The Biden government is raising the heat on Republicans to stay true to their advocacy for reopening schools, which means for the White House to vote for the president’s $ 1.9T coronavirus relief package.
“This COVID package, which is currently the highest priority for him – things that Democrats and Republicans support across the country, supports 70% of the public,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told Rachel Maddow of MSNBC on Thursday. “Aren’t Republicans now against reopening schools?”
As of Friday, 38% of the K-12 public schools are still offering classes. About 38% fully attend sessions, and the rest are on a hybrid schedule, according to Burbio, which scrapes school websites for data.
‘But I’ll say on the COVID package, you know, the challenge you’re currently facing is Rachel, as you know and you talked about this in your program, here urgency … If we are not able to ‘to plan for how our schools are going to reopen, it can not be a game played where we wait and wait and wait and wait, negotiate, negotiate,’ Psaki said.
CHICAGO PARENTS PROMISE TO CLAIM THE TEACHERS ‘UNION AS MEMBERS STOP
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) this week released a study showing that coronavirus transmission in schools was very low, even lower than in the community when mask-wearing measures were taken.
But teacher unions in areas like Chicago and Montclair, NJ, still claim it is not safe for their members to go back to the classroom.
White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain defended the teachers’ unions when he was quoted in an interview with CNN about the CDC study, saying there was no funding for security measures.
Anchor Erin Burnett asked him why “in many cases the unions dominate what the studies show?”
“I do not think unions dominate studies,” Klain replied during the January 26 interview. “I think what you see are schools that did not make the investments to keep the students safe.”
Klain argued that the CDC study was unique to rural Wisconsin and did not necessarily apply to other communities that did not have the money to invest in smaller class sizes.
“What the CDC’s study in Wisconsin showed was the 17 rural schools that received a substantial grant from a private foundation to put in place the safety measures they needed – students in very small pod classes of about 11 or so. 12 rural area – they can go to school safely, ‘he said.
Biden’s $ 1.9 billion bailout proposal includes $ 350 billion for state and local governments, which should be split between helping to hire frontline workers and helping with vaccine distribution, COVID-19 testing, the reopening of schools and ‘maintenance of other essential services’.
But Psaki stressed that Biden was not prepared to divide the package into pieces of bills or legislation aimed only at reopening the school.
“At the end of the day, he also has his principles and he’s not going to break this bill. He wants pieces that address the vaccine’s pieces, and addresses that to ensure we get checks to people so they have food on the table. and money so that we can reopen schools in the package, it will not break up. ‘
THOUSANDS OF CHICAGO TEACHERS WHO DO NOT RETURN TO CLASSROOMS ACCORDING TO THE UNION VOTE
Many parents in communities like Chicago, who cannot afford childcare, are in the pandemic at the end of the year with virtual training 11 months.
Teachers and staff for K-8 were ordered to return Monday in an effort to prepare for an opening on Feb. 1, but plans fell apart when the Chicago Teachers’ Union overwhelmingly voted to continue virtual learning and teachers the district orders to return, after the negotiations on reopening conditions broke.
Some parents have told Fox News that they will sue the teachers’ union if a ‘strike’ occurs amid the stalemate. A collective bargaining agreement of 2019 prohibits union members from striking while on contract.
Janice Jackson, CEO of Chicago Public Schools, said the district has precautions to reduce the spread, and it’s time to return to the classroom. She said students who were most left behind with virtual learning were black and Latino.
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“If people don’t see it as a stock issue, I really do not know what to say yet,” Jackson said.
Fox News’ Louis Casiano and Joey Wulfsohn contributed to this report.