The Associated Press reports that the former president of the country’s largest teachers’ union has received approval from the Congressional Hispanic Caucasus and dozens of national Hispanic organizations as he continues to hold top positions in the U.S. Department of Education during the Biden administration.
Lily Eskelsen Garcia, Is calling on members of Congress to support her candidacy to be president of the National Education Association until September. She is appealing to Democrats and some Republicans, including Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander, chairman of the Senate Education Committee and former Secretary of Education.
Her supporters have stepped up lobbying efforts on her behalf, urging her to elect a president Joe Biden To nominate her and by doing so, appoint the first Latina to lead the Department of Education.
In a letter to Biden on Monday, the Congress gave his “enthusiastic endorsement” to the Hispanic Caucasus Eskelsen Garcia, saying that her relationship with Congress was well-suited for Senate affirmation. The Caucasus has drawn attention to Biden’s proposals to address racial inequalities in education, and Eskelsen said Garcia has been pursuing that work for decades.
“Lilly’s long records, working in the political divide and building and maintaining constituencies make her an excellent education secretary,” the 23-member letter said in a statement.
Last week she approved the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda, an alliance of more than 40 Hispanic civil rights and public policy groups. The coalition sent a letter to Biden on Friday urging the ideal candidate, Eskelsen Garcia, to break away from the “destructive methods and policies of the Trump administration.”
There are others who are widely seen as competitors to lead the education sector Randy Vingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers; Sonja Santellises, CEO of Baltimore City Schools; And Republic Zahana Hayes, A Connecticut Democrat, was named National Teacher of the Year in 2016.
Weingarten said it was not campaigning for the nomination despite talks with the Biden Transition team on Tuesday. “I was really honored by the mention, but I was doing my job,” she said in an interview.
Eskelsen Garcia supporters say her nomination fulfills Biden’s promise to form an education chief with experience working in public education. Biden is gaining popularity with public school lawyers nominating a former president of the teachers’ union, but it risks alienating education reform advocates who see it as an obstacle to changing teacher unions.
Eskelsen Garcia has served on the White House panel for Hispanic education under former President Barack Obama, but she has broken with her administration over its policies around standard examinations.
Jill Biden, A longtime community college professor and a member of the National Education Association, said the union’s lawyer was “critical” of her husband’s recent success.
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