Aug. 28 (UPI) — President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden will pay a brief visit to a public school in Washington Monday to welcome students back for another year and to highlight the administration’s efforts to support education in the wake of the global pandemic.
The Bidens plan to arrive about noon at Eliot-Hine Middle School, where they will meet with students, parents and teachers for about 45 minutes before returning to the White House.
In remarks, Biden will take credit for government investments that have helped to reopen all public schools across the country for in-person learning after more than two years of lockdowns, closures, and other health measures that led to fewer than half of K-12 students physically attending class throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the White House said in a statement Monday.
“President Biden has worked to help every school open safely for in-person instruction, accelerate academic achievement, and build communities where all students feel they belong,” the statement said.
From the outset of the pandemic, public school employment plummeted by 730,000 jobs from February to May 2020 — a 9% decline for teachers, specialized instructional support personnel, and other critical staff, the White House said.
By June 2023, education employment had rebounded, increasing by 635,000 jobs since the low point in May 2020. This significant rebound now means that there are now only 1.2% fewer individuals working in local public education than before the pandemic,” the White House said.
Biden, who took office about 10 months into the global health emergency, planned to call attention to $130 billion provided through the American Rescue Plan to help schools reopen and address academic and mental health needs of students who had lost instructional time while mostly isolated from classmates.
The bulk of the funds was being used to hire more teachers, counselors, social workers, and other school support staff while also providing tutoring and expanded summer school and after-hours programs that were working to raise test scores in math and literacy across the country.
Previously, Biden called for adding 250,000 more tutors, mentors and other critical support staff across the country over the next three years.
The money has also helped bring HVAC improvements to aging school buildings with long-term air quality and safety needs.
More than two years into Biden’s term, the number of social workers in public schools had increased by 39% when compared to the number in place before the pandemic, while the number of public school nurses was also up 30% over the same period, the White House said.
Biden will also tout his efforts to expand mental health services in schools nationwide as an increasing number of kids were experiencing depression, social anxiety, and other personal challenges in the age of social media.
The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act — the gun safety bill that Biden signed into law in 2022 — included $2 billion in funding to shore up school safety and to hire and train more mental health professionals to support public school students.
So far, the Education Department has awarded $286 million to schools in 48 states to support mental health — with additional funding that would add about 14,000 new mental health professionals in schools over the coming years.
Biden was also expected to voice his support for community schools, which take a holistic approach to education by getting families and communities to invest and engage in various partnerships that work to boost a school’s services and resources while improving academic success.
Separately, Biden will deliver remarks Monday evening at a reception in the East Room to mark the 60th Anniversary of the founding of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
