Biden’s School Plan Draws Clear Contrast With Trump’s

Mr. Biden recommended that federal agencies establish a set of national guidelines to aid school reopening decisions.

“The Trump administration’s chaotic and politicized response has left school districts to improvise a thousand hard decisions on their own,” his proposal read. “Schools need clear, consistent, effective national guidelines, not mixed messages and political ultimatums.”

He called for emergency funding for public schools and child care providers — about $30 billion for school districts is needed, he suggested, and another $4 billion for upgraded technology and broadband. He also urged a “large-scale U.S. Department of Education” effort to improve remote learning and smooth the reopening process.

Jill Biden, an English professor who taught at a community college throughout her husband’s time as vice president, has helped roll out Mr. Biden’s education policies and is often a surrogate for him at education-related events. She appeared with Mr. Biden in the video to announce the plan and detail some educators’ concerns. She acknowledged the hardships facing students, families and teachers who desperately want to return to the classroom, nodding to families who are struggling to balance work and child care.

But, she said, “it’s wrong to endanger educators and students. We need a better plan.”

In his proposal, Mr. Biden also recommended initiatives designed to close what his campaign described as “systemic racial and socioeconomic disparities in education” that have worsened during the pandemic.

“Everyone wants our schools to reopen,” Mr. Biden said in the video. “The question is how to make it safe, how to make it stick.”

The first step, Mr. Biden said, was reducing coronavirus cases.

Mr. Biden’s remarks about election meddling came two days after his Twitter account was hacked, along with the accounts of many other prominent Americans. A Biden campaign official said in a statement that “the campaign has begun receiving briefings, and the vice president is regularly briefed by his team of experts.”