Republicans decry Biden’s school opening stance
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is in a political firestorm over how and when to get more schools open amid the coronavirus pandemic, with Republicans painting the president as beholden to teachers unions at the expense of American families.
On Tuesday night, the president said his 100-day goal was to have most elementary schools open five days a week, seeming to conflict with his own press secretary, who had said last week that schools would be considered “open” if they held in-person classes even one day a week.
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, (and) in terms of sanitizing.
“It’s possible. But at this stage, at this point, it’s not probable,” he said.
This leaves Biden caught between teachers unions expressing caution towards 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 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 suburban swing voters who can be decisive in close 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.