But the impasses in Chicago and the recent findings from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – which wrote that personal learning leads to a small spread of the coronavirus, as long as schools follow safety measures closely – are creating a flashpoint. for the president along with potential political vulnerabilities.
“This is one of several problems that will have some starts and stops – and [it’s] a great challenge for [the White House]”Admitted Steve Barr, a former Democratic political and operative activist and founder of a school organization in Los Angeles. Barr said he agreed with pressure from the White House for a large financial package, but stressed that the new government needs to sharpen its message and offer detailed plans to convince lawmakers and the public to support it.
“They need to be able to sell it,” added Barr.
Selling will not be easy. Republicans are already criticizing the White House’s caution about reopening schools, suggesting it is indebted to the teachers’ unions. They point to the CDC article as new evidence that the debate is resolved on whether the reopening of K-12 schools contributes significantly to the spread of the virus. And they cite the tens of billions of dollars that Congress has already allocated for the reopening of schools as proof that the issue is not a question of money.
In particular, Republican Party operatives are confident that they can create a barrier between Biden, teachers and parents who are exhausted by the months of school closings.
“It’s a very difficult political position that the White House is in, having to choose between its constituents in the teachers’ unions and many angry parents,” said Jack Pandol, spokesman for the Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC that supports candidates Republicans to the Senate.
Republican House leader Kevin McCarthy reiterated calls for personal learning to begin immediately as members of Congress prepare to attack Democrats on the issue.
“We definitely plan to go after people about it,” said Michael McAdams, a spokesman for the Congressional Republican National Committee. “It is a politically toxic position for Joe Biden and Democrats to deny science in favor of the teachers’ union and the millions of dollars his party benefits from.”
A close White House ally rejected the Republican Party, saying it was “scary and important to reveal” that, with many schools closed and thousands dying every day, “those who are aggravating these unprecedented crises by disrupting the resources that are desperately needed. .. are already admitting what really matters. “
Labor leaders and Democratic officials on Capitol Hill, where Biden’s advisers are busy presenting their nearly $ 2 billion recovery plan, emphasized that schools do not have enough resources to start and say there is little recognition on the Republican side about the cost of teaching. at a distance. Schools need to deal with the significant “learning losses” caused by the pandemic, they added, and the nearly $ 130 billion more that schools will receive from the Biden plan would go a long way toward meeting these needs.
“Teachers know how important classroom teaching is, but we have to make it safe,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. “Testing and vaccination, as well as masking and detachment, are essential, as are accommodations for educators at risk. Unfortunately, the serious failures of the previous government have made our task more difficult than it should be. “
The political landscape surrounding the reopening of schools has changed dramatically in recent weeks. During much of the pandemic, Democrats blamed former President Donald Trump and his Education Secretary, Betsy DeVos, for the spiraling virus and the closing of schools. The two repeatedly pressured schools to reopen during the pandemic, even threatening to snatch funds from those that remained closed. But they resisted issuing prescriptive federal guidelines on reopening schools or tracking Covid cases in classrooms.
At the time, Democrats pointed to survey data that revealed widespread skepticism about schools returning to regular classroom classes. They also fought against attempts by Trump and Republican Party lawmakers to impose money restrictions – such as limiting funding to states that reopened schools – dismissing it as a misguided educational policy. Education groups and unions, in turn, complained about vague and contradictory federal guidelines.
The Trump administration, which largely froze unions, was also heavily criticized after political officials interfered with school reopening policies.
Now, however, Democrats have to hand it over to Biden. He made the reopening of most K-8 schools in their first 100 days a top priority, and his team recognizes that it depends a lot on unions to help them achieve their goals. Biden also ordered the Departments of Education, as well as Health and Human Services, to develop new guidelines on how to safely reopen schools and monitor school closures across the country. His Covid team highlighted the need for widespread vaccinations for teachers, testing materials and support for contact tracking.
So far, at least, Biden and his team have stood firm in the union’s position and have made a point of consulting their leaders. Several teachers’ union employees were on the Biden transition agency review teams. Two National Education Association employees were appointed last week to senior leadership positions in the Department of Education. And Anthony Fauci, the country’s top infectious disease officer, is due to have a chat by the fireplace with union leaders on Thursday night to discuss the vaccine’s launch.
The level of collaboration is “quite different from anything we’ve ever had,” said Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association.
“We have already received contributions, but I absolutely hope to continue to receive them,” said Pringle in an interview. “And I have no doubt that he will receive suggestions from his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, when she finishes teaching at the end of the day.”
Weingarten also informed White House officials about the dispute between teachers and school officials in Chicago, the nation’s third largest district. And after describing his discussions with the president for the Chicago Sun-Times, Biden weighed in on this contentious struggle apparently supporting the concerns of Chicago teachers.
“The teachers I know – they want to work,” said Biden. “[W]and we must make school classrooms safe and secure for students, teachers and the help that is in the schools that maintain these facilities. “
One of the next major developments in the reopening of schools may occur when the Biden administration issues new recommendations from the CDC on how and when schools should operate during the pandemic. Biden, on his first full day in office, ordered federal agencies to coordinate the development of “evidence-based guidelines” for schools, colleges and childcare providers. But these updated recommendations are likely to add new fuel to violent debates across the country on how to deal with the reopening of schools.
At the White House on Wednesday, press secretary Jen Psaki said she would not enter into hypothetical scenarios about what Biden would do if Congress refused to act on the stimulus request.
“No one wants to have a conversation in May or June about why schools have not reopened,” said Psaki, returning to the need to approve the funding package.
But Pringle said that much of the complexity and nuance of the science behind the reopening of schools was lost as the issue became a hot spot for political discussion.
“We are already seeing people quoting the CDC saying, ‘The CDC said it is safe for children to go back to school,'” said Pringle, “and they do not read the rest of the sentence”, who emphasizes that this is true only if the strategies mitigation measures are strictly followed.