2020

Plan to forgive federal student debt & ease repayment burden

I've directed my team to develop a plan to forgive federal student debt relating to the cost of tuition currently held by low-income and middle-class people for undergraduate public colleges and universities, as well as private Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and private, underfunded Minority-Serving Institution (MSIs). This proposal would be in addition to my existing student debt proposals:
Source: Medium.com blog on 2020 presidential hopefuls , Apr 9, 2020

Provide school lunch even if schools closed for pandemic

[On the coronavirus pandemic]: What do we do to make sure that the economic impact is rendered harmless? We make sure every paycheck is met, that we keep people in their homes, they don't miss their mortgage or rent payments, making sure that they're going to be able to take care of education, and by the way, the education systems are closing down right now, and so there's so many things we have to do.

We have to have the best science in the world telling us what can stay open and what need be closed. Like I said earlier, the idea that we are closing schools, which I understand, but not being able to provide lunches for people who in fact need the school lunch program to get by.

I can understand the decision made to close places where a hundred or 50 people or more gather, but how do you deal with the things that necessarily have to be kept going and what's the way to do that? There should be a national standard for that. It should be coming out of the situation room right now.

Source: 11th Democratic primary debate (Biden-Sanders one-on-one) , Mar 15, 2020

12 years of education is not enough; we need 16 now, free

Q: What about free college education?

BIDEN: I've been saying for a long time that we're in a position where 12 years of education is not enough for the 21st century. We need 16 years of education. [I support] the exact bill that Senator Sanders introduced, a little over a year ago, capping it off at $125,000 in income. You could get free up to that point; after that, you'd have to pay for your college education. It worked for public schools, and it would work for public universities in your state. It was a good idea and I support it. Bernie happens to be right on that one.

Q: Senator Sanders, I assume you'd welcome these changes?

Bernie SANDERS: The difference between Joe and I on higher education is: four years ago, it was not a popular idea, Joe. Glad you're coming around now. Four years ago, when I said that public colleges and universities should be tuition free, people were saying, "Bernie, that's a radical idea." Well, you got states that are moving in that direction.

Source: 11th Democratic primary debate (Biden-Sanders one-on-one) , Mar 15, 2020

Your zip code shouldn't matter in access to a good education

The public school system in the country is in trouble. Delaware did one thing that other states should be doing. Delaware said that every school is required to have a minimum amount of money, no matter what their tax base is. That began to change the question of where the teachers are and where good teachers are. One of the things we have to do is, we have to provide opportunities. It shouldn't matter what zip code you're in whether or not you have access to a good education.

Education is going to be the bellwether in the 21st century. The idea you can make it in the middle class and sustain yourself there with just 12 years of education is not accurate, whether you need a trade and/or you have to go beyond that. We should change the way we educate our people. For example, why is it in every school, why isn't programming part of the science curricula that satisfies your science requirement?

Source: CNN S.C. Town Hall on eve of 2020 primary , Feb 26, 2020

2005: no bankruptcy for student loans; 2015: student relief

In Elizabeth Warren's book "The Two-Income Trap," she castigated the [2005 bankruptcy] bill as favoring special interests, singling out Biden for criticism.

Biden's team seems to concede that one provision of the bill that was not heavily debated at the time but has become more salient since then--a rule that made private student loans nondischargeable in bankruptcy--was probably not a great idea. The campaign notes that what it refers to as the "Obama-Biden administration" formally recommended that Congress change this in 2015, that in 2016 the Department of Education took administrative action to grant student debt relief, and that earlier in their term they took a range of measures to try to help with student debt--ranging from the "gainful employment rule" to income-based repayments.

Fundamentally, the point of the bill was to make it harder for people to discharge debts in bankruptcy. Biden's view was that this was a good idea, and Warren's was that it wasn't.

Source: Vox.com on Elizabeth Warren's "The Two Income Trap" , May 6, 2019

Free tuition at community colleges & state universities

"Community college should be we free and we can afford it," Biden said at the Electrical Workers Conference in April. Biden also said he supported free tuition at state universities in 2015.
Source: Axios.com "What you need to know about 2020" , Apr 25, 2019

1970s: outspoken Senate critic of school desegregation

When Joe Biden was a freshman senator in the mid-1970s, his home state of Delaware, like other hotspots across the country, was engulfed in a bitter battle over school busing, debating whether children should be sent to schools in different neighborhoods to promote racial diversity.

Biden took a lead role in the fight, speaking out repeatedly and forcefully against sending white children to majority-black schools and black children to majority-white schools. He played down the persistence of overt racism and suggested that the government should have a limited role in integration.

"I do not buy the concept, popular in the '60s, which said, 'We have suppressed the black man for 300 years and the white man is now far ahead in the race for everything our society offers. In order to even the score, we must now give the black man a head start, or even hold the white man back, to even the race,' " Biden told a Delaware-based weekly newspaper in 1975. "I don't buy that."

Source: Washington Post, "Desegregation," on 2020 Democratic primary , Mar 7, 2019

College plagiarism was honest (but careless) mistake

[In law school,] by his own admission, Biden was "sloppy and arrogant." He was so casual with his coursework, in fact, that when he wrote his legal papers, he didn't know how to cite articles. This got him in trouble. When a classmate accused Biden of plagiarizing passages from the Fordham Law Review, the faculty summoned him for an explanation. "The truth was, I hadn't been to class enough to know how to do citations in a legal brief," he later confessed. He DID cite the Fordham Law Review in his paper, but technically, you're supposed to cite the original source every time you use a quote. He didn't. It seemed to be an honest (but careless) mistake, and the dean exonerated him, writing that "in spite of what happened, I am of the opinion that this is a perfectly sound young man." (Soon the issue was forgotten, until it would later make a damning cameo in a presidential election..)
Source: The Book of Joe, by Jeff Wilser, p. 26-27 , Oct 24, 2017

No Child Left Behind was left behind

BIDEN: I hope we'll get back to education because I don't know any government program that John is supporting, not early education, more money for it. The reason No Child Left Behind was left behind is the money was left behind, we didn't fund it.

PALIN: You mentioned education and I'm glad you did. I say, too, with education, America needs to be putting a lot more focus on that and our schools have got to be really ramped up in terms of the funding that they are deserving. Teachers needed to be paid more. I come from a house full of school teachers. We have got to increase the standards. No Child Left Behind was implemented. It's not doing the job though. We need flexibility in No Child Left Behind. We need to put more of an emphasis on the profession of teaching. My kids as public school participants right now, it's near and dear to my heart.

Source: 2008 Vice Presidential debate against Sarah Palin , Oct 2, 2008

Hire more teachers and pay them for smaller classes

You don't need a doctorate to know there's four things everybody out there knows we have to do. Every parent knows it intuitively. Got to start kids to school earlier, got to put them in smaller classes. In order to do that you need 100,000 more teachers, but you've got to pay teachers. The pay's not competitive, and lastly you've got to provide access to college, and that costs money. And we can easily pay for it. It's about our priorities.
Source: 2007 Des Moines Register Democratic Debate , Dec 13, 2007

For longer school day & school year, & 16-year minimum

I proposed it in 1987. We should go to school longer. We should have a minimum 16 years of education. We should be focusing on the socioeconomic disadvantaged, mostly minorities in inner cities. That's something we've ignored. We pay no attention to it. We pretend they're the same circumstances as every other kid in America. They start off with half. Half of the education gap exists before they set foot in the first classroom. That should be the focus.
Source: 2007 Democratic debate at Drexel University , Oct 30, 2007

There needs to be performance-based pay for teachers

Q: What about merit pay for teachers?

A: The one thing any teacher can tell you is that the last person you want to judge your performance, is the administrator of the school. That's the first thing everybody figures out if you teach. There needs to be performance-based pay. The way to do it is start at the front end. Pay those people who perform in undergraduate school. Give them the alternative to be able to go. They'd get the same pay as an engineer gets to go in and work as a math teacher, or as a science teacher. So you start performance-based pay by, in fact, paying the best- performing students who want to teach and give them a chance. Every other major country in the world is starting these students at the same salary as they start their engineers. We should be able to do that. My father used to say, "Don't tell me what you value; show me your budget." If you, in fact, value education, then it should be equally as important as engineering or anything else.

Source: 2007 Democratic primary debate on "This Week" , Aug 19, 2007

Teach sex ed in schools; including prevention methods

Senator Biden supports comprehensive and age appropriate sex education that includes science based prevention methods.
Source: 2007 HRC/LOGO debate--written questionnaire , Aug 9, 2007

Sent kids to private school after death of their mother

Q: Do you send your kids to public school or private school?

A: My kids did go to private schools, because right after I got elected, my wife and daughter were killed. I had two sons who survived. My sister was the head of the history department. She was helping me raise my children at Wilmington Friends School. When it came time to go to high school when they had come through their difficulties--I'm a practicing Catholic--it was very important to me they go to a Catholic school.

Source: 2007 YouTube Democratic Primary debate, Charleston SC , Jul 23, 2007

Overcome racial achievement gap with early education

Q: In 2006 the unemployment rate of black high school graduates was 33% higher than the unemployment rate for white high school dropouts. To what do you attribute this inequity?

A: One of the things that we all talk about is this achievement gap. We should remind everybody that the day before a black child, a minority child, steps into the classroom, half the achievement gap already exists. The moment they walk into that school, they are already behind.

And that gap widens. And it widens because we do not start school earlier. We do not give single mothers in disadvantaged homes the opportunities that they need in order to know what to do to prepare their children.

You've got to start off and focus on the nurturing and education of children when they're very young, particularly children from disadvantaged families. You've got to invest in starting kids in preschool at age four. And you've got to make sure you have smaller classrooms & better teachers in the disadvantaged schools.

Source: 2007 Democratic Primary Debate at Howard University , Jun 28, 2007

NCLB needs more resources, but also is fundamentally flawed

Q: What do you plan to do about No Child Left Behind? Do you believe that this issue is simply one of never having provided the resources to carry out the original mission of the program or are there other fundamental flaws inherent in a program with so much emphasis on teaching to the test?

A: Both. I sleep with a teacher every night -- my wife. She taught high school -- had three remedial classes and two advanced classes. Those kids in the remedial class went from sixth grade to 10th grade, and they were still penalized. Those kids in the advanced class, she didn't have to do a thing with. They passed the test. There is something fundamentally wrong with it. And we've underfunded it by about $70 billion. We know the problem:

  1. Classrooms are too big; we need smaller classrooms, period.
  2. A lot of teachers are going to be retiring. We need a program where we attract the best and brightest students coming out of our colleges to be teachers, and pay them.
Source: 2007 AFSCME Democratic primary debate in Carson City Nevada , Feb 21, 2007

Princeton was last Ivy holdout to admit women & minorities

SEN. BIDEN: I want to set the record straight on Princeton. Many of us are perplexed by your answers regarding CAP, the organization. The thing that puzzles me is that it was, I thought, a pretty widely known debate that in the Ivys, the one last holdout, fighting to not admit as many women and fighting not to admit as many minorities, was Princeton. And there was a whole battle over it, as you heard referenced in terms of the Wall Street Journal and mailings to alumni. When you listed CAP, was part of your rationale for listing that on the application that you thought that would appeal to the outfit you were applying to, the people looking at your resume?

ALITO: Well, Senator, as I've said, I don't have a recollection of having anything to do with CAP. So all I can say is that I put it down on the ‘85 form and, therefore, I must that been a member at around that time. By the time I entered Princeton, there were many minorities in my class. It went coeducational while I was there.

Source: Sam Alito Senate Confirmation Hearings , Jan 11, 2006

I oppose school busing because it fails, not for racism

Q: What is your stand on busing?

BIDEN. I oppose busing. It's an asinine concept, the utility of which has never been proven to me. I took that position--along with Howard Brown, a black candidate for mayor--long before the 1972 election; we were the only Democrats on record as opposed to busing. I've gotten to the point where I think our only recourse to eliminate busing may be a constitutional amendment. The unsavory part about this is when I come out against busing, as I have all along, I don't want to be mixed up with [people like Alabama Governor] George Wallace. I don't want anybody to give me credit for sharing any point of view George Wallace has. There are some people who oppose busing because they are racist, but the vast majority of the American people--the people of Delaware--oppose it because busing doesn't accomplish its goal. We should be concentrating on things other than busing to provide for the educational and cultural needs of the deprived segment of our population.

Source: People Paper (Newark DE) interview in Congressional Record , Oct 2, 1975

Single statewide school district tax, for equal distribution

Q: You say the "New Left" doesn't want school busing; so where did it come from?

BIDEN. It has come from the courts primarily, from people who were appointed during the 60's, at the height of the civil rights activist movements. The thrust at that time was to force integration, to eliminate racial identities. It was probably a necessary first-step then, and I would probably have shared that viewpoint, had I been around then. So what we have now is a court-administered system that is ten or twelve years behind what I believe is accurate, rational thinking. There are other things besides busing that we should be addressing to deal with these problems. For example, during my campaign I went on record in support of a single statewide school district tax, and I got clobbered for it. Well, if we'd done that, we wouldn't have to be talking about busing now; it wouldn't even be an issue. We would have undercut the argument about equal distribution of educational benefits.

Source: People Paper (Newark DE) interview in Congressional Record , Oct 2, 1975


Joe Biden on Education Funding

College loan forgiveness up to $20,000 per student

In June 2023, Senator JD Vance voted for a Joint Resolution that would "provide for congressional disapproval of an October 2022 Education Department rule that allows for loan forgiveness of up to $10,000 in loan debt for federal student loan borrowers and another $10,000 for such borrowers who also received a Pell Grant. The rule limits eligibility for such loan forgiveness to borrowers with a maximum adjusted gross income of $125,000, or $250,000 for joint filers. The rule also extended, through the end of 2022, the suspension of student loan payments, the cessation of interest accrual and the suspension of involuntary loan collections." The vote was on passage. The Senate passed the resolution by a vote of 52 to 46, thus the resolution was sent to the President. President Biden vetoed the resolution and the House failed to override the veto. However, the Supreme Court struck down the rule. [Senate Vote 135, 6/1/23; Congressional Quarterly, 6/1/23; Congressional Actions, H.J. Res. 45]
Source: 2024 Trump Research Book , Aug 2, 2024

Reduce student debt; increase Pell Grants

We're making progress by reducing student debt and increasing Pell Grants for working- and middle-class families. Let's finish the job, connect students to career opportunities starting in high school and provide two years of community college, some of the best career training in America, in addition to being a pathway to a four-year degree. Let's offer every American the path to a good career whether they go to college or not.
Source: 2023 State of the Union speech as prepared for delivery , Feb 7, 2023

Two years of pre-school; two years of free community college

The American Families Plan guarantees four additional years of public education for every person in America -- starting as early as we can. We add two years of universal high-quality preschool for every 3- and 4-year-old. Research shows when a young child goes to school, not day care, they're far more likely to graduate from high school and go to college, or something after high school. When you add two years of free community college on top of that, you begin to change the dynamic.
Source: 2021 State of the Union address , Apr 28, 2021

$200B in emergency COVID funding for K-12 schools

PROMISE MADE: (2020 campaign website JoeBiden.com): The School Superintendents Association and the Association of Educational Service Agencies have estimated that K-12 education requires at least $200 billion in emergency funding. Biden and Harris are calling on Trump to bring Congressional leaders together immediately to pass this emergency support funding.

PROMISE KEPT: (CNN, March 6, 2021): [In the stimulus plan]: Both the Senate and House bills would provide nearly $130 billion to K-12 schools to help students return to the classroom. The bills are in line with what Biden proposed. Altogether, $170 billion would be authorized for K-12 schools and higher education. Last year, Congress approved a total of $112 billion between two relief packages that went to K-12 schools and colleges.

Source: CNN "Senate stimulus" analysis of 2021 Biden Promises , Mar 6, 2021

Write off $10,000 in student debt, not $50,000

Q: We need student loan forgiveness beyond the potential $10,000 your administration has proposed. We need at least a $50,000 minimum. What will you do to make that happen?

BIDEN: I will not make that happen. I do think that, in this moment of economic pain and strain, that we should be eliminating interest on the debts that are accumulated, number one. And, number two, I'm prepared to write off the $10,000 debt, but not $50,000.

Source: CNN Presidential Town Hall 2021 with Biden & Anderson Cooper , Feb 16, 2021

Fund research at HBCUs for foundational support

Q: What do you have to say to young Black voters?

BIDEN: I provide for a $70 billion for HBCUs for them to be able to have the wherewithal to do what other universities can do, because they don't have the kind of foundational support they need. In our administration, the President allowed me to go down and we awarded a cybersecurity laboratory [at 6 HCBUs via the CECOR program]. The federal government spends billions of dollars a year on universities, because they are the best-kept secret and where most of the major inventions come out of. And so that school now will be able to produce young Black women and men who are going to go into a field of the future that's burgeoning, cybersecurity. And that's what is going to help a great deal.

TRUMP: I have done more for the African American community [including] historically Black colleges and universities. I got them funded. They were on a year to year basis. They could have been put out of business. I got them 10-year funding & financing.

Source: Second 2020 Presidential Debate/ABC Town Hall Philadelphia , Oct 15, 2020

Increase Title 1 funding from $15 billion to $45 billion

We have to be able to put Black Americans in a position to be able to gain wealth, generate wealth. It entails everything from early education, that's why I'm supporting making sure that Title One schools, as you know, schools with the least tax base to be able to support their schools, I increased the funding from them from $15 to $45 billion. That allows every teacher in that school to make up to 60,000 bucks, and the problem now is they're leaving the schools. They're not there. We're short about a million and a half teachers.
Source: Second 2020 Presidential Debate/ABC Town Hall Philadelphia , Oct 15, 2020

$100B for school ventilation; part of $1T for infrastructure

Q: How you will make sure our communities are protected from the results of global warming?

BIDEN: I have laid out in detail what I'll do, and I'm going to see to it that I said we get to a net zero power grid by 2035. No president can [instantly] turn around and change what we're doing. We're going to get to net zero emissions by the year 2050 before. In the meantime, there's so much we can do and still make it better for people. We're going to invest in close to a trillion dollars over time in the near time for infrastructure. We're going to build green infrastructure. For example, I propose that we spend $100 billion on making sure our schools have the right the right ventilation, [to ensure that] your schools, in fact, are safe. Making sure schools are in a position where they are not generating the use of more energy. We're going to build back buildings that vastly cut down on the amount of fossil fuels that we use.

Source: CNN Town Hall 2020 drive-in with Anderson Cooper , Sep 17, 2020

Triple money to Title One schools; provide early education

BIDEN: We have to root out to systemic racism. That's why we have to triple the money we're spending on Title One schools, those schools that come from low tax base areas, so that we can in fact provide the kind of early education for three and four and five year-olds because we know when you do that, you increase exponentially the prospects of success, no matter what you-- where you come from, Black, white, Hispanic, Asian American and so there's so much we can do.
Source: ABC This Week 2020 National Convention Biden/Harris Q&A , Aug 23, 2020

3X money for Title I schools; free community college tuition

We should triple the amount of money we spend for Title I schools. We should have universal pre-K. There should be free community college, cutting in half the cost of college. We should not have anyone have to pay back a student debt if they are making less than $25,000 a year. Their debt is frozen, no interest payment until they get beyond that. We have to make continuing education available for everyone so that everyone can compete in the 21st Century. We are not doing that now.
Source: June Democratic Primary debate (second night in Miami) , Jun 27, 2019

$500M for businesses partnerships at community colleges

Vice President Joe Biden and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis today announced that the Administration is making another $500 million available to create and expand innovative partnerships between community colleges and businesses to train workers with the skills employers need. This funding is part of the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) Community College and Career Training grant program.

"This new round of funding will help community colleges forge new partnerships with local businesses to train workers with the skills they need for jobs available right now," said Vice President Joe Biden.

This program complements President Obama's broader agenda of helping every American have at least one year of post-secondary education and will help reach his goal of America having the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020.

Source: Press Release: Availability of $500 Million for Partnerships , Feb 24, 2012

$500M for Race to the Top's Early Learning Challenges

The Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge will reward states that create comprehensive plans to transform early learning systems with better coordination, clearer learning standards, and meaningful workforce development. Secretary Duncan and Secretary Sebelius also challenged the broader innovation community--leading researchers, high-tech entrepreneurs, foundations, non-profits and others--to engage with the early learning community and to close the school readiness gap. States applying for challenge grants will be encouraged to increase access to quality early learning programs for low income and disadvantaged children, design integrated and transparent systems that align their early care and education programs, bolster training and support for the early learning workforce, create robust evaluation systems to document and share effective practices and successful programs, and help parents make informed decisions about care for their children.
Source: Press release: $500 Million for Race to the Top , May 25, 2011

Laid out a $30 billion plan over five years for education

An excellent teacher should be judged by whether or not that teacher outside of the classroom improves themselves and their teaching skills. My wife got two master's degrees and a doctorate degree. That's merit pay. She went out and she gathered this additional knowledge, not just being a good teacher. Here's the problem with simple merit pay, based on the principle. Who makes the decision, based on merit pay? There should be teaching excellence. We should demand more of our teachers in continuing education and participation after school and in school. But you've got to pay them. The idea you start teachers at $28,000, in most states, where, in the countries we're competing with, they start off and they graduate their graduating seniors are getting the same pay that engineers are getting in those same schools. I've laid out a $30 billion plan over five years to 16 years of education is what our kids need. They need to start two years earlier and be guaranteed two years after school.
Source: 2007 Democratic debate in Las Vegas, Nevada , Nov 15, 2007

$3000 tax credit for college for anyone earning under $150K

Q: Since education is a great equalizer, shouldn't a college education be free?

A: Absolutely, positively, unequivocally. As president, that's what I would push for. The idea that 12 years of public education is sufficient in the 21st century is ridiculous. I have a thing called a college access program. I would allow every single solitary family making up to $150,000 to be able to have a refundable tax credit of $3,000 per student. Everyone under $50,000 now qualifies for a Pell Grant. I would change them from $4,300 to $6,300 plus the refundable tax credit. It would mean every child in America, every qualified person in America, under an income under $50,000 would have $9,300 to go to any state university in their state in America for four years. But we have to change our mind-set here, and lead with early education, with pre-Head Start and Head Start. The whole Biden plan for starting early and college as well, that whole plan costs less than $18 billion a year.

Source: Huffington Post Mash-Up: 2007 Democratic on-line debate , Sep 13, 2007

Pay teachers more to get better educational results

Q: Compared to Japan, China & India, we have fewer young people getting science & engineering degrees. How are you going to reverse this brain drain?

A: Change the fundamental way we educate our children. There's two things everyone knows: the smaller the class size, the better the outcome; and the better the teacher, the better the outcome. In those very nations named, a teacher makes as much as an engineer. If we want the best students in the world, we need the best teachers in the world.

Source: 2007 South Carolina Democratic primary debate, on MSNBC , Apr 26, 2007

FactCheck: Japan pays teachers more, but not India & China

Biden may have made an overbroad claim about teacher pay. Asked why China, India & Japan have more students than the US pursuing degrees in science & engineering, he said: "In those very nations, a teacher makes as much as an engineer." Perhaps that's true, but his campaign couldn't document it fully. Biden aides cited an article from a 2005 issue of Phi Delta Kappan magazine saying, "In Japan, teacher salaries are comparable to those of engineers." But the story makes no mention of China or India.
Source: FactCheck on 2007 South Carolina Democratic debate , Apr 26, 2007


Joe Biden on Voting Record

Voting for No Child Left Behind was a mistake

Q: Everyone else on this stage who was in Congress in 2001 voted for No Child Left Behind. Would you scrap it or revise it?

It was a mistake. The reason I voted for it, against my better instinct, is I have great faith in Ted Kennedy, who is so devoted to education. But I would scrap it--or I guess, theoretically, you could do a major overhaul. But I think I'd start from the beginning. You need better teachers. You need smaller classrooms. You need to start kids earlier. It's all basic.

Source: 2007 YouTube Democratic Primary debate, Charleston SC , Jul 23, 2007

Rated 91% by the NEA, indicating pro-public education votes.

Biden scores 91% by the NEA on public education issues

The National Education Association has a long, proud history as the nation`s leading organization committed to advancing the cause of public education. Founded in 1857 `to elevate the character and advance the interests of the profession of teaching and to promote the cause of popular education in the United States,` the NEA has remained constant in its commitment to its original mission as evidenced by the current mission statement:

To fulfill the promise of a democratic society, the National Education Association shall promote the cause of quality public education and advance the profession of education; expand the rights and further the interest of educational employees; and advocate human, civil, and economic rights for all.
In pursuing its mission, the NEA has determined that it will focus the energy and resources of its 2.7 million members toward the `promotion of public confidence in public education.` The ratings are based on the votes the organization considered most important; the numbers reflect the percentage of time the representative voted the organization's preferred position.
Source: NEA website 03n-NEA on Dec 31, 2003

Other candidates on Education: Joe Biden on other issues:
2024 Republican Presidential Candidates:
Former Pres.Donald Trump (R nominee)
Ohio Senator J.D. Vance (VP nominee)
Ryan Binkley (R-TX)
Gov. Doug Burgum (R-ND)
Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ)
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL)
Larry Elder (R-CA;withdrew)
Gov. Nikki Haley (R-SC)
Rep. Will Hurd (R-FL;withdrew)
Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R-AR)
Perry Johnson (R-IL)
Mayor Steve Laffey (R-RI)
Former V.P.Mike Pence (R-IN;withdrew)
Vivek Ramaswamy (R-OH)
Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC)
Secy. Corey Stapleton (R-MT)
Mayor Francis Suarez (R-FL;withdrew)

2024 Democratic and 3rd-party primary candidates:
V.P.Kamala Harris (D nominee)
MN Gov Tim Walz (VP nominee)
Pres. Joe Biden (D-DE,retiring)
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (I-NY)
Chase Oliver (L-GA)
Rep.Dean Phillips (D-MN)
Jill Stein (Green)
Cornel West (Green Party)
Kanye West (Birthday Party)
Marianne Williamson (D-CA)
Abortion
Budget/Economy
Civil Rights
Corporations
Crime
Drugs
Education
Energy/Oil
Environment
Families/Children
Foreign Policy
Free Trade
Govt. Reform
Gun Control
Health Care
Homeland Security
Immigration
Infrastructure/Technology
Jobs
Principles/Values
Social Security
Tax Reform
War/Iraq/Mideast
Welfare/Poverty

External Links about Joe Biden:
Wikipedia
Ballotpedia





Page last updated: Sep 29, 2024; copyright 1999-2022 Jesse Gordon and OnTheIssues.org