It had all the hallmarks of a state dinner: lavish flowers adorning the White House, the arrival of the first lady in a floor-length sequined dress, and members of Congress and cabinet members mingling with attendees. However, the guest of honor was not the President of France or the Prime Minister of Japan.
It was Missy Testerman from Rogersville City Schools in rural Tennessee.
First lady Jill Biden welcomed this year's recipient, Testerman, and dozens of other teachers from across the country to the White House on Thursday to kick off a new format for presenting the National Teacher of the Year Award. We held a ceremony that imitated that. A pomp usually reserved for foreign dignitaries.
Dr. Biden, who continued her day job as an English professor while serving as first lady and has worked to support community colleges from the White House, expressed support for teachers' unions in her opening remarks and emphasized the need for their support. The coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic.
“We celebrate you tonight because teaching is more than just a job, it's a calling,” Dr. Biden said, adding, “Responding to this call to service is itself an act of hope.”
Ms. Testerman, an English as a Second Language teacher who has worked as a first- and second-grade teacher for 30 years, also spoke and spoke about the importance of her profession.
“As an English as a Second Language teacher, all of my students are either immigrants to our country or first-generation Americans born to immigrant parents,” Testerman said. “Hearing about the experiences of our students and their families is a daily reminder of what a privilege it is to be an American and to attend public schools in this country.”
The Council of Chief State School Officers, which oversees the awards program, has honored finalists and winners at the White House nearly every year since 1952, according to the council's website. Dr. Biden has presided over the ceremony each year during President Biden's term. (Biden, who was returning from a trip to North Carolina, stopped briefly to reflect on his days teaching law classes and told his teachers, “You are the ones who are flying kites that raise our national aspirations.'' It's a thread.”
This year's evolution of the ceremony was completed with floral arrangements and classroom-themed decorations that incorporated the Tennessee state flower, the iris. Guests sampled menu items such as lobster ravioli and honey-soaked apple mousse, and enjoyed a performance by the U.S. Army Chorus featuring Army and Air Force stringed instruments.
Education Secretary Miguel A. Cardona told attendees the event was aimed at giving “our teachers a long-overdue level of national respect.”
A total of 57 teachers, including past recipients, attended Thursday, according to an invite list released by the White House. Apart from the honor, selected teachers will also be invited to a one-year professional development program.
Ahead of the event, the White House announced new measures to boost teacher pay and highlighted changes to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, a centerpiece of Biden's student debt reduction effort. Federal student loan debt will be forgiven after 10 years.
Dr. Biden, who has been a teacher for more than 30 years and is a member of the National Education Association, has often intervened in education policy, especially during the transition period as the coronavirus crisis subsides and a return to in-person learning. She also led a push to make community college tuition free, but the bill she helped write never made it to Congress.
Mr. Biden has once again called for free community college as a priority for next year's budget, but with Republicans in the House of Representatives, there is little chance of this proposal becoming law.