Biden's Exit: A Blueprint for Transforming K-12 Education

Biden's decision to step aside offers key lessons for K-12 education: embrace change, respond to feedback, and prioritize students over politics.

Photo by Gayatri Malhotra on Unsplash

Partisan politics aside, President Biden's decision to step aside from the 2024 Presidential race offers several lessons for K-12 education in the U.S. 

First, embrace change. Policymakers and schools should embrace change when the time comes. Another way of saying this is that the status quo has got to go. During the past month at least one thing became clear to President Biden - it was time (perhaps long overdue) for him to embrace change. Consider that President Biden has been in Washington, D.C. serving in elected office for over 51 years. If, as the saying goes, you never step into the same river twice, consider how much the political and policy landscape has changed in FIFTY years. So too, the staunch supporters of the education status quo must acknowledge that the K-12 system in much of the U.S. has failed to keep up with the times. Parents are no longer satisfied with inflexible school district calendars, teaching methods that are known but have been widely debunked, or the idea that a real estate decision is the most educationally meaningful decision a parent can make.

Rather, parents seek educational models that meet their children’s unique needs, whether they be micro-schools, charter schools, public-private partnerships, or hybrid models. Policies like education savings accounts make these hopes a reality in more than a dozen states, but some places, and politicians, are reluctant to change, anchored to nostalgic visions. States like Kentucky set a ceiling on innovation, tying the hands of policymakers who are ready to embrace reforms like charter schools and education savings accounts. Many Texas politicians found out the hard way that their failure to embrace education freedom can have dire consequences at the ballot box. Regardless of whether he exited the race kicking and screaming, President Biden is in effect asking his party to embrace change. The education system would be wise to follow suit.

Next, and speaking of kicking and screaming, President Biden could have been faster to respond to feedback. Remember back to the sanguine days of early June. President Biden, while not particularly exciting voters, was on a glide path to becoming the Democratic party’s presidential nominee. Then came his debate against former President Donald Trump on June 27^th. The performance was the first of successive earthquakes in the race. More important, however, were the responses that came almost immediately. Top donors and confidants, former colleagues, celebrities, and everyday voters expressed concern that President Biden was doing more harm than good by continuing his run for president.

Readers might recall initial messaging from the White House about the President’s “bad night.” It’s safe to say that without outside pressure, President Biden would still be running for his second term. Instead, he decided to follow (nay, succumb to) the feedback he received and altered his behavior. As a result, the entire tenor of the 2024 election has changed. Now consider the U.S. K-12 education system. The reality is that the vast majority of students in the U.S. attend public schools. Unfortunately, parents of children in those schools report relatively low levels of satisfaction. This is exactly the kind of feedback that should be taken seriously and responded to, but many districts are not adapting to the needs of students even as they experience declining enrollment. Schools, and politicians, that fail to respond to critical feedback may find that they no longer have a meaningfully large constituency to serve. 

Finally, prioritize people over position. Prior to dropping out of the race some pundits thought the biggest factor keeping the President in competition was personal ego. His is, after all, the highest profile job in the world and one to which no small number of local, state, and federal politicians aspire. Nevertheless, if his July 24^th address is to be believed, he “revere [s the ] office, but loves the country more.” President Biden dropped out of the race to advance a cause greater than personal accolades and pride. Similarly, what does it look like to prioritize people, namely students, over personal politicking?

One example came earlier this year from Louisiana state Representative Jason Hughes (D). He voted to support an ESA bill saying that he could no longer “close [his] eyes to the 67% of 3^rd graders in public schools who cannot read.” That decision surely cost him some political capital as school choice is mostly shunned by Democratic elected officials despite polling that shows “choice resonates deeply with voters.” Nevertheless, when local and state policymakers prioritize students they are investing in the long-term success of the community.

Of course, these lessons did not come easy for President Biden, but history will likely judge him well for eventually learning them. Education systems throughout the U.S. have an opportunity to internalize and learn from this monumental time in our political history, to the great benefit of students.