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February 7, 2023

My hope for tonight's State of the Union

The President needs to speak out against fascist book bans

Tonight President Biden is giving his State of the Union address. Education is often an afterthought in presidential campaigns and State of the Union speeches.

Last year’s SOTU was no exception. Biden mentioned education, schools, students, and teachers sparingly and often as a way to attach moral weight to another issue (for example, teachers turned soldiers in Ukraine or the fact that teachers pay more in taxes than the ultra-wealthy).

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When he spoke about education, it was in broad strokes about the impact of COVID and the funds created by the American Rescue Plan. He did not spend any meaningful time talking about education policy. He did not, for example, talk about the need to retain teachers in the wake of COVID. He didn’t discuss any specific strategies to address students’ mental health or academic needs. He also didn’t mention the assault on antibias and antiracist curriculum that the Right launched in 2021. 

Biden Aims to Deliver Reassurance in State of Union Address
Jim Lo Scalzo/Pool via AP, File

To some extent, he could be forgiven for this missed opportunity. I’ll admit it was hard for me to imagine the extreme lengths Republican legislators and governors would go to in order to fire up their base while erasing Black and queer stories from classrooms. It’s now quite obvious in hindsight. 

But still, a year ago, equitable and inclusive teaching wasn’t a non-issue. Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin had just been elected partly by drumming up panic about “CRT.” Florida was on the verge of passing their “Don’t Say Gay” law. 

A year later, teachers across the country are afraid to have conversations that need to be had. In Florida, students are being cut off from their classroom libraries. There is no more time for silence.  

The erasure of Black scholarship from AP African American Studies and the widespread censorship of Black and queer stories from classrooms is dangerous. These are stories that affirm Black and queer children. They also allow all children to imagine more expansive worlds. There is a reason Slave Codes outlawed reading. Education can be a powerful tool of resistance.

As a veteran politician, Joe Biden is incredibly adept at taking safe stances. He and the Democrats may believe that fighting for Black history and a queer-inclusive curriculum is a losing political issue. I happen to disagree. Book bans and Don’t Say Gay laws are inextricable from the extremist MAGA agenda that turned off centrists in 2020 and 2022. But even if it is politically unpopular to defend Black history and LGBTQ+ inclusive curriculum, is that really an acceptable reason for silence?

President Biden and the Democrats must speak up. For almost two years, they’ve completely ceded this issue to the Right. In the process, fascist censorship has been codified in 18 states and counting.

Presidents often use their State of the Union guest list to highlight urgent issues. I wish President Biden would invite Summer Boismier, an Oklahoma teacher who was fired after sharing a QR code to access banned books with her students. Boismier risked her job and endured abuse and death threats because she knew book bans are wrong. She deserves the same moral courage from the President.

I don’t have a lot of admiration for Joe Biden. To me, he represents a naive and conservative view of the United States’ past, present, and future. Part of that means his propensity for bromides about the US being a country founded on freedom. I don’t agree with that, but if he truly believes that, then the book bans and gag orders taking place across the country should upset him profoundly. If that’s the case, he must use his platform to sound the alarm. The cost of his silence has already been too great.

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