Teachers’ union backs Biden ahead of debate
WASHINGTON: US Democratic presidential frontrunner Joe Biden has won the backing of the National Education Association, the largest US teachers union with 3 million members.
“Joe is the tireless advocate for public education and is the partner that students and educators need in the White House,” NEA President Lily Eskelsen García said in a statement on Saturday.
“He understands that we have a moral responsibility to provide a great neighborhood public school for every student in every ZIP code.” The endorsement comes days before Biden competes against US Senator Bernie Sanders in Democratic presidential primary contests on Tuesday in Florida, Illinois, Ohio and Arizona.
The former US vice president, whose wife, Jill Biden, is a teacher and NEA member, said he was honored to get the endorsement of a “powerful voice for public school educators and students across the country.”
Eskelsen García said Biden has committed to attracting the best educators and paying them as professionals, as well as increasing funding for support staff.
Biden and many of his former rivals for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination vowed to replace Republican President Donald Trump’s education secretary, Betsy Devos, if they beat Trump in November.
Biden told a crowd of Iowa educators in January that “four years of Betsy Devos is enough.” The NEA backed Hillary Clinton in 2016 over Sanders.
Biden and Sanders were to meet on Sunday for the first one-on-one debate of the Democratic presidential primary campaign, now overshadowed by the spread of the new coronavirus.
Both men have cancelled rallies and two state contests have been postponed in the wake of the outbreak, which has killed at least 57 Americans and upended daily life across the country.
Many states and cities have clamped down on large gatherings and closed schools, which are often used as polling places, to help contain the epidemic. Frontrunner Biden and self-described “democratic socialist” Sanders are vying to replace President Donald Trump, who was on Saturday cleared of the COVID-19 illness by his physician after meeting with members of a Brazilian delegation who later tested positive.
They will face off for two hours from 8:00 pm (0000 GMT Monday), but Democratic officials have shifted the venue from Arizona to a TV studio in Washington DC with no live audience because of infection fears.