During a speech before thousands of educators at the National Education Association assembly, first lady Jill Biden referred to her husband as the “education president,” despite what the Nation’s Report Card recently showed.
“I knew that Joe would always be the education president, because he knows that our nation’s — you know, the success of our nation starts with you, the educators who shape our students’ lives,” she said. “And so, you know, we’ve invested so much in our schools and our counselors and our nurses and administrators who make them all successful. And as he transforms, you know, our economy, creating millions of jobs that are shaping the future, he knows that education is key to filling those critical roles.”
But those investments are not proving effective, according to testing results.
Progress Report on the "Education President" Joe Biden: https://t.co/1wbfjsE6mi pic.twitter.com/29U96shALx
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) July 5, 2023
The Nation’s Report Card, released at the end of June, showed “historic” declines in math and reading scores among U.S. teens.
Math scores for 13-year-olds fell 9 points from the 2019-2020 and 2022-2023 school years, the National Assessment of Education Progress data showed, while reading scores dropped 4 points.
Former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos called the report a “5-alarm fire” and said “a generation is at risk.”
🚨"Historic declines"
— Betsy DeVos (@BetsyDeVos) June 21, 2023
🚨"Largest drops ever recorded"
🚨"Continuing declines that began in 2012"
🚨"Reading scores were actually lower than when the assessment was first conducted in 1971"
🚨"troubling shifts in reading habits"
This is a 5-alarm fire. A generation is at risk. https://t.co/l1RdZMJFeF
Reacting to the first lady's comments, Virginia Gov. Glen Youngkin said "she may be the only person that believes that."
.@GlennYoungkin fact checks First Lady Jill Biden for hailing Biden as the “education president”.
— Team Youngkin - Spirit of Virginia (@TeamYoungkin) July 5, 2023
“Schools were closed for an extended period of time because Joe Biden thought schools should be closed unnecessarily, and now we’re seeing a learning loss across the nation….” pic.twitter.com/B2ewD7JpAh
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