Who's still left? Being better than Trump is the lowest imaginable bar but that doesn't mean that Biden isn't going to immediately make things better in a real way-- and for all of us. Reporting for the Washington Post yesterday, Laura Meckler, Danielle Douglas-Gabriel and Valerie Strauss wrote that "Trump tried to bully schools into opening their buildings, a hard-edge pandemic tactic that succeeded in places and backfired elsewhere. President-elect Joe Biden is hoping to pry them open with money for increased coronavirus expenses and clear guidance on how to do so safely, a shift that signals a new era for education policy in America. Under Trump, the Education Department has been led by Secretary Betsy DeVos, who alienated many by casting public schools as failures and promoting alternatives to them. Through executive action and negotiations with Congress, Biden wants to bolster public schools. Biden has promised hundreds of billions of dollars in new education spending, from preschool through college. He has proposed college debt forgiveness.
Many of Biden’s promises require new spending, and that will require support from Congress, a heavy lift, particularly if the Senate remains under Republican control. Biden has promised to triple spending for the $15 billion Title 1 program, which targets high-poverty schools. He has said he would double the number of psychologists, counselors, nurses and social workers in schools. He has vowed new money for school infrastructure. And he has said he would dramatically increase federal spending for special education. He also wants to fund universal prekindergarten for all 3- and 4-year-old children; make community college debt-free; and double Pell grants to help low-income students pay for college. First up will be coronavirus-related spending, particularly if Congress has not passed a relief package before Inauguration Day. Some emergency funding for schools was approved in the spring, but the Trump administration has been unable to cut a legislative deal for additional money. Biden has endorsed at least $88 billion to stabilize state education funding and help pay for protective equipment, ventilation systems, reduced class sizes and other expenses associated with operating school during the pandemic. ...[T]he new administration is likely undo many of the things that DeVos did, and redo some of the Obama administration policies that DeVos undid. DeVos rescinded Education Department guidance meant to reduce racial disparities in school discipline, for instance, something the incoming administration can reinstate. The administration also spiked Obama-era guidance that offered protections for transgender students, including the right to use bathrooms corresponding with their gender identity. And it killed guidance on use of affirmative action in college admissions. Other likely reversals: a Justice Department lawsuit alleging discrimination against White and Asian students at Yale University; a ban on federal grant recipients from holding diversity training, and an investigation into Princeton University, launched after the university’s president spoke of institutional racism on campus. “It’s a new day around this national conversation about race and equity ... making sure communities are not intentionally or unintentionally left out opportunities will be key,” said Tiffany Jones, senior director of higher-education policy at the nonprofit Education Trust. ...Some observers expect the incoming administration to be even tougher on for-profit colleges than Obama was. Vice President-elect Kamala D. Harris was instrumental in bringing down Corinthian Colleges, a for-profit giant, when she was California state attorney general and as a senator supported efforts to hold predatory for-profit colleges to account. “Policies will be designed to protect students and taxpayers first,” predicted Dan Zibel, who worked at the agency under Obama and is now chief counsel at the National Student Legal Defense Network, a nonprofit he co-founded. He said that would likely include “taking harder stances against schools and companies using financial aid system to scam students.”
And that's one department. Biden's team is going to have to do that in every facet of government-- and start doing it even while we are still living through a disruptive, vengeful lame-duck presidency, a lame duck Congress, an hostile and obstructive Senate and two Senate races (in Georgia) that are "life-or-death" struggles for each very antagonistic "side." Congress is back in DC today, "confronting," as Erica Werner, Paul Kane and Yasmeen Abutaleb reported last night, "a number of major problems but lacking clear signals from President Trump-- even as President-elect Joe Biden and his team are poised to begin engaging with congressional Democrats on their priorities. Congress faces a government shutdown deadline and crucial economic relief negotiations at a moment of extraordinary national uncertainty, with Trump refusing to concede the presidential election and with coronavirus cases spiking nationwide. Even before Biden takes office on Jan. 20, Congress must contend with a Dec. 11 government funding deadline. Failure to reach a deal would result in a government shutdown, and Trump has not signaled whether he would sign a new spending bill. At the same time, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) have both expressed the desire to pass new economic and health-care relief measures to address the surging coronavirus pandemic-- something Congress has not been able to do since the spring. But it is uncertain whether they will be able to find common ground in the weeks ahead: McConnell is pushing for a narrow and targeted bill, while Pelosi continues to insist on a broader and bolder relief package."
A handful of Trump’s staunchest allies insisted Sunday that the election is far from over. Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-SC), who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, claimed in an interview on Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures” that there have been suspect voting incidents in Pennsylvania, Michigan and elsewhere. “And I’m hellbent on looking at it,” Graham said. “Do not accept the media’s declaration of Biden. Fight back.” Disorganized Crime by Nancy Ohanian There is no evidence of any widespread fraud in the election. But the divisions among congressional Republicans over whether to acknowledge Biden as the president-elect mean that negotiations over a new spending package or coronavirus relief bill will proceed under something of a cloud.
Yesterday, on Fox, Lindsey Graham hissed that "If Republicans don't challenge and change the U.S. election system, there will never be another Republican president elected again. President Trump should not concede. We're down to less-- 10,000 votes in Georgia. He's going to win North Carolina. We have gone from 93,000 votes to less than 20,000 votes in Arizona, where more-- more votes to be counted." Meanwhile, Axios reported last night that apart from a few die-hards, most people close to President Trump know the race is over-- but no one wants to be the sacrificial lamb who tells him to concede, people familiar with their thinking tell me... Top Trump advisers sat the president down at the White House on Saturday and walked him through the 'options for success'... [T]hey made clear to Trump the likely outcome of waging these legal battles, but he was firm that he wants to forge ahead anyway... [E]ven Trump has discussed the possibility of not winning. He has accepted that losing may be an outcome but insists on pursuing what he claims is mass fraud. Several of his close advisers, including social media guru Dan Scavino and personnel director Johnny McEntee, are egging him on. But people one rung out have privately accepted reality. They know the court cases are dead ends, and some are already putting out job feelers." Jordan Fabian reported for Bloomberg that Trump's legal advisers say his legal challenges are futile
