The White House is doubling down on President Biden's goal to reopen schools for in-person learning in the first 100 days of his presidency.for one day per week. In fact,
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President Joe Biden has committed to reopening most of America’s K-8 schools within the first 100 days of his administration, a goal the country’s two most powerful teachers unions endorse. Some GOP lawmakers, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), want Biden to move faster, ordering districts to resume in-person instruction immediately.
“Science is not the obstacle. Federal money is not the obstacle. The obstacle is a lack of willpower,” McConnell said on the Senate floor. “Not among students. Not among parents. Just among the rich, powerful unions that donate huge sums to Democrats and get a stranglehold over education in many communities.”
The Atlantic
The past year has produced a cross-class coalition for educational choice that reaches deep into the suburbs.
February 8, 2021
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Updated at 1:49 p.m. ET on February 11, 2021.
President Joe Biden has made it clear that he wants to “reopen school doors as quickly as possible,” and that he’s willing to spend generously to make this happen. But he’s not going to get his wish. Even if Congress passes the president’s pandemic-relief plan, which includes $130 billion for the reopening of K–12 schools, in addition to the $67.2 billion Congress has already authorized under the CARES Act and the pandemic-relief legislation that passed in December, some teachers’ unions are setting out conditions for reopening that will be exceedingly difficult to meet, and threatening further “safety strikes” if they don’t get their way. In some districts where the teachers’ unions are especially powerful, the return of in-person learning might not ha