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Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said on Sunday she needed to “debunk” the myth that teacher unions don’t want to reopen schools and took a hit on California Gov. Gavin Newsom for not prioritizing vaccines in Los Angeles – but dodged the question of whether students would be able to fully resume in-person teaching this school year.
“I want to debunk this myth that teacher unions, at least our union, don’t want to reopen schools,” Weingarten told NBC News’s “Meet the Press”. “Teachers know that in-person education is really important and we would have said that before the pandemic. We knew that distance education is not a good substitute.”
“Will this school year probably not have full school openings?” NBC News’s Chuck Todd asked.
“What does it mean to fully open the school? If you do a six-foot physical gap, you’re basically saying in a school you’re going to have about 50 or 60 percent of people at a time. Not 100 percent, “Weingarten replied. “The problem really becomes, do we have 30% more space, do we have 30% more teachers. What I think we need to do, we need to get as much in person as possible right now. Have the mitigation strategies, have a great summer semester picking up the kids’ mojo on a voluntary basis, and then really plan for next year. “
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President Biden has repeatedly vowed to open the majority of K-8 schools by his 100th day in office on April 30. But new guidelines on reopening schools released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday could delay the return to in-person teaching. Even further. Using the latest scientific knowledge and data available on COVID-19, the operational phase-in mitigation strategy includes guidance on masking, physical distancing, hand washing and respiratory etiquette, ventilation and building cleaning and contact tracing.
Critics accused the White House of giving in to pressure from teachers’ unions and pushing the CDC to manipulate its advice.
“You can see, as the unions rallied and said they didn’t want classroom learning, you saw the White House pressuring the CDC to rescind the guidelines which were very clear, “Representative Steve Scalise, R-La. , said Sunday in an interview with ABC News’ “This Week”.
“Our kids can’t wait,” Scalise said. “They need to be in class today. Science says they can be in class today. The question is, is the will of some Washington politicians who bow to teacher unions in this moment?”
Weingarten said the latest guidance from the CDC and the resources Biden is trying to secure in the $ 1.9 trillion package create a “road map” for defining risks that boil down to three factors: Mitigation strategies in diapers, testing to track asymptomatic spread and prioritization of vaccines.
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“There’s a roadmap now, so you can follow that roadmap in terms of defining those risks,” Weingarten said in an interview with NBC presenter Chuck Todd. “It’s not that all teachers need to be vaccinated before schools are opened, but you need to align vaccine prioritization with schools reopening.”
The leader of one of America’s largest teachers’ unions, Weingarten, said New York City, home to the nation’s largest public school system, has set a positive example for the rest of the world to follow. America.
“There’s no perfect solution, but frankly I think New York City has done a really good job of leading the way. Large school district. Lots of issues in terms of old buildings and us. learned a lot from what New York did in September and October, ”Weingarten said.
Weingarten said a recent survey showed that 85% of its members would be comfortable in school if they had the kind of testing, layered attenuation and prioritization of vaccines like New York does.
She also praised Washington, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, who “effectively made sure all teachers and school staff who wanted the vaccine got vaccinated in the past few years. weeks “. The reopening plans executed by Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, a Republican, West Virginia Governor Jim Justice, a Republican, and Oregon Governor Kate Brown, a Democrat, were also praised by Weingarten, who then looked at how Newsom was handling the California pandemic response.
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“When I hear politicians, when I hear Governor Newsom say you’re always going to find a way out, well why doesn’t he prioritize the teachers in Los Angeles where they’ve been in the area? violet, violet – not in the red zone? “Weingarten said.
“I think the problem is, if the NFL could figure out how to do that, in terms of testing and protocols, if schools are that important, let’s do it. And my members want it, they just want to be safe.”
“You find whatever you’re looking for, so if we’re going to find reasons not to reopen, we’ll find many reasons. But if we’re going to start building our ways of strategizing and getting to where we all want to go. go, we will figure that out too, ”Newsom said in a recent interview.
When asked if she supports local teachers’ unions, including one in Fairfax, Va., Which does not want a return to in-person teaching until all children are immunized, Weingarten said that “teachers’ unions are not monolithic”.
“What you hear when you hear that is that people are afraid. We have to face the fear with the facts, that’s what we are trying to do. So we had Dr Fauci for example in two town halls , “Weingarten said. “We had a town hall on vaccines with experts on this, and just as we encounter hesitation about vaccines with facts, evidence and data, we need to do the same with regard to educators. What we learned from our survey and also from our experience, when people are actually in school with the protocols in place, they trust it more and then you just have to educate people that way. “
Weingarten said 71% of its members were afraid to bring COVID-19 home.
“Look, we’ve had 500,000 deaths and such grim realities here, but teachers across this country understand that in-person education is really important, so at the end of the day let’s implement the kind of strategies we need. . “
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Fox News’s Evie Fordham contributed to this report.
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