WASHINGTON—The nation’s two big teachers unions are protesting Biden administration guidance which says students returning to reopened schools can sit only three feet from each other, not six, but only after schools take other measures to combat potential community spread of the coronavirus.
One protest came in a formal letter from Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten to both Biden Education Secretary Michael Cardona and Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control. AFT also voiced its concerns in a meeting with Education Department officials. Weingarten is a New York City civics teacher.
The other came in a long statement from the National Education Association, the nation’s largest union, and its president, Becky Pringle, a Philadelphia science teacher. NEA has 3.2 million members.
Both questioned whether three feet was too little space within classrooms, as CDC now recommends. CDC says the space—physical distancing—should remain six feet elsewhere, including in school cafeterias, at sports events, in assemblies, hallways and school lobbies.
Neither Walensky nor Cardona immediately responded on their agencies’ websites. Cardona is on a CONTINUE READING: AFT, NEA protest new anti-virus school reopening guidelines – People's World