Donald Trump and his campaign are pretty sure that children can return to classrooms without jeopardizing their own, and the school's staff members' safety in the fall. This push comes amid a still-raging pandemic that continues to claim millions of lives across the country.
While Trump's campaign has faced criticism from people, who the president accuses of wanting to keep schools closed because of political reasons. Trump has gone as far as threatening to cut off federal funds to schools if they resist opening this fall. One voice that has largely been missing from this debate is of the country's teachers.
Teachers are now going toe-to-toe with the Trump's administration over its highly opinionated approach to putting children back in classrooms in the fall, arguing that the safety of teachers and other staff members have been ignored in the debate. Trump and his allies claim it is important to reopen schools because keeping them closed to have a negative impact on students and kids either have no or mild symptoms when they contract COVID-19.
Given that it is still unclear what role children play when it comes to spreading the virus, teachers say they are concerned about contracting COVID-19 at school or carrying it home to their families. NEA (National Education Association) President Lily Eskelsen Garcia pointed out that the president has remained mum about the risks he will be putting on the school staff members.
NEA is a labor union that represents three million administrators, teachers, and other education professionals. Last week, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Trump, and the administration’s top health officials held multiple public events to encourage schools to reopen this fall.
In an interview on CNN's "State of the Union, DeVos confused the concerned parents, sticking to her mantra of urging them to send their children to school. Every questioned CNN's Dana Bash posed received one reply from DeVos that children "need to be back in school."
According to DeVos, anything less than five days a week of in-person instruction is unacceptable. She even threatened to withhold federal funding for schools that fail to meet her expectations, a move that would have likely faced several lawsuits.
Teachers, principals, and school districts deemed her demands unrealistic and unsafe, particularly in areas that continue to experience a surge in coronavirus cases. On top of that, they noted that they would need more funding, not less to ensure the children, and other school staff members are safe from infection when they return to school. State and local governments are running out of budget citing months of coronavirus shutdowns.