ISN’T ANY ‘HALF’ CREDIT
Teachers call reopen ‘uncertain and unpredictable’
The city’s half-in, half-out model to reopen schools this fall could hurt children in the long run, a teachers-union group warned on Thursday.
“Inconsistent and chaotic rotation between in-school and remote learning is a recipe for further disintegration of our students’ cognitive and social development,” the United Federation of Teachers Solidarity Caucus said in a statement.
The group weighed in one day after Mayor de Blasio and Chancellor Richard Carranza laid out a reopening plan that would have the city’s million-plus public-school students alternating two- and three-day weeks of in-class learning. The kids would continue with remote learning on the other days under the mock-up, meant to stem the spread of coronavirus by allowing for greater social-distancing in classrooms.
In addition to a scheduling upheaval, the teachers group stressed that the plan would have a disproportionately harmful impact on working parents who would have to schedule and pay for child care to cover days when they have to go to work but their kids are learning from home.
“Parents who do not have the option of working from home or are essential workers must be given viable and safe solutions for their child’s care,” the UFT wrote. “Remote learning may not be the best solution as parents cannot effectively work from home while simultaneously supervising their children’s education.”
UFT President Michael Mulgrew had previously stressed the dire need for a child-care plan, criticizing City Hall for not lending the matter more urgency with school slated to begin in eight weeks.
“We’ve been telling the city this for months, and they still have not gotten back to us,” he told The Post on Wednesday. “This is a crisis we know is coming right at us.”
The teachers group submitted a long list of concerns over the reopening of schools and questioned the DOE’s ability to effectively address them.
“We question the feasibility and the ability of the DOE to prepare for and implement such critical and necessary protocols across one of the largest school districts in the nation in an effective and competent manner,” the group said.
All schools must provide necessary cleaning and protective materials, the group said, also calling for the “daily monitoring” and regular testing of students and staffers for
COVID-19. But the UFT said Carranza and de Blasio “have failed to prove either their ability or willingness to prepare for and implement effective measures during this pandemic” and haven’t sought to “address the urgent and valid concerns of teachers, students, parents and families faced with an uncertain and unpredictable start of the academic year this coming September.”
The group additionally blasted President Trump for threatening to withhold funds from schools na tionwide over reopening disagreements. His positions “fly in the face of proven scientific fact and actual data” and “will not help the working poor of NYC or anywhere else in the country,” the group wrote.
Meanwhile, the head of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the agency will not revise reopening guidelines after Trump ripped them as expensive and burdensome.
“Our guidelines are our guidelines, but we are going to provide additional reference documents to aid basically communities that are trying to open K-through-12s,” CDC Director Robert Redfield said Thursday on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “It’s not a revision of the guidelines. It’s just to provide additional information to help schools be able to use the guidance we put forward.”
Redfield also rejected Trump’s assertion they were too restrictive.
“Right now, we’re continuing to work with the local jurisdictions to how they want to take the portfolio of guidance that we’ve given to make them practical for their schools to reopen,” he said.