First lady Jill Biden, a longtime educator, hailed teachers over their work and resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic as schools across the country reopen for the fall.
“Educators across the country worked through the anxiety and unknowns, often while struggling to support their own families at home. As difficult as it has been, I have never been prouder to be a teacher,” Biden said in an op-ed for Time.
The English professor at Northern Virginia Community College also said that returning to the classroom will require people coming together to make sure schools are safe to be open.
“We must remember that our enemy is the virus, not one another,” she said.
The governments and educators in states, most notably Florida, have been divided over safety precautions for students in schools. Florida’s Department of Education announced this week it will withhold funds from two school districts over their mask mandates, which violate an order from Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).
Biden celebrated teachers as “champions” during the pandemic for students and families, calling them the “heroes we needed.”
Biden wrote the op-ed for Time’s “The People Who Saved a School Year” edition, which includes stories of teaches, bus drivers and others who went above and beyond during the pandemic.
“We put our shoulders back and did the work that needed to be done. We leaned on each other—even from six feet away—and carried the weight of this burden together. America’s students and families needed champions like never before, and they found their champions in educators,” she said.
The first lady also recognized cafeteria workers who make sandwiches for hungry families, bus drivers who drive wi-fi hot spots to neighborhoods and counselors who take calls from parents.
She said the pandemic offered an opportunity to transform education.
“We are coming together to give our children what they need to thrive—whether it’s access to technology or more school nurses. We are building a better education system, one where our students have the same great opportunities to learn, no matter where they live. We’re helping families get mental-health support and social services from a place they know and trust: our schools,” she said.
The first lady added that “there is an educator standing right beside him” as President Biden “sets the course of our country.”