Some of the nation’s leading teachers unions are backing a “safe schools” plan that outlines what teachers and administrators need for students to return to classrooms either amid or immediately following the coronavirus pandemic, but few of the topline demands have much to do with COVID-19.
In a document labeled “demands,” the group, under the banner of the Journeys for Justice Alliance, claims that no return to classrooms will be truly “healthy” until those same schools are also “equitable.” And to that end, they have a list of eight demands that outline conditions under which union teachers may agree to return to in-classroom instruction.
At least two of the demands are, in fact, related to the novel coronavirus, with teachers demanding “safe conditions including lower class sizes, PPE, cleaning, testing, and other key protocols equitable access to online learning,” and at least one other is tangentially related, asking that “all schools must be supported to function as community schools with adequate numbers of counselors and nurses and community/parent outreach workers.”
The list also notes that schools should not be required to open until “scientific data” supports a mass return to classrooms. – READ MORE
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