First Lady Jill Biden will talk in NC about teacher recruitment, help for students

First Lady Jill Biden is coming to Greensboro on Monday to launch a bus tour on education.

It’s dubbed the Road to Success Back to School Bus Tour. Biden is traveling with U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona to discuss how schools are helping students recover and thrive using COVID-19 relief money from the American Rescue Plan, a news release from White House officials states.

They plan to discuss how states and school districts are recruiting and preparing qualified educators for the classroom, according to the news release.

Biden is an educator who has taught both high school and college-level English. She currently works at Northern Virginia Community College.

Last month, North Carolina’s top Democrats held a news conference to address ways to combat a statewide problem of trying to find teachers to fill vacancies. The North Carolina School Superintendents’ Association said that same week that North Carolina schools were short 4,400 teachers.

Hundreds of thousands of students have also reportedly fallen behind because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

WGHP in High Point reported Tuesday that one Guilford County school has hired intervention teachers who will specialize in helping students who have fallen behind because of the pandemic.

Biden and Cardona plan to start the weeklong bus tour in Greensboro and Knoxville, Tennessee.

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