Muddled promises on schools pose a problem for president
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is in a political firestorm over how and when to get more schools open amid the coronavirus pandemic, with Republicans seizing on confusion surrounding Biden’s goal to reopen a majority of schools within his first 100 days to paint the president as beholden to teachers’ unions at the expense of American families.
His administration in recent weeks has sent muddled and at times contradictory messages about Biden’s goal. On Tuesday night, the president said his 100day goal was to have most elementary schools open five days a week, seeming to conflict with his own press secretary, who said last week that schools would be considered “open” if they held in-person classes even one day a week.
Biden’s aides dismiss the controversy as a flareup that will disappear once the coronavirus is better under control and more school districts reopen, pointing to recent polls suggesting the public so far believes Biden is doing a good job in handling the issue.
But there could be lingering damage if Biden is seen to break an early promise on an issue so important to so many Americans.
Teachers’ unions have said they support reopening schools once officials are able to make the buildings safer, but they need the $130 billion included in Biden’s proposed American Rescue Plan to make it happen. And even if the bill passes Congress by the Democrats’ mid-March deadline, it’s unclear whether districts would be able to make changes in time to hasten school openings before the end of Biden’s first 100 days.
Dan Domenech, executive director of the School Superintendents Association, said teachers are willing to go back to in-person learning “only if this bill is passed, only if the dollars get to the school districts in time for them to be able to do the work that they need to do in terms of spacing, in terms of sanitizing, and only if we get the majority of our teachers vaccinated.”
“It’s possible. But at this stage, at this point, it’s not probable,” he said.
American Federation of Teachers’ President Randi Weingarten had an even gloomier outlook, declaring that until the nation reaches herd immunity through widespread vaccinations, “we’re not going to be at normal.”
This leaves Biden caught between teachers’ unions skeptical of his expanded goal on reopening and critics who say just one day of classroom time a week for a majority of schools is far too little. Data from Burbio, a service that tracks school opening plans, recently reported that 66% of K-12 students already are learning in-person to some degree.
Republicans have been using the issue to hit at Democrats for weeks, pointing to data suggesting that many schools are safe to open now and charging that the Biden administration is siding with teachers’ unions over science and the needs of American families.
“In places across America where public education depends on the whims of a powerful public sector union, the best interests of children have often come dead last,” Mitch McConnell, the top Republican in the Senate, said during a floor speech earlier this month. “As the months have rolled by and the data have poured in, it’s become clear that schools can open safely.”
“An administration that puts facts and science first would be conducting a full-court press to open schools,” McConnell said.
Republicans see the issue as one that has an urgent and immediate impact on nearly every American family, and one that’s particularly salient for the kinds of suburban swing voters who can be decisive in tough House districts and statewide races.
Republican strategist Rory Cooper said the issue is particularly relevant in “collar counties around major urban areas.” He and other parents are “enraged with the state of schooling right now,” he said.
Children face “mental health issues, academic issues, physical and social issues. And the priority seems to be on the adults who worked in the school system, rather than the children who are supposed to benefit from it,” Cooper said.
Indeed, Republicans are already using the issue against Democrats in races this year. One of California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Republican opponents, Kevin Faulconer, launched his campaign hammering Newsom on the issue after stepping off a yellow school bus, a symbol of the frustration of parents whose kids remain locked out of classrooms because of the pandemic.