CURMUDGUCATION: Covid and the Good Guys

CURMUDGUCATION: Covid and the Good Guys

Covid and the Good Guys

You can set this Twitter comment next to a quote from Rep. Virginia Foxx, who said that Weingarten "is attempting to rewrite history by framing her union as part of the 'solution.'"

Both are a fine example of how far off the rails the re-opening school debate has gone (if we can characterize a bunch of people hollering at each other a debate). Notice that the outpouring about Weingarten's call to re-open school buildings in the fall is not talking about whether that's a good idea or not. No, what we're now arguing about is who should get to call themselves a good guy. 

One of the narratives pushed and pushed hard for the last fifteen months has been the Narrative of the Evil Unions, who have somehow been behind the whole school closing thing even though many many parents have balked at sending students back and many private schools have stayed closed and it's not even particularly clear exactly how and where this union pressure has been exerted. Nor have I ever, ever understood what the villains' motivation was supposed to be in this story--if teachers are intent on shutting down schools, why is that, exactly? But anyway-- the Narrative of the Evil Unions has never flagged, and people who are invested in it will be damned if they're going to see the unions wiggle CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Covid and the Good Guys

In rare school board campaign visit, national teachers union president calls Scranton recovery plan 'immoral'

In rare school board campaign visit, national teachers union president calls Scranton recovery plan 'immoral'

In rare school board campaign visit, national teachers union president calls Scranton recovery plan 'immoral'

May 16—SCRANTON — Calling Tuesday's election a critical moment for the Scranton School District, the national president of the American Federation of Teachers visited the city on Saturday to campaign for the union-endorsed candidates.

The unprecedented visit by Randi Weingarten comes amid the Scranton Federation of Teachers' push to elect candidates who say they will question the financial recovery plan, restore the preschool program, settle the teachers contract and hold the line on taxes.

Nearly two years into the recovery plan, the progress and the process of obtaining solvency has led to the highly contentious primary campaign. More than 100 people gathered behind the SFT Wyoming Avenue headquarters to hear Weingarten, who called the recovery plan "immoral." Using the slogan from President Joe Biden's economic recovery proposal, she challenged attendees to spend the next few days encouraging neighbors to vote for the endorsed candidates.

"You build back better by building a better school board," she said. "When you want to help a community thrive, you don't take away anchors and foundations."

With four four-year seats available, incumbent President Katie Gilmartin, Director Sean McAndrew, former Director Tom Borthwick and newcomers Danielle Chesek and Tyrone Holmes seek both Democratic and Republican nominations. Newcomers Chris Gaidos and Tucker J. Hottes seek Democratic nominations.

Former Director Greg Popil and Gilmartin seek both Democratic and Republican nominations for one two-year seat. Hottes and Gaidos also seek a Democratic nomination for the two-year seat.

The union has endorsed Borthwick, Chesek, Holmes, McAndrew and Popil. In remarks Saturday, the five candidates vowed to ask questions of the administration and chief recovery officer and push for fair funding from the state.

As teachers complete their fourth year of working under an expired CONTINUE READING: In rare school board campaign visit, national teachers union president calls Scranton recovery plan 'immoral'

Schools Must Fully Reopen in the Fall - The Atlantic

Schools Must Fully Reopen in the Fall - The Atlantic

Schools Must Fully Reopen in the Fall

The American Federation of Teachers, which I lead, is committed to making this happen.

Schools must open this fall. In person. Five days a week. With the space and and health safeguards to do so. The American Federation of Teachers, which I lead, is committed to making this happen.

School is where children learn best, where they play together and form relationships and acquire resilience. It’s where many children who otherwise might go hungry eat breakfast and lunch. Parents rely on schools, not only to educate their kids, but so they can work. Nearly 3 million mothers have dropped out of the workforce during the pandemic.

Over the past 14 months, teachers have scrambled to redesign lessons and projects, and to create virtual field trips and labs to keep kids engaged and learning from afar. They are exhausted. They’re working longer hours, troubleshooting IT problems, and trying to connect with students despite the barriers—whether a computer screen or a plexiglass shield. School food workers kept meals coming, often feeding anyone in the community who needed it. Many school-bus drivers delivered those meals, along with schoolwork and internet hotspots so students could learn from home.

All the while, educators have yearned to be back in school, with their students. They asked only for a safe workplace during this pandemic, and the resources they and their students need to succeed.

Yet critics have scapegoated teachers and vilified their unions because of school closures during the pandemic, ignoring the extreme disparities among schools and blaming teachers for problems outside their control.

Creating safe conditions in schools during a public-health crisis is not an obstacle to reopening classrooms; it is the pathway to going back, staying back, and building trust throughout school communities.

We faced stiff headwinds. Donald Trump tweeted multiple times that schools should reopen but did nothing to help them do so safely. The Trump administration politicized safety and undermined science. As a result, from last April right up to January 19 this year, we were working to reopen schools in a climate of chaos, fear, and misinformation as the pandemic surged in wave after wave.

Thankfully, the Biden administration changed course and is fighting the pandemic with science, truth, transparency, and, yes, money. We have experienced some bumps, of course—this is a once-in-a-century pandemic. But today an overwhelming majority of schools across the country are open for in-person learning, either full- or part-time.

Vaccines have been a game changer. I hear this sentiment in educators’ voices and see it in our polling results. The fear that they will bring the virus home decreases the moment they get their shot. According to our data, 89 percent of our members are fully vaccinated or want to be. And this week we had more good news: The FDA authorized use of the Pfizer vaccine for 12-to-15-year-olds. CONTINUE READING: Schools Must Fully Reopen in the Fall - The Atlantic

Teachers union leader calls for 'fully reopening’ schools this fall - POLITICO

Teachers union leader calls for 'fully reopening’ schools this fall - POLITICO

Teachers union leader calls for 'fully reopening’ schools this fall

Randi Weingarten is promising a campaign that resembles a "get out the vote" effort, but for school reopening.

Nothing should stop public schools from fully reopening this fall, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten will declare this morning in a speech that will also set out details of a $5 million union outreach campaign to coax families back to in-person classes.

"Given current circumstances, nothing should stand in the way of fully reopening our public schools this fall and keeping them open," Weingarten is expected to say in an address scheduled for 11 a.m. ET.

"Public health experts caution that, unless many more people get vaccinated, we will not reach herd immunity against COVID," Weingarten said of returning to classes in a draft version of the address. "But we can manage the threat by encouraging people to get vaccines and following guidance from the CDC to prevent the spread of disease — which currently includes the layered mitigation of masking and distancing, ventilation and sanitizing, handwashing, and COVID testing and contact tracing that help prevent outbreaks and minimize quarantines."

Outreach campaign: Weingarten is promising a campaign that resembles a "get out the vote" effort, but for school reopening.

She's expected to note local unions, such as the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers, will go door to door to visit students’ homes and encourage families to send their children back for in-person learning, and cite Covid-19 vaccination events in Los Angeles and Chicago.

The union released new polling results Wednesday that concluded 73 percent of parents — but only 59 percent of Black parents — said they are comfortable with in-person learning for their child this fall. By contrast, 94 percent of parents (and 87 percent of Black parents) said they’d be comfortable with in-person learning this fall if schools adopt safety measures such as mask-wearing and physical distancing requirements and make Covid-19 vaccines available at school buildings.

"These mitigation measures are vital," Weingarten is expected to say. "So is collaboration with parents to create trust and transparency."

Looking ahead: Weingarten will also use her speech to continue union calls CONTINUE READING: Teachers union leader calls for 'fully reopening’ schools this fall - POLITICO

Randi Weingarten Out Foxes Fox - Turns Tables on Martha MacCallum, Presses Her About Election ‘Misinformation’ - DAILY BEAST,

Randi Weingarten Turns Tables on Martha MacCallum, Presses Her About Election ‘Misinformation

Fox Guest Turns Tables on Host, Presses Her About Election ‘Misinformation’

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten turned an already testy Fox News interview into an extremely heated affair on Monday when she pressed anchor Martha MacCallum about conservative “misinformation” on the last presidential election.

In recent months, there has been a sustained backlash among conservatives over the issue of racial equity in the classroom. GOP legislators across the country have proposed bills to ban the teaching of “critical race theory” in K-12 schools, all while demanding that students be taught that 1776 represents the true founding of America. (Much of this is in response to the New York Times’ 1619 Project, which has sparked criticism among some historians.)

With Fox lately being obsessed with the topic of critical race theory, MacCallum wanted to know whether Weingarten believes the 1619 Project is factual and whether she endorses it being part of American history lesson plans. After Weingarten said it’s a “point in history” that’s worth teaching because it represents the first slave ships arriving in America, MacCallum criticized her for having a “very simplistic take.”

Going back and forth over the merits of the project with Weingarten, MacCallum complained that it “is not factual” as it teaches students that the “country was founded on the basis of wanting to preserve slavery.” The union head, meanwhile, said she’s “not arrived at the same conclusion” about the project’s findings.

At that point, Weingarten decided to change the subject to something a bit more touchy for the Fox News anchor.

“I would hope that Fox would be just as focused on let’s get rid of the misinformation about what happened in this election. This election was free and fair,” Weingarten flatly stated, prompting an incensed MacCallum to interject.

“Oh, come on, Randi,” she exclaimed. “This is not the topic we’re here to talk about! I’m not going to talk about that. We’ve talked about that before… That’s a dodge, OK?!”

MacCallum then tried to swing the discussion back to critical race theory in the CONTINUE READING: Randi Weingarten Turns Tables on Martha MacCallum, Presses Her About Election ‘Misinformation

What's ahead for teachers? | Cornell Chronicle

What's ahead for teachers? | Cornell Chronicle

What's ahead for teachers?

One of the nation’s most influential labor leaders, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten ’80, meets Thursday with ILR Dean Alex Colvin to discuss “One Year Later, What’s Ahead for Teachers?”

Part of ILR’s eCornell series entitled “The Future of Work: Labor in America,” the event is free and open to the public.

Register here for “One Year Later, What’s Ahead for Teachers,” which will be held from 3:30 to 4:30 ET on Thursday.

The first in the ILR “Future of Work” series was “Unionization in Big Tech: Why Now?” and is accessible by completing the form in this link.

After this Thursday’s event, the next in the series will be a May 10 keynote with Colvin, Thomas Perez, labor secretary in the Obama administration and former Democratic National Committee chair, and Cathy Creighton, director of ILR’s Buffalo Co-Lab. The keynote begins at 2:30 p.m. ET.

On Thursday, Weingarten and Colvin will discuss three areas:

• the pandemic’s impact on K-12 learning and teaching, this fall and beyond
• how the Amazon union vote is affecting labor
• how the Biden administration will impact teaching.

Weingarten is the president of the American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO, a union of 1.7 million teachers; paraprofessionals and school-related personnel; higher education faculty and staff; nurses and other healthcare CONTINUE READING: What's ahead for teachers? | Cornell Chronicle

AFT, NEA protest new anti-virus school reopening guidelines – People's World

AFT, NEA protest new anti-virus school reopening guidelines – People's World

AFT, NEA protest new anti-virus school reopening guidelines

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

MUST WATCH VIDEO: President of the American Federation of Teachers on schools reopening - CBS News

President of the American Federation of Teachers on schools reopening - CBS News

President of the American Federation of Teachers on schools reopening

Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers union, joins Nikki Battiste on CBSN to discuss how school reopening efforts are going so far.

President of the American Federation of Teachers on schools reopening - CBS News

Teachers' Unions Uncertain on C.D.C.'s New 3-Feet Limit - The New York Times

Teachers' Unions Uncertain on C.D.C.'s New 3-Feet Limit - The New York Times

Parents and school leaders celebrate new C.D.C. guidance lowering distance between students to 3 feet. Teachers aren’t on board yet.

Proponents of fully reopening schools got a major boost on Friday when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that elementary school students and some middle and high school students could be spaced three feet apart in classrooms.

The previous guidance of keeping most students six feet apart had in many school districts become a big obstacle to welcoming students back for full-time instruction because it severely limited capacity. Many experts now say a growing body of research shows that six feet is not much more protective than three, as long as other safety measures are in place, like mask wearing.

Public health experts, parents and school officials cheered the new recommendation. Teachers’ unions, which have used the six-foot guidance to oppose bringing children back for normal schedules, did not.

EDUCATION BRIEFING: The pandemic is upending education. Get the latest news and tips.

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, the nation’s second-largest educators’ union, said in a statement that she would “reserve judgment” on the new guidelines pending further review of research on how the virus behaves in schools, especially those in cities or that are under-resourced. Becky Pringle, president of the largest teachers’ union, the National Education Association, raised similar concerns.

Nevertheless, the new guidance seemed to be having an immediate impact in some places. New York City, the nation’s largest school district, announced on Friday that it would give families another chance to select in-person instruction for their children. The city said that elementary schools, prekindergarten programs and CONTINUE READING: Teachers' Unions Uncertain on C.D.C.'s New 3-Feet Limit - The New York Times

AFT president responds to new CDC physical distancing guidelines - The Highland County Press

AFT president responds to new CDC physical distancing guidelines - The Highland County Press

AFT president responds to new CDC physical distancing guidelines

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten issued the following statement Friday after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention altered its physical distancing guidelines for school classrooms:

“No one wants to end remote and hybrid education more than educators, parents and students — just ask anyone who’s had to teach or learn with simultaneous online and in-person instruction.

“While we hope the CDC is right and these new studies convince the community that the most enduring safety standard of this pandemic — the six-foot rule — can be jettisoned if we all wear masks, we will reserve judgement until we review them, especially as they apply in districts with high community spread and older buildings with ventilation challenges.

“Kids need to be in school, and the AFT has advocated consistently for safely reopening in-person learning since last April, but we are concerned this change has been driven by a lack of physical space rather than the hard science on aerosol exposure and transmission.

“Until today, the literature on reducing distancing has been inconclusive at best and misleading at worst. The studies so far have often approached distancing in a vacuum, without measuring the effect of changes to other mitigation strategies, including masking.

“The good news is we’re making progress — the latest data show 80 percent of schools are now offering some in-person CONTINUE READING: AFT president responds to new CDC physical distancing guidelines - The Highland County Press

Biden needs to pursue student loan forgiveness - USA TODAY

Biden needs to pursue student loan forgiveness

Student loan forgiveness: Biden can restore a broken promise

We found a minefield of deceptions by student loan companies and negligent indifference by government officials.

Kelly Finlaw is a middle school art teacher in New York City. Over the last year, she has also been called an “essential employee,” a “frontline worker” and — a term she has certainly never attributed to herself — a “hero.” During this time, she has done everything she could to meet the needs of her students and make remote learning work as well as possible, all the while knowing it is no substitute for being in the classroom with her students.

Yet despite delivering on her promise to educate the next generation of Americans — even in the midst of a pandemic — the federal government has broken its promise to her. Finlaw remains stuck with nearly $90,000 in student debt that should have been canceled years ago.

Finlaw, along with millions of others, was made a simple pledge: If she worked for a decade as an educator, as a nurse or in another public service profession, her student debt would be wiped away. 

The Public Service Loan Forgiveness program 

That was the intent of the federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness program — a bipartisan law that recognized that spiraling student debt burdens are particularly punishing for workers in public service, and that our communities and our country are worse off if this burden drives a generation of students away from careers as educators, healthcare workers, first responders, and other public service workers. CONTINUE READING: Biden needs to pursue student loan forgiveness

NANCY BAILEY: Questions About The AFT and NEA’s “Learning After Covid Vision”

Questions About The AFT and NEA’s “Learning After Covid Vision”

Questions About The AFT and NEA’s “Learning After Covid Vision”

Teachers are the most important individuals in a child’s schooling, and during the pandemic, they have gone above and beyond to reach out to students.

AFT President Randi Weingarten and NEA’s Becky Pringle are to be commended for speaking out about Covid-19 in support of student and teacher safety. The teachers’ unions have been criticized unfairly for trying to do what’s right for the safety of students and teachers.

But why does their new post-Covid-19 guide tip a hat towards nonprofits and groups that are not friendly to teachers and public education?

How exactly will schools change after Covid-19? Are teachers aware of the union connections and what they mean by words like restructuring schools? Is it about online learning? How involved will teachers be in that restructuring process and is it for the betterment of students?

Learning Beyond Covid: A Vision for Thriving in Public Education at first glance might seem positive and it makes some good points. But many of the links raise CONTINUE READING: Questions About The AFT and NEA’s “Learning After Covid Vision”

Ed Notes Online: Outrage at Randi Grows -- Schumer and a Teachers’ Union Leader Secure Billions for Private Schools, NYT -- Oh, the Optics

Ed Notes Online: Outrage at Randi Grows -- Schumer and a Teachers’ Union Leader Secure Billions for Private Schools, NYT -- Oh, the Optics

Outrage at Randi Grows -- Schumer and a Teachers’ Union Leader Secure Billions for Private Schools, NYT -- Oh, the Optics

"This one is too much - good old Randi and Chuck" - Email from retired teacher

The pandemic relief bill includes $2.75 billion for private schools. How it got there is an unlikely political tale, involving Orthodox Jewish lobbying, the Senate majority leader and a teachers’ union president... NYT

Last year, Ms. Weingarten led calls to reject orders from Ms. DeVos to force public school districts to increase the amount of federal relief funding they share with private schools, beyond what the law required to help them recover.

Randi talking out of five sides of her mouth? I'm shocked there's gambling.

“We never anticipated Senate Democrats would proactively choose to push us down the slippery slope of funding private schools directly,” said Sasha Pudelski, the advocacy director at AASA, the School Superintendents Association, one of the groups that wrote letters to Congress protesting the carve-out. “The floodgates are open and now with bipartisan support, why would private schools not ask for more federal money?”

Among the Democrats who were displeased with Mr. Schumer’s reversal was Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California,

 

Oy vay, Randi. You mean those Orthodox communities with some of the highest COVID numbers in the city?  Let's reward them. 

[I know I will be called antisemitic or a self-hating Jew - one day I will talk about working in a school district where a religious CONTINUE READING: Ed Notes Online: Outrage at Randi Grows -- Schumer and a Teachers’ Union Leader Secure Billions for Private Schools, NYT -- Oh, the Optics

Union Leader Weingarten: Excluding Private Schools from $1.9 Trillion Relief Would Be a Shonda | The Jewish Press

Union Leader Weingarten: Excluding Private Schools from $1.9 Trillion Relief Would Be a Shonda | The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com | David Israel | 1 Nisan 5781 – March 13, 2021 | JewishPress.com

Union Leader Weingarten: Excluding Private Schools from $1.9 Trillion Relief Would Be a Shonda

The $1.9 trillion pandemic relief law, passed by the Democrats in both houses with zero Republican support, includes close to $3 billion earmarked for private schools – quite a surprise from the pro-public school Democrats. In fact, according to the NY Times, it was teachers’ union’s leader Randi Weingarten, a champion of public education, who supported Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) in acknowledging that the federal government was obligated to help all schools recover from the pandemic (Schumer and a Teachers’ Union Leader Secure Billions for Private Schools).

Weingarten, a graduate of Yeshiva University’s Cardozo School of Law, told the Times that “the nonwealthy kids that are in parochial schools, their families don’t have means, and they’ve gone through Covid in the same way public school kids have,” adding, “All of our children need to survive, and need to recover post-Covid, and it would be a shonda if we didn’t actually provide the emotional support and nonreligious supports that all of our children need right now and in the aftermath of this emergency.”

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According to the Times, Schumer was lobbied by the Orthodox Jewish community in New York City, which upset other Democrats, mostly public school advocates, who fought the Trump administration’s efforts to use the last two Covid-19 relief bills to help private schools. CONTINUE READING: Union Leader Weingarten: Excluding Private Schools from $1.9 Trillion Relief Would Be a Shonda | The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com | David Israel | 1 Nisan 5781 – March 13, 2021 | JewishPress.com

Rep. Jamaal Bowman & Randi Weingarten: America's Covid spring shouldn't include standardized tests for any students - NBC NEWS

America's Covid spring shouldn't include standardized tests for any students

America's Covid spring shouldn't include standardized tests for any students

After the year our children have had, we must consider their well-being above all else when making decisions about schooling.

By Rep. Jamaal Bowman, Democratic U.S. representative from New York’s 16th district and Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers

On Feb. 22, the Biden administration released its guidance for our country’s schools on how to manage standardized testing this spring. In an attempt to accommodate the extreme measures that schools and teachers have had to take to meet students’ needs during the pandemic, the Department of Education offered schools some flexibility but failed to offer a blanket waiver for all testing this year.

While we appreciate the effort to give schools and educators some leeway, and to make standardized test results less consequential overall, we fear that maintaining testing requirements for this spring will cause more harm than good.

As two former educators whose predominantly Black and brown students not only had to take these tests in “normal times” but often excelled at them, we understand why they exist: to collect nationwide educational performance data to effectively allocate resources to the students that need them most. But the data is not in and of itself a solution.

As we surpass this morbid milestone of half a million lives lost to this pandemic, the challenges faced by students across the country must be addressed. That starts with getting the pandemic under control, shots in people’s arms and more students back into classrooms. But standardized testing will not help the national effort to asses student needs and monitor their social, emotional and academic progress. CONTINUE READING: America's Covid spring shouldn't include standardized tests for any students

AFT & NEA Issue Joint Statement on Actions Needed After the Pandemic to Benefit All Students | Diane Ravitch's blog

AFT & NEA Issue Joint Statement on Actions Needed After the Pandemic to Benefit All Students | Diane Ravitch's blog

AFT & NEA Issue Joint Statement on Actions Needed After the Pandemic to Benefit All Students

The nation’s two teachers’ unions joined together to issue an unusual joint statement that advises federal, state, and local leaders what must be done not only to revive education after the pandemic but to restart it with a fresh vision that focuses on the needs of children, not assumptions about their “learning loss” or “COVID slide.”

They introduce the document and its visionary proposals with these words:

Nation’s educators release shared agenda to ensure all students succeed Organizations offer proven ways to help students overcome Covid-19 opportunity gaps and meet students’ academic, social, and emotional needs

WASHINGTON, DC – Today the National Education Association (NEA) and American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the nation’s two largest educators’ unions, released a bold, shared agenda to ensure that all students receive the supports and resources they need to thrive now and in the future.  

Over the course of the last month, AFT and NEA have come together to define the essential elements needed to effectively understand and address the ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted students’ academic, social, and developmental experiences. “We have an unprecedented opportunity to create the public schools all our students deserve,” said NEA President Becky Pringle. “It is our mission to demand stronger public schools and more opportunities for all students- Black and white, Native and newcomer, Hispanic and Asian alike. And we must support the whole learner through social, emotional and academic development. The ideas presented in this roadmap will lay the groundwork to build a better future for all of our students.” 

“COVID-19 has laid bare this country’s deep fissures and inequities and our children, our educators and our communities have endured an unprecedented year of frustration, pain and loss,” said AFT President Randi Weingarten. “As vaccine access and effectiveness suggest the end is in sight, it is incumbent on us to not only plan our recovery, but to reimagine public schooling so our children, families and educators can thrive.  

“The crises gripping our country are weighing heavily on young people, who are the future of our communities. That’s why our schools must, at a minimum, be supported and well-resourced to address our students their trauma, social-emotional, developmental and academic needs. This framework is an invaluable tool to help us get there,” Weingarten added. 

Shared with Sec. of Education Cardona last week, Learning Beyond Covid-19, A Vision for Thriving in Public Education offers the organizations’ ideas on ways our education systems can meet students where they are academically, socially, and emotionally.  The framework outlines five priorities that can serve as a guide for nurturing students’ learning now and beyond COVID-19 including learning, enrichment and reconnection for this summer and beyond; diagnosing student well-being and academic success; meeting the needs of our most underserved students; professional excellence for learning and growth; and an education system that centers equity and excellence. 

The full document can be found here. 

AFT & NEA Issue Joint Statement on Actions Needed After the Pandemic to Benefit All Students | Diane Ravitch's blog