Tag: quickly

During his first 48 hours in office, President Biden sought to project an optimistic message about the return of the many homebound students to classrooms. “We can teach our children in safe schools,” he pledged in his inaugural address.

The next day, Mr Biden signed an executive order promising to put the strength of the federal government behind an effort to “reopen the doors of schools as quickly as possible.”

But with about half of America’s college students still practically learning as the pandemic nears its first birthday, the president’s push is far from certain to succeed. His plan is unfolding just as the local battles for the reopening have become fiercer in recent weeks.

Teachers do not know exactly when they will be vaccinated and fear contagion. With an alarming number of cases across the country and new variants of the coronavirus emerging, unions are battling efforts to fire their members into crowded hallways. Their reluctance comes even as school administrators, mayors and some parents feel an increased urgency to restore educational activities as usual for the millions of students who are struggling academically and emotionally.

Given the seemingly intractable health and work issues, some district officials have started saying out loud what was previously unthinkable: that schools may not function normally for the 2021-2022 school year. And some union leaders are seeking to lower expectations raised by Mr Biden’s words.

“We don’t know if a vaccine stops transmissibility,” said Randi Weingarten, the powerful president of the American Federation of Teachers, the country’s second largest teachers’ union.

Some virus experts, however, have said there is reason to be optimistic on this issue.

Ms Weingarten said that one of the keys to returning teachers to classrooms in the coming months would be the promise to allow those with health problems or whose family members have weakened immune systems to continue. to work remotely; centralized data collection on the number of Covid-19 cases in specific schools; and assuring districts that they would close schools when cases did arise.

Struggles for these same demands have slowed down and complicated reopening across the country. But Ms Weingarten also indicated that Mr Biden’s efforts to fill classrooms would be welcomed more favorably than those of Donald Trump and his education secretary, Betsy DeVos, who have been widely vilified by school teachers. public.

“Don’t underestimate the bully’s pulpit,” she said. “Truth and trust are so important.”

Mr Biden’s executive order directs federal agencies to create national guidelines for reopening schools, support the tracing of viral contacts in schools and collect data measuring the impact of the pandemic on students. The White House is also pushing a stimulus package that would provide schools with $ 130 billion for costs like testing for viruses, upgrading ventilation systems and hiring staff.

Principals are eagerly awaiting additional money from Washington, which could run into the thousands of dollars per student. But they stress that it will be just as important for federal officials to directly address the in-person work anxiety that has swept through faculty and been given an influential voice in places where unions teachers are powerful.

The Trump administration has fueled this anxiety by demanding the opening of schools while issuing vague and contradictory guidelines on how to do so safely.

Robert Runcie, superintendent of public schools in Broward County in South Florida, the nation’s sixth largest district, said he would like to see Dr.Anthony Fauci hold a press conference to discuss schools and “alleviate the fear of people ”.

Broward does not do surveillance tests, but has published a dashboard tracing known cases of the virus in its schools – around 2,000 among students and staff since the system reopened in October, serving about a third of its 260,000 students in person. Contact tracing suggested that only 10% of those cases could have been caused by transmission in schools, Mr Runcie said, and that the majority of those transmissions were likely related to athletics.

This is in line with other research suggesting that measures such as masks can effectively mitigate the spread of the virus in schools.

The district forced some teachers with health problems to return to school buildings earlier this month, to avoid a situation where some students were learning online, even in school buildings. In response, the local union sued; the matter is currently in arbitration. Bus drivers, food service workers, wardens and district employees work full time without complaint, Runcie said.

The system lost 9,000 students this year as parents sought alternatives to virtual education. If some families choose to stay in private and chartered schools permanently, district funding could plummet, forcing layoffs, Runcie warned. He argued that the union’s struggle was shortsighted.

Anna Fusco, president of the Broward Teachers Union, said most teachers in the county are ready to get the shot and work in person following this with safety precautions in place. Florida, like the majority of states, has yet to make teachers eligible for the vaccine.

Disputes over teachers’ health exemptions are also at the heart of Chicago, where the union has threatened to refuse to work in person due to what it claims to be unsanitary conditions in school buildings, which the district is currently reopening by steps.

Kenzo Shibata, a high school civics and English teacher, was denied a request to continue working remotely. His wife has breast cancer and is about to start chemotherapy again. He also manages distance learning for his second grade son, a neighborhood student.

Mr. Shibata, an official with the Chicago Teachers Union, said he would be ready to return to class after being vaccinated, even if his students were not yet vaccinated. The district has promised to distribute vaccines directly to educators from February.

But Mr. Shibata suggested that a safer course of action would be to postpone in-person learning until the fall, especially given the reluctance of black and Latino parents in Chicago to send their children home. school. He was skeptical, he added, of President Biden’s willingness to reopen schools within 100 days.

“I think it’s arbitrary and a political statement, not an educational statement or a scientific or health statement,” he said. “It doesn’t inspire much confidence in me.”

Under the Trump administration, unions and public school advocates argued that schools could only reopen with a huge infusion of federal funds to purchase sanitation equipment, smaller classrooms to maintain social distancing, and hire nurses and psychologists.

The money is starting to flow, but Marguerite Roza, a school finance expert at Georgetown University, said it was perhaps even more important for the federal government to build the capacity of districts to negotiate forcefully with their students. unions.

The Biden administration could set a clear threshold for virus transmission in the community, below which it would advise schools to stay open, Dr Roza said, or even require them to do so in order to access federal dollars.

Research has highlighted the potential of making schools operate safely before teachers and students are vaccinated, provided that practices such as wearing masks are followed, and especially when transmission rates and hospitalizations in the community are monitored.

Tying the stimulus money to opening schools might be a more onerous strategy than the new Democratic administration is comfortable with, especially given the reluctance of unions. A White House spokesperson said on Friday that partnership and cooperation with teachers’ unions would be essential for the successful reopening of schools.

But Mr Biden could also tackle teacher anxiety by speaking directly to the grassroots.

“The money supply? I don’t know if that will really be what keeps people coming back right now, ”Dr Roza said. “The fear is real.”