Trump's Push to Reopen Schools Is Scaring Teachers, Says AFT Union President
President Donald Trump's insistence that all K-12 schools reopen in the fall has caused a backlash among parents and teachers, according to Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, the second largest teacher's union in the country.
Between the middle and the end of June, the union polled its membership and found that 76 percent supported reopening if certain measures were put in place first. Those included ensuring the rate of infection was as low as possible, making sure testing and tracing systems were in place, and allocating extra resources to schools to help protect students and teachers.
While the recent surge of cases across the country had shifted expectations for where and how schools could reopen, Weingarten told Cheddar, many teachers still wanted to move ahead because of the crucial social and educational role that schools hold in students' lives.
Now Trump is pushing back against those measures, calling the CDC's guidelines for reopening "very tough & expensive" in a tweet and CONTINUE READING: Trump's Push to Reopen Schools Is Scaring Teachers, Says AFT Union President on Cheddar
