Teachers unions slam Devos on reopening
Democrats and Ohio’s teachers unions blasted Education Secretary Betsy Devos for her call to fully reopen schools this fall amid a surge in coronavirus infections.
“Two words come to mind: callous and clueless,” said Scott Dimauro, president of the Ohio Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union. “Secretary Devos’ comments about just utterly disregarding the health and safety threat (of) reopening schools without clear public health guidance was actually pretty shocking.
“She doesn’t care about the health and safety of students in school but also the teachers and educational support professionals, their families and communities. We know that if the opening of the schools is not done right it is going to be disaster.”
In a pair of interviews on news shows Sunday, Devos stressed the importance of having students return to the classroom full time, mirroring calls made by President Donald Trump, and standing by his threat to withhold federal funds for schools failing to comply.
“There’s nothing in the data that suggests that kids being in school is in any way dangerous,” Devos told Fox
News. “We know that children contract and have the virus at far lower incidence than any other part of the population, and we know that other countries around the world have reopened their schools and have done so successfully and safely.”
Melissa Cropper, president of the Ohio Federation of Teachers, said teachers want to be back in the classroom, but safely.
“The difference between us and Betsy Devos and the Trump administration is we also prioritize health and safety.”
The decision on when and how Ohio’s 1.7 million students return to school will be made by the more than 600 local school districts across the state.
As coronavirus cases continue to rise rapidly, many districts have announced that they’re exploring several options for reopening schools, ranging from all remote learning to traditional in-person instruction, or a hybrid of both. Many are expected to have an online option for children whose parents don’t want them to return to the classroom.
Officials say they are taking into account local coronavirus infection rates and alert levels, state and federal health guidelines, community expectations and family surveys.
Ohio Democratic Chairman David Pepper hosted the call with reporters that featured Dimauro, Cropper and others a day ahead of Devos’ virtual appearance on Tuesday with the Columbus chapter of the Federalist Society.
The union presidents, traditional Democratic backers, said Ohio teachers and others are concerned about the Trump administrations threat to pull federal funding from public schools that do not fully reopen.
But the union leaders do not think the administration can cut federal aid appropriated by Congress, most of which goes to disadvantaged and disabled students.
“When (Devos) puts that kind of rhetoric out there in the public, what we are concerned about is, is it going to pressure districts into making decisions based on finances rather than upon the safety and well-being of students and teachers,” Cropper said.
The union presidents stressed that schools will need additional money, not less, to reopen safely in the COVID-19 era.
Dimauro said, “The costs for reopening schools safely are much higher than the normal costs that we normally see. Columbus City Schools alone have estimated — when you put (in) all the sanitation measures and PPE and things like that — they could be looking at an increase of $100 million in costs.
“I know we are hearing that from the larger (districts) from around the state.” ccandisky@dispatch.com @ccandisky