In an effort to encourage schools to reopen to classes in person during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Trump administration has formally designated teachers as essential workers.
Vice President Mike Pence informed executives of the classification – which is not binding – on a phone call earlier this week, CNN reported first Friday morning.
In an interview with Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo, Pence stated that there is “no mandate” in the decision.
PENCE CLASHES WITH CNN ANCHOR TO COVID-19 REPONSE: YOUR NETWORK ‘WAS WORONG TO LOT’ IN EARLY STAGE
“Being declared an essential employee means you are prioritized for issues like PPE and support,” Pence, referring to personal protective equipment, said in an interview with Bartiromo. “We want to get our children back to school, but we also want our teachers to know that we are making the resources available so that their schools can be a safe environment.”
The government also advises teachers who are exposed to the virus but do not exhibit symptoms to stay at work – guidance that Forbes reported Thursday that some states, including Tennessee, had already followed.
President Trump has convinced schools to reopen for personal instruction in the fall, warning of “greater mortality” if they have to close permanently.
Middle school principal Brittany Myers, center, protested in advance at the Hillsborough County Public Schools office in Tampa, Florida, in July. (Photo by Octavio Jones / Getty Images)
Speaking in a press release on Wednesday, he wrongly claimed that coronavirus “would be less than or equal to the risk of seasonal flu” for young Americans. Trump had previously claimed that children were “almost immune” to the virus.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, however, said last week that the amount of infection in children 17 and under is “slowly” increasing.
The CDC also pointed out that children are more likely to have the same higher viral load in their nasopharynx as adults, and a new study on contact tracing in South Korea showed that people between the ages of 10 and 19 spread the virus more often than adults.
In the U.S. in recent weeks, some school districts have seen an increase in viral outbreaks among both students and staff in the early opening.
A Georgia School District was forced to quarantine nearly 1,200 students and staff members after the start of the month. A second-grader tested positive after the first day of school.
Elsewhere in Peach State, the virus spread through a more than 700-person sleep camp, with 290 people testing positive for COVID-19.
According to Politico, the state of Mississippi has seen coronavirus infections in 87 percent of its counties since Monday, sending more than 2,000 students and nearly 600 teachers into isolation.
While a return to some normality would be fantastic news for teachers and students, President of the American Federation of Teachers Randi Weingarten was not happy with the decision-making process of the Trump administration.
CLICK HERE FOR THE FOX NEWS APP
She told CNN she feared the essential worker status could be used to “threaten, bully and coerce” teachers in classes without considering their safety.
Teachers, who have been public about their concerns about the potentially devastating social and emotional loss to children when schools do not reopen, remain between a rock and a hard place.
