Vice President Mike Pence announced the decision to executives on a call earlier this week, said a person familiar with the decision. Under the guidance of the Homeland Security Department, released this week, teachers are now considered “critical infrastructure workers” and are subject to the same kinds of advice as other workers who have given birth to that label – such as doctors and lawmakers.
The Essential Workers Guidance states that they can continue to work, even after exposure to a confirmed case of Covid-19, if they remain asymptomatic. The contribution of schools to the spread of the community has already been a top concern for districts that make the decision to open or close, so that teachers pushing to work through potential exposure can prove controversial.
White House officials took the step in part to convey how seriously they believe the question about schools should be taken, the person said, but also to try to stabilize teachers and streamline guidance in a time of confusion over the future of classes.
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said the term for critical workers could be used to “threaten, bully and coerce” teachers in classes without the right considerations.
“If the president really saw us as essential, he would deal with it. Teachers have been, and always have been, essential workers – but not essential enough, it seems, to oblige the Trump administration the means to keep them safe in the classroom. Instead of funding these protections, you create a plan and guidance on how you can ensure that school buildings can safely reopen, and follow science, ”Weingarten said.
“The Trump administration will always try to change the rules to threaten, bully and coerce. No doubt this new ‘guidance’ will be used as an advance by Trump-supporting administrators to force students and educators into unsafe buildings to to serve the political agenda of the President. “
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