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WASHINGTON – Just weeks away from the reopening of schools in much of the country, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona told the White House on Thursday that although the Delta variant of the coronavirus “offers new challenges,” he is anticipating always a return to classroom teaching.
“We expect our students to be in the classroom every day,” Cardona said from the White House briefing room, as he and other administration officials embark on a campaign to convince the American public that schools are safe. To do so, he will need to keep powerful teacher unions online while persuading Republican governors like Ron DeSantis of Florida and Greg Abbott of Texas to allow school districts to impose mask mandates. The two governors have vigorously resisted. to such measures, even if their states are clubbed by the Delta variant.
“Politics have no role to play in this,” Cardona said, an apparent call for conservative governors to drop their resistance to the mask. One of those who did is Arkansas’ Asa Hutchinson, who said this week he regretted signing a mask ban into law. He now wants school districts to set their own rules on masks, but needs legislative support to change the ban.
Despite the challenges presented in recent weeks, Cardona expressed confidence for the new school year. “Everything is on the bridge here,” he said.
“The resources are there, and the urgency is there,” he added later.
About $ 130 billion of President Biden’s coronavirus relief program has gone to schools across the country, a figure he and other administration officials frequently cite to remind educators they got what they got. they asked. (Some educators argue, however, that recent largesse cannot make up for decades of underfunding of public education.)
These funds have been used to modernize crumbling buildings with old ventilation systems, hire teachers and support staff, and make other preparations for a school year that many hope will regain some sense of normalcy.
The Delta variant challenged such hopes. Although 90% of American teachers are vaccinated, children under 12 – for whom distance learning is bound to be more difficult than their older peers – are not yet cleared by the Food and Drug Administration to receive training. vaccines.
“After declining in early summer, child cases rose steadily in July,” the American Academy of Pediatrics said in a pandemic update released in late July.
The increased transferability of the new variant has raised concerns that teachers’ unions may argue that in-person teaching is too risky, as they have for much of 2020 and the first months of 2021, their resistance. decreasing only at the end of spring.
Conservatives took advantage of a recent remark by Randi Weingarten, head of the influential American Federation of Teachers, that its members are trying to open schools this fall. Weingarten had previously spoken in favor of face-to-face instruction, but neither she nor Cardona has control over the decisions of the local union branches.
“All teachers want schools to reopen,” Cardona said Thursday.
Numerous studies have shown that schools do not act as sites of intensive viral transmission, especially if teachers and students wear masks. Conversely, research indicates that distance learning is not only ineffective, but can lead to social isolation in children.
Prior to becoming Federal Secretary of Education, Cardona was the Superintendent of Connecticut Public Schools. It has been widely celebrated for the reopening of safe schools in that state for the 2020-21 school year, which officials in other Democratic-led states have failed to do.
While unions present one potential problem, Republican governors represent another. Even as the coronavirus ravages their states, Abbott of Texas and DeSantis of Florida have both signed measures preventing school districts from adopting mask mandates. Some districts are moving forward with such mandates regardless, setting up a potential battle with the White House.
DeSantis was celebrated for opening schools last year, but its intense resistance to masking has come under criticism. His masked resistance appears calculated to curry favor with libertarians and conservatives, whose support he will need if he runs for president in 2024, as is generally expected.
“Don’t be the reason schools are down,” Cardona said at the White House briefing Thursday, urging governors to “let our educators educate, let our principals lead.”
Florida and Texas accounted for a third of all new coronavirus cases last week, and teachers in both states are nervous. “We find ourselves in a situation where we are literally losing our workforce,” a superintendent told Politico, referring to two deaths and 15 new cases in his district.
“They have suffered enough,” Cardona said of American children. “It’s time for them to be in class without disrupting their learning.
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