Women Bloggers Connect with Jill Biden
Last week, I had the privilege of spending just under an hour on the phone with Senator Joe Biden’s wife, Dr. Jill Biden. Thanks to Women for Obama, a small group of women bloggers asked questions about Dr. Biden’s thoughts on the problems of our educational system and what she thinks we should do about it. Many of the women on the call are teachers, and from the conversation, we gauged that an Obama/Biden administration will address the problems in our educational system head-on.
Dr. Biden spoke at length about how much women juggle taking care of children, ailing parents, working, and helping other families. She spoke about how we need equal pay for equal work, and she noted that women bear an “even greater burden than ever before” in terms of supporting our families. She answered questions about how teachers are being overexerted in their jobs and she emphasized the need to help teachers reduce their load and allow them to be trained and to be able to mentor other teachers as well.
The call began with an introduction by Dana Singiser of the Obama campaign and then Dr. Biden spoke briefly about how she’s worked as an educator for many years, teaching them to read and write. She was kind and humble in what she said, reading off a prepared statement, and she said that when she’s in the classroom, they don’t talk about politics, but “this election is about them.”
Through an extended question and answer session, we discussed issues around special needs children and she emphasized how important it is that those programs get funding. We talked a lot about community colleges and affordable college education and she made the point that one of the things most people don’t realize right now with this economic crisis and loans drying up is that college loans are included in that process, making it tougher for students to afford to be educated. We talked about the failure of the No Child Left Behind program and how to change and improve that. Attendance in school was something that’s a major issue as well and Dr. Biden recommended a mentorship program to help with that. And one question was about technology use in education. Dr. Biden’s reply was perfect: “technology is supposed to enhance education, not be education.” Absolutely right on.
Glennia Campbell posted a comprehensive transcript on the MOMocrats site and I encourage anyone who hasn’t read it yet to view the issue statements posted on the campaign web site.
