Joe Biden appointed Linda Darling-Hammond, who has praised China's pro-communist education system for doing "magical work," to a Department of Education advisory board.
Amidst controversy over the left's politicization of school curriculum and sexualization of children, Biden appointed Hammond to the National Board for Education Sciences.
The board advises the Director of the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), which is described as the "statistics, research, and evaluation arm of the U.S. Department of Education."
Hammond, as reported by The Free Beacon, praised the Chinese Communist Party’s education system for its “magical work” in setting up a strong teacher-government presence in student life.
In her 2017 book, Empowered Educators: How High-Performing Systems Shape Teaching Quality Around the World, she explained how the regime's teachers play a large role in Chinese students' lives.
“Teachers in China are revered as elders, role models, and those whom parents entrust to shape the future of their children,” Darling-Hammond wrote. “In the Tao traditions of ritual, the phrase 'heaven-earth-sovereign-parent-teacher’ is repeated and becomes ingrained in how people see themselves holistically governed and supported.”
The country’s school system, however, is tightly controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, which sends inspectors to monitor teachers for “improper” remarks to ensure that schools function as a training ground for socialist values.
Communist Party leader Xi Jinping has also said that China’s schools and teachers must “serve the Communist Party in its management of the country.”
Hammond has also praised China's school system in articles for The Washington Post, where she celebrated the regime for reportedly investing in teacher development.