Psaki Asked if Biden Thinks School Boards Have Gone ‘Too Far Left’ on ‘Critical Race Theory’ and Other ‘Liberal Policies’
A reporter asked White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki if President Joe Biden thinks school boards have gone “too far left,” citing issues of race in education.
At a White House press briefing Wednesday, Psaki was specifically asked for the White House’s reaction to a school board recall election in San Francisco, and more broadly for the president’s view on issues like school renaming, critical race theory, and other hot-button educational topics that have roiled recent races:
Q Thanks. Last night, voters in San Francisco voted to recall three school board members. I’m wondering if the White House has any reaction to that result?
MS. PSAKI: Sure. We, of course, did see that. We don’t have any reaction directly to the decision by the local school board.
But I would just reiterate that the President’s objective has been keeping schools open, from the beginning. And now, at this point in time, 99 percent of schools are open, in large part because of the funding in the American Rescue Plan and efforts that he and his Secretary of Education undertook to ensure schools had the resources and the information needed to keep schools open.
We understand where parents are coming from when they want schools to be open as well. And the President recognizes the mental health impact it has on kids for them not to be open. So, we don’t have any specific comment on the local school — the local decision about the local school board leaders, but that remains the President’s objective.
Q And on education more broadly, we saw that be an issue in the Virginia gubernatorial race; obviously, this is the issue here in San Francisco. I’m wondering what the White House or the President’s message is to parents about — you addressed school reopening, but, more broadly, some of the issues that we’ve seen play — about equity, about curriculum — play in some of these electoral races.
MS. PSAKI: Well, tell me more about specifically —
Q So, in San Francisco, specifically, there was controversy over the renaming of schools. There — in Virginia, conversations about critical race theory. I’m wondering whether the White House or the President thinks that some of these school boards — maybe in San Francisco and other places — have moved too far to the left, adopted liberal policies beyond, you know, what voters seemingly approve of — or just more generally, how the President thinks of education and some of these issues around equity and inclusion.
MS. PSAKI: Well, I would say first that the President is married to a teacher, so he certainly trusts in the role of teachers and educators across the country and the kind of curriculum that they are providing.
I’m not going to have any specific comment on any local school board or the politics of school boards, as it relates to any political race either, though.
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