President Biden on Monday refused to order teachers in Chicago to return to school after a union voted over the weekend to defy a district order for educators to return to campuses to prepare to return to classroom teaching to begin.
The Chicago Teachers’ Union has voted not to return to schools over concerns about the spread of COVID-19. Biden asked the matter to a reporter.
“It’s not so much about the idea that teachers are not going to work. The teachers I know, they want to work,” he said. “They just want to work in a safe environment and … as safe as we can make it rational. And we can do that.”
Chicago Public Schools, the third largest school district in the country, wanted about 10,000 kindergartens through eighth-grade teachers and other staff members to return to prepare to welcome about 70,000 students back into class on February 1 .
The union said the district’s security plan was falling short. Coronavirus vaccinations will need to be broader and different measures to measure infections must also be implemented before teachers and staff return.
In response, the union thanked Biden for his remarks, saying it was “Exactly what educators said.”
“Thank you, President Biden. Exactly what educators said, and the responses of parents have shown since last March,” reads a union tweet.
The move to defy the school district is in contrast to Biden’s promise to reopen schools in its first hundred days as president. He asked for $ 130 billion to help K-12 schools reopen as part of its $ 1.9 billion coronavirus stimulation plan.
The school district also responded to Biden’s comments on COVID-19 testing and protocols to ensure a safe environment.
“We could not agree more,” the district tweeted, suggesting investments in coronavirus testing, cleaning and disinfection, ventilation and air purification.
The de facto strike is in violation of a 2019 collective bargaining agreement that strikes the suspension, the Wall Street Journal reported.
‘The union’s vote prompted the district to postpone the return of teachers until Wednesday to ensure we have the time needed to resolve our discussions without interrupting the learner’s learning,’ the district said. said.
School officials argued that distance education does not work for all students, including many low-income and Black and Latino students who make up the majority of the district. The district’s safety plan includes thousands of air purifiers, more cleaning and a volunteer testing program.
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‘Students in more than 130 private and parochial schools and more than 2,000 early learning centers across the city have been learning safely in their classrooms since the fall, and we must offer the same options to our families who, without any guilt, are already unable to is to make distance education work for their children, ”the district said in a statement over the weekend. “We have significantly reduced the grades, attendance and enrollment for many of our students over the past few months, and the impact is felt especially by our Black and Latinx students.”
Greg Norman of Fox News as well as The Associated Press contributed to this report.