“Covid-19 continues to spread in the Los Angeles area and the virus will have an impact on how we start the new school year,” LAUSD Superintendent Austin Beutner said in a statement. “The health and safety of everyone in the school community is not something we can compromise.”
Elsewhere, New York City, where cases dropped to their lowest numbers since mid-March, has proposed a “blended learning” plan that would see a combination of remote and in-person learning. Columbus, Ohio, is following a similar strategy for younger students. But the superintendent of schools, Talisa Dixon, has insisted that those protocols are subject to change.
Despite the complexities and warning signs, Trump has ignored public concerns and has refused to offer meaningful guidance on how to reopen schools, rather than insist on moving on.
“SCHOOLS MUST OPEN ON THE FALL!” He tweeted last week.
Playing with lives
“Normally, people don’t play with the lives of children. They will play with the lives of adults, but they don’t play with the lives of children,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, last week. The union announced that it would spend an additional $ 1 million on television and digital ads asking Republican leaders to pass legislation that helps fund a safe return.
Weingarten, a longtime union leader who has met with leaders of both parties, said she was surprised, if not surprised, by the administration’s hostile tone and her insistence, along with those of leaders in some of the states. most affected by the virus, by advancing with limited or vague standards of precaution.
“This Florida and Texas news of ‘we are going to open five days a week and we are going to open normally’, this was new to the mix and clearly a pressure campaign by the administration,” Weingarten said, “because they look frankly, to schools as if it were childcare rather than education. “
The risks of returning children to schools without adequate protections are well documented and easy to find. They are detailed on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website, along with a detailed set of instructions and best practices for teachers and administrators. (AFT has also released its own detailed plan.)
Trump’s confidence deficit
For a president who is already fighting in both national and state polls, it’s not just the risk of losing the battle of the schools that could further weaken his position before the fall: it’s the fight itself. The battle has pitted Trump and DeVos against educators, health experts and, in many cases, concerned parents who, for more than three weeks in a “summer” that began last spring, still receive mixed messages from local and national leaders. .
“Donald Trump doesn’t make it possible for you to sit on the fence,” said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Survey Institute, explaining how a confrontation between schools that divides Americans into partisan lines could further harm Trump in the suburbs.
With each passing day, the political implications for Trump’s reelection become more pronounced. Already playing from behind, and in a confidence deficit with many voters in his handling of the coronavirus, the prospect of a protracted new fight, Murray said, will likely further alienate the less committed voters Trump is already struggling with in polls. .
“The people in the middle, the moderate people, the college-educated white women who live in the suburbs, are realistically looking at what’s happening. They’re seeing what’s happening in their own neighborhoods, whether it’s Covid or if it’s the marches in support of Black Lives Matter between his own white neighbors and saying (his message) doesn’t agree with how I see the world, and Donald Trump is just trying to divide us, “Murray told CNN. “And I think that adds to that.”
The administration’s absence of a feasible work plan was clearly relieved during DeVos’ more than 20-minute interview on Sunday with CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union.”
Disregarding the fundamental problem, DeVos cited the success of “other countries in Europe and other parts of the world, where students have returned to school and have done so with great success.” However, many of those locations have largely controlled for the coronavirus pandemic (their workload decreases as the US rate increases), using more holistic approaches that created an environment in which returning to the classroom represented a lower risk for students and teachers.
Competing agendas
The lobbying campaign launched by the administration elicited a response last week from the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Association of School Superintendents, the AFT and the National Association for Education, which reiterated its commitment to a safe return, but cautioned against proceeding. without adequate guarantees. .
“We call on Congress and the administration to provide the necessary federal resources to ensure that inadequate funding does not impede the education and care of children in our schools,” the groups said in a joint statement. “Withholding funds from schools that don’t open in person full-time would be the wrong approach, putting financially struggling schools in an impossible position that would threaten the health of students and teachers.”
Vice President Mike Pence on Monday in a call with the governors took a softer position than Trump. He made clear the administration’s desire to see the schools return, but assured listeners that the decision would ultimately rest with state and local officials. He also indicated that the White House supported new funds for schools.
“You should also anticipate that we are in active discussions with leaders in Congress about additional support for education funding in the upcoming aid bill,” Pence said.
Democrat Jamaal Bowman, who is leading his main race to represent New York’s 16th congressional district, which includes parts of the Bronx, in New York City and the suburbs of Westchester, said the absence of a plan and funds to back it up. will disproportionately harm students. in underserved communities, even if electoral damage to Trump would likely target the wealthier suburbs.
“When you have the resources, you hope that the resources will continue to be present and serve your family and your community,” Bowman said of the richest areas. “When you have less, overall you tend to want to have what you need to survive and survive. That has historically been the case.”
DeVos’s suggestion that it could try to siphon off federal dollars to parents whose school districts don’t fully open, or not at all, in the fall, Bowman added, was a sign that the administration might try to use the crisis as cover to put a more lasting effect. dent in public school.
“It’s the move toward privatization,” said Bowman, who founded a public high school and served as a principal before running for office. “It is driven by market-based ideology and the so-called ‘choice movement’ in quotation marks. So when we talk about coupons and money moving with children at the parents’ will, that’s what we’re talking about. And it’s an example disaster capitalism within the public education sector. “
Republicans, especially in traditionally red states, have tried to reassure parents, but focused more on the economic implications of the restart.
“We need (the students) to come back,” South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster, a Republican, said last week. “People have to go to work. Parents have to go to work. Teachers want to go to work. Everyone wants schools to start. But we have to be sure that we are doing it safely.”
“I’m sure if you can do Home Depot, if you can do Walmart, if you can do these things, we absolutely can do schools,” said DeSantis. “I want our children to be able to minimize this educational gap that I think has developed.”
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