Among the many things I enjoy about being NEA president is having the opportunity to speak frequently with educators nationwide about their concerns, insights, challenges, and victories.
Lately, those conversations have focused on the joy and relief many NEA members feel following the election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as our nation’s next president and vice president, and having the powerful bonus of Dr. Jill Biden, an educator and NEA member, as our nation’s first lady.
This victory is the direct result of hard work—a lot of it from NEA members. After countless hours of phone calls, texting, and informational literature drops—building on nearly four years of organizing and action—we delivered a decisive win for students, public education, and democracy.
You helped to elect a president and vice president who will support our work to reclaim public education as a common good. The Biden-Harris administration will protect and uplift all of our communities. They will support our work to give the best to every student—whether they are Native people, Black, people of color, white, LGBTQ+, have special needs, or face any barrier to learning.
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will pave the way for the selection of a U.S. secretary of education who will stand with educators and students, and not against us. They will name a U.S. secretary of labor who will work to protect workers, not harm them, and expand the vital organizing and collective bargaining rights that help us to advocate for stronger public schools.
The hard work of NEA members helped to pave the way for a Black woman and daughter of immigrants to hold the position of vice president of the United States.
Even as we celebrate this critical election victory, we know that our work has just begun. The world continues to battle a deadly pandemic, and the NEA will continue to demand the resources and the tools that will keep our students, educators, and schools safe, and battle the inequities that the coronavirus revealed and exacerbated.
NEA will continue to call for at least $175 billion for schools and campuses to address budget gaps and to shoulder the increased costs of PPE, disinfection, and proper social distancing. With 16 million students still without access to broadband and internet, we will continue to demand the funding to help close the digital divide that exists for far too many of our most marginalized students.
We fully expect the pro-public education leaders we helped to elect—up and down ballots nationwide—to stand with us in all of these battles and in our ongoing fight to end racism and open the doors of access and opportunity for all of our students.
In states, neighborhoods, and schools—both online and in person—all across the U.S., NEA members’ actions reflected their belief in the words of the preamble to our mission: “We the members of the National Education Association are the voice of education professionals. Our work is fundamental to this nation, and we accept the profound trust that has been placed in us.”
Through this election victory, you have helped to remind our entire nation of its promise to children; of its highest ideals and aspirations. I have never been more proud to be a member of the NEA. My heart is filled with gratitude and hope. Thank you.
“We delivered a decisive win for students, public education, and democracy.”
—NEA President Becky Pringle
