GREENSBORO, N.C. — Cheerleaders lined the mezzanine, overlooking the stairs, packed with students. It had the look and feel of a school rally, with chants and marching band music over the speakers. N.C. A&T’s mascot bulldogs, Aggie and Agatha, were there to greet the special guests.
First lady Jill Biden and U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona came to Greensboro as part of their kick-off of a weeklong roadtrip highlighting the Biden administration’s education investments.
“You’ve heard of the ‘Three Rs of Learning,’ you know, reading, writing, arithmetic. Well now it’s time of the ‘Three Rs of Teaching’: recruit, respect and retain,” said Biden, herself a lifelong educator.
Speaking of her husband, President Joe Biden, the first lady said, “Joe was always going to be an education president. I knew it in my heart.”
“He has to be, right? Because he has to come home to me every night. But it’s also because he cares so deeply about this,” she said.
Many schools continue to struggle with learning loss from the pandemic and recruiting and keeping enough teachers.
Billed as the “Road to Success Bus Tour,” Cardona plans to visit colleges and K12 schools in Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
The bus, painted blue and yellow with the words “Road to Success” across the sides, parked outside the engineering building at the university. “Honk if you love teachers” is printed on the back.
They came to A&T, the nation’s largest HBCU, to highlight the teacher training program and meet with future teachers.
The Department of Education announced almost $25 million in new grants Monday to help colleges and universities recruit and train new teachers.
Those grants to 22 universities include four in North Carolina: more than $2.3 million for High Point University, $872,000 for East Carolina, $713,000 for Winston-Salem State and almost $560,000 for UNC-Charlotte.
Speaking to the students at A&T, the education secretary said, “Know that your school is raising the bar. A&T is a testament to something every good teacher knows: If you set high expectations and you give students access to opportunity, they deliver.”
“Millions of students out there have tremendous potential, just like you do,” he said. “What breaks my heart is knowing that some might never get a chance to access the pathways that match up to their skill potential.”
Biden and Cardona had a private conversation with some of the future teachers at A&T before the event. When she came out on stage, she wasn’t shy about trying to recruit others to become educators when they finished their degrees.
“I’ve always loved the start of a new school year,” Biden said. She described a moment that comes just before students start for the year, smelling the freshly waxed floor, “I hear possibility.”
“In that moment, I know I’m about to meet students whose lives I hope to change, and who will change me in their own way,” she said.
“Teaching isn’t what we do, it’s who we are,” Biden said.
Biden ticked off reasons people may shy away from becoming teachers: class size, student loans, safety concerns and others.
“If we want to add more bright, talented people into this field, if we want educators to be able to do what they do best, we have to give them the support that they, or you all, deserve,” the first lady said.
“Join us, become a teacher, and we will change the world one student as a time,” Biden said. “We have to come to places like North Carolina A&T and say, ‘we need you, yes you,'” she said, pointing to the students around her.