Democrats press to open schools across the US as pandemic surges
In line with President-elect Joe Biden’s stated aim to reopen America’s schools during the first weeks of his administration, Democratic mayors and governors across the US are moving to resume in-person teaching in large urban school districts even as new infections, hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19 continue to reach new highs.
After the restart of in-person learning in New York City the country’s largest school district last month, Democratic officials in Washington state; Portland, Oregon; Chicago; Washington, DC; Oakland, California, and other big cities are working with teachers unions to resume face-to-face schooling as early as mid-January, despite widespread opposition from rank-and-file educators and parents.
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Quarantines Leave Schools Scrambling for Substitute Teachers
A Hanover College student works as a substitute teacher at a school in Greenfield, Indiana. Several states have relaxed qualification requirements for substitute teachers during the pandemic.
Michael Conroy
The Associated Press
Josephine Brewington has been a substitute teacher in suburban Beech Grove, Indiana, for a decade, but her job has grown in importance as her school district scrambles to supervise pupils whose teachers are sick, quarantining or caring for others.
“We’d have teachers from the high school come over and help teach fourth graders because we didn’t have enough subs,” Brewington said of how the system has handled absences this fall. “People from the offices are helping, principals are covering classrooms it’s like everyone’s pitching in.”
WASHINGTON, DC - DECEMBER 20: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) listens as Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) speaks during a press conference on Capitol Hill on December 20, 2020 in Washington, DC. Republicans and Democrats in the Senate finally came to an agreement on the coronavirus relief bill and a vote is expected on Monday.
Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images
Public schools are set to receive a major infusion of money from the stimulus package Congressional leaders agreed to this weekend: $54 billion, or four times what they received from the coronavirus relief bill passed in March.
The news caps a lengthy period of anxiety and uncertainty for school officials. As negotiations stopped and started for months, those leaders have worried that they did not have what they needed to safely staff their school buildings, address learning loss among their students, and make up for possible budget cuts at the state level. All told, the package, which could be approv
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Dr. Miguel Cardona.
One of President-elect Joe Biden’s campaign promises included naming a teacher as the next Secretary of Education.
Several names immediately came up including the New York-based Randi Weingarten, President of American Federation of Teachers and Lily Eskelsen García, former President of the National Education Association. But another area educator is also a contender.
Dr. Miguel Cardona is another name on Biden’s shortlist. Cardona’s parents are originally from Puerto Rico and he grew up in public housing in Meriden, Connecticut. He calls education, “the great equalizer.”
Cardona only spoke Spanish when he first entered school. After graduating from Central Connecticut State University, he started teaching fourth grade. Later in his career, he was named the 2012 Connecticut Association of Schools “National Distinguished Principal.” Since 2019, he has served the Connecticut Commissioner of the Department of Educ
As this year filled with so much loss, hardship and trauma draws to a close, I am grateful for signs of hope for the New Year. Americans, including many heroic frontline healthcare workers, are starting to receive vaccinations for COVID-19. The Biden-Harris transition team is already working on a comprehensive, science-based plan to combat the coronavirus. And new therapeutics appear to reduce the severity and lethality of this disease.
I am relieved that Congress is negotiating an urgently needed COVID-19 relief package with funding for vaccines, education, small businesses, unemployment benefits, direct relief checks, food programs, student debt relief and rental assistance, including for rural and other hard-hit communities. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is obstructing the resources states and localities need to respond to the pandemic, and I worry that the package will be grossly insufficient to alleviate the hardships so many Americans are suffering. Forty-five of