Hispanic caucus backs former teacher’s union chief for Education secretary - POLITICO

Hispanic caucus backs former teacher’s union chief for Education secretary - POLITICO

Hispanic caucus backs former teacher’s union chief for Education secretary

Latino lawmakers sent a letter to the Biden transition team Monday night urging the president-elect to nominate Lily Eskelsen García.

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus is lobbying President-elect Joe Biden to nominate Lily Eskelsen García for Education secretary, substantially boosting the pack of supporters who are stumping for the former president of the country's biggest teacher's union.

Led by Hispanic Caucus chair Rep. Joaquín Castro (D-Texas) and Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Texas), Latino lawmakers sent a letter to the Biden transition team Monday night urging the president-elect to name Eskelsen García. The missive marks the Hispanic Caucus' first cohesive push for Eskelsen García, who is backed by a coalition of more than 40 Latino advocacy groups.

“Lily’s long record of accomplishments, working across the political divide, and building and maintaining constituencies would make her an excellent Secretary of Education," says the letter, first provided to POLITICO. "Her relationships in Congress also position her well for confirmation."

Eskelsen García is considered a top contender for the position, and the Hispanic Caucus endorsement comes as some members have expressed concern about the absence of a Latina in Biden’s Cabinet picks to date.

“... not only would President-elect Biden fulfill a campaign process to nominate an educator as Secretary of Education by putting Lily’s name forward; he would make history by nominating the first Latina ever to serve in this role,” says the letter, signed by 23 members.

Latino lawmakers have pointed to Eskelsen García’s experience in education, from her start as a school cafeteria worker to Utah teacher of the year, before CONTINUE READING: Hispanic caucus backs former teacher’s union chief for Education secretary - POLITICO

Coronavirus Puts School Cafeteria Workers At Risk, Too - The Atlantic

Coronavirus Puts School Cafeteria Workers At Risk, Too - The Atlantic

The Silent Suffering of Cafeteria Workers

As schools navigate reopening for the fall, most coverage has focused on the safety of students and teachers. But another group on campus has been silently suffering

Shannon Spear’s family had just finished dinner when the phone rang. It was a Friday night in March, and Spear’s school district was calling to announce that her daughter’s high school was moving to remote learning.  This was no surprise: Like other parents whose children attend the Contoocook Valley schools in New Hampshire, Spear had received dozens of emails from the district preparing families for the change. Earlier that day, teachers had even reminded Spear’s daughter to make sure that her school-issued Chromebook and charger were in her backpack before the final bell rang.

Spear didn’t notice when her phone vibrated a second time, alerting her to a call from her boss at Fresh Picks Cafe, which serves school cafeterias in Contoocook Valley. Her daughter was going to stay home for the rest of the school year. But, like other cafeteria workers across the country, Spear still had to show up to work the next week.

Spear spent the next couple of months working at the same school that the district had deemed too dangerous for her daughter to attend. She helped bag hundreds of lunches a day, bringing them to color-coded school buses that would make the trek to the nine rural towns her district covered. As unemployment rates rose, so did the number of families signing up to receive free meals. On the first day of remote learning, Spear helped make just under 400 lunches; by the end of the month, she and her colleagues were making nearly 900 each day.

At her job, Spear had to wear a mask and change her gloves every half hour, but toward the end of the school year, her supervisors stopped checking. Another woman in the cafeteria stopped showing up, because she was immunocompromised. Food-service workers in other cafeterias around the country tested positive for the coronavirus, but as far as she’s aware, no one at her job did. Then, in July, her employer laid off Spear and three other workers. CONTINUE READING: Coronavirus Puts School Cafeteria Workers At Risk, Too - The Atlantic