Teachers denounce frustrations over reopening of slow-moving union schools: “ Politics seems to reign ”

President Biden’s plan to reopen schools within 100 days has met opposition from teachers’ unions over coronavirus-related safety concerns, leaving other teachers frustrated.

“Over the past year, there has essentially been a strike by the National Teachers Union that has left tens of millions of families without access to adequate education,” said Tommy Schultz, vice president of American Federation for Children, a nonprofit organization that supports school choice programs. .

Schultz cited figures from October 2020 showing that around 3 million children have not been in school since last March, “falling completely through the cracks.”

“It will haunt our country for decades to come, and the blatant refusal of teachers’ unions to ignore science in the name of political extortion is downright shameful,” he said.

Rebecca Friedrichs, who was a teacher in California for 28 years, echoed Schultz’s concerns for American children and the state of their education.

TEACHERS UNION HEAD ‘DEBUNKS’ RUMOR WHO DOESN’T WANT TO REOPEN, SHE AVOIDS IF CHILDREN RETURNING THIS YEAR

“Most good teachers are deeply troubled by strikes,” she said. “We never want to deny children a single day of learning, and we understand that we are servant leaders of these children.”

Friedrichs is also a former union representative and was the main plaintiff in the 2016 Supreme Court case Friedrichs v CTA, the case against the National Education Association and the California Teachers Association, which sought to give teachers and others public sector employees the right to decide whether or not to fund trade unions. The case was lost after the US Supreme Court stalled in a 4-4 decision and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ultimately ruled against it.

Friedrichs said unions used strikes to “push their muscles” and essentially put pressure on communities to meet their demands, sometimes to the detriment of children’s education.

“Unions use these tactics against good teachers and threaten their work and workplace peace,” she said. “So most teachers only take strikes to ‘get along’.”

Lisa Disbrow, an elementary school teacher in California with 34 years of experience, agreed, saying teachers stay in the union because they are afraid of the union’s response when they leave.

CHICAGO TEACHERS UNION AGREES TO RE-OPEN OFFER FOR IN-PERSON LEARNING

“They were told that no one else will take care of them, no one else will protect them,” she said. “They are surrounded by people pushing them and trying to undermine the focus on academics, quality classroom management and the pursuit of true academic growth as the full spectrum of programs and platforms indoctrination is creeping in. It’s very politicized. “

Willie Preston is the father of six children who attend all Chicago public schools. He said his children’s teachers and Chicago public school teachers in general are “very afraid” to speak out publicly because the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) is a “very ruthless organization.”

“I don’t know if a CTU member, even those who are against what is happening, would be ready to speak out publicly,” he said. “CTU has teachers who contact parents directly to create social media statuses that don’t match their views. These teachers won’t say anything.”

Karen Cuen, an elementary music teacher for more than 25 years in the Chino Valley Unified School District in California, believes other teachers are also frustrated with their unions as schools have to reopen.

“Teachers’ unions are never right to strike,” she said. “Teaching is not just a job, it is a vocation. Our ‘clients’ are precious children who deserve to be taught by their teachers, not a picket line.

Cuen said she understood workplace issues and the need for bargaining power, but said some union demands for the reopening of schools “are often not even education related.”

REPUBLICS SAYS BIDEN COVID PACKAGE PAYS A “ RANSOM NOTE ” FROM TEACHERS UNION

“We have been told to ‘follow the science’, which increasingly indicates the opening of schools, but politics seems to reign at every turn,” she said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said schools can open up to in-person learning without vaccines from teachers “even in areas of the most widespread community” with proper safety precautions.

“We have a consensus among apolitical medical experts, including key CDC leaders who wrote in the leading medical journal, JAMA, three weeks ago that schools do not contribute to transmission – a position that contradicts the official CDC guidelines, “said Dr. Marty Makary, physician and professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University, as well as a Fox News contributor.

Dr Janette Nesheiwat, family and emergency medicine physician and director of CityMD and contributor to Fox News, agrees.

“I understand the fear teachers can have,” she said, “but let’s look at the data, and the science that shows the transmission of COVID-19 in the classroom is lower than in the community. I think we need to support our teachers. and allow them to have access to vaccines so that they feel safe to return to class. “

The CDC already issued school guidelines in September. The Biden administration’s call for another updated set of guidelines has blocked schools from reopening and resulted in more pediatric suicides, worsening the hunger crisis in children and created other health problems in children, ”he said. “Overly onerous school requirements in CDC guidelines have further hampered school reopening and harmed children even more.” Time is lives.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Preston said he wanted his six children to be able to return to school in Chicago for several reasons, but mainly that “the science of the CDC and others say schools can safely reopen as long as policies of mitigations are put in place, which the Chicago Public School system has done. “

“In fact, CPS has spent almost $ 100 million to make CPS classrooms safe,” he said.

Preston believes it is possible for Biden to achieve his goal of reopening schools in his first 100 days if he supports science and “stands up for American children and their families, and doesn’t allow education to become a political struggle ”.