Immediately upon the selection of Joe Biden for the Vice
Presidential position alongside Barack Obama my thoughts turned to his
wife. I had heard early in the primaries, perhaps in one of the
countless debates, Joe talk about his wife having an Ed.D. and since I
am in the business of granting Ed.D.'s, that stuck with me. When I
heard Biden was the choice (no I did not get the text message) the
first thing to come to mind was that there is a possibility of having a
champion of education ... at least in the Vice President's mansion.
Here is Jill Biden's bio.
Her most recent position was as a community college professor teaching
English, but she has also been a high school teacher in the past and
seems to have strong views on education. In this TIME interview while Joe Biden was still officially a candidate for the presidency Jill said:
Q. Would you expect to have a say in the President's policies?
A. For years, Joe has had to listen to me go on about the problems in our education system and I don't see how him becoming President would change that. So, I'm certainly going to continue talking about the issues that I care about.
Also, when she was still considering a position as First Lady she said she would stress "education, education, education." Anyway, Dr. Biden can clearly be an advocate for education. In the debates, Joe Biden said his top domestic priority was education, as Michele McNeil notes in her quick summary of Biden's education stances. Clearly she will have at least some voice in education reform and educational professionals may be wise to begin the lobbying now.
So, with that in mind, here are some initial thoughts on
how education can take advantage of Jill Biden as the Vice President's
wife and some of the 
areas that I think are ripe for her to specialize in.
- Refer to her. Sometimes there is power just in having one of us in a position of power. Lord knows that is not always the case.
- Ask her to be a leader. Perhaps Dr. Biden is not one for the
spotlight, and if so, fine and she has every right to her peace (see
number 10). But, that doesn't mean we can't ask her to get involved. As
someone who has lived the realities of the school system, we don't have
to convince her ... she already knows and can speak honestly about her
experiences. We have to be sure to let her know that we want her voice
as part of the conversation.
- Conference Speaker: Can't take credit for this one. Kevin Brady and I already talked about this and it was his suggestion. Clearly,
this is a BOOK NOW opportunity and I would hope the associations I am a
part of will consider her for annual conferences as I think she would
be an interesting speaker.
- P-16 Advocate. Having worked in both K-12 and in community
college, she is someone that has the right experience to advocate for
breaking P-16 boundaries and helping to integrate the education system,
especially in the areas of English, reading and literacy which she has
taught in both in high school and in college.
- Her dissertation (link works with Proquest Access) was
on community college student retention. So, high school and college
retention seem a natural place for advocacy, especially since we need a
lot of help keeping our students in school.
- Qualitative Advocate: Her dissertation included some qualitative
research (interviews & group discussions), in addition to
questionnaires and surveys. Given the intense focus recently of the
Department of Education on quantitative only research, her qualitative
background seems like a refreshing change which will hopefully lead to
some additional funding of qualitative studies.Her mixed method study is a good reference point for the Department of Education. She also stresses research in her class, according to ratemyprofessor.com (she was generally rated a good teacher). Anyway, education can ask her to help restore some balance to the research arm of the federal government.
- NCLB 2.0 champion. If the Democrats are elected, expect a new
version of NCLB (probably called something else) around the fall of the
first year. That means that for an additional three years of the first
term someone is going to need to inform the American public and
especially other educators about the law. She would be a great person
for the administration to send around explaining the details of the
law.
- Fitness leader. Not only does she explicitly say so in this great interview with NPR, but Jill Biden is also a very fit person as evidenced by this video where she said she rode 27 miles on a bike in Iowa. She also sponsors the Biden Breast Health Initiative and is said to be a strong advocate for health issues. She could inspire students as well as teachers to make fitness a big part of their lives.
- Advocate for education technology. I know she had to take at least one class on education technology in her Ed.D. program and she did teach at a community college that stressed technology ... so, maybe she gets it?
- IF 1-9 don't work, just let her teach. She seems like a good community college English teacher. That is a position that carries
a lot of weight in many young student's lives. Delaware is only a
couple hours away from D.C., so if she wanted to keep her teaching
position, she could do that and still be making a difference.
So, those are 10 things that are off the top of my head
with a little research. Really, given that she has been there done
that, anything that she does will be a help to education. Whether she
picks specific issues to advocate for or becomes an ambassador for the
administration or just stays in her teaching position, it looks like
she will be a resource for education if the Democrats take the
Whitehouse in the November.
Photocredit: JoeBiden