Teachers on re-opening schools: “Not without protecting kids”
WASHINGTON—When the issue comes down to reopening the nation’s schools as the coronavirus plague continues, GOP President Donald Trump says “yes,” but leaders of teachers unions say “no”—or at any rate, not until you can truly protect the kids.
The uproar started with a Trump dog-and-pony show with his Education Secretary, Elizabeth “Betsy” DeVos, and other officials on July 7. They declared schools should reopen this fall. But they didn’t recommend safety measures or say how cash-starved states and school districts should pay for doing so.
It escalated with Trump’s belligerent tweeted demand on July 8 that public schools reopen regardless of how prepared or unprepared states and school districts are for handling crowded classrooms and the resulting chance of coronavirus community spread among the teachers and 60 million kids.
If the schools stay shut, Trump threatened, he would order DeVos’s Education Department to cut off federal funds to school districts. Though that cash is only about 10% of overall school revenue, according to National Education Association figures, it’s a much higher share for schools which serve poor kids, most of them children of color, through Title I dollars.
Trump’s threat is empty, too, public education law experts said. Congress, not Trump, sets the rules for CONTINUE READING: Teachers on re-opening schools: “Not without protecting kids” – People's World
