“New guidance from the President Donald Trump’s administration that declares teachers to be ‘critical infrastructure workers’ could give the green light to exempting teachers from quarantine requirements after being exposed to COVID-19 and instead send them back into the classroom,” NBC News reported on Thursday, Aug. 20, 2020 (read story here).
Trump is pushing to reopen schools at all costs, in order to reopen the economy, in order to save his re-election. That includes making teachers, students, and parents sick. Kids can bring Covid-19 home from school, give it to the parents, and if there are elderly relatives in the household it could kill them.
Trump will do anything to stay in office. And Republican elected officials in general are prioritizing dollars over lives. Back in March, a Republican lieutenant governor made it explicit when he argued that grandparents (but not his grandparents) should be willing to die to reopen the economy.
Many Republican voters are even worse. They’ve embraced conspiracy theories, have been lax about spreading Covid-19 infections, resisted health measures, and in extreme cases insisted Covid-19 is a Chinese or Democratic (choose one) hoax, brandished guns in public buildings to protest closures and restrictions, and sometimes assaulted retail workers for trying to enforce stores’ mask policies.
It’s not sitting well with the majority of Americans. Polls show most voters disapprove of how Trump and the GOP have handled the Covid-19 crisis. And time after time, GOP-run states have had to reimpose closures and restrictions when infections exploded.
Florida’s teachers are fighting their GOP governor in court. “For a second day in a row, lawyers for the Florida Education Association clashed with the governor’s lawyers Thursday over plans to resume in-person teaching by the end of the month,” NBC News reported (read story here).
But hey, at least teachers know they’re “critical infrastructure,” like bridges that fall down and unsafe water supplies.
This photo got a Georgia high school girl suspended. Three days later the school was forced to close because teachers and students were getting infected. Several colleges also are sending students home from campuses after experimenting with live classes.
Teachers taught during the Hong Kong flu and kids went to school. More moms were stay at home then, and kids were kept away from grand parents. Good enough for President Johbson and Nixon, why not Trump?
And that was a seasonal flu with a summer break. Voters ultimately their pocket book in most elections, but an economy on hold indefinitely because of a virus is an economic crises of choice. Kids cannot be kept out of school indefinitely. College students who attend a off site party probably can’t be expelled. Well in todays environment they can be and Pudue and other schools pocket thousands of dollars? Ordnarily we would call this fraud on the part of colleges, and remind the schools that students are suppossed to be responsible and if they show up to class and function the school needs to do their part of the contract. 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders not receiving instruction in a public or private are being harmed. It is why we build schools in 3rd world nations and failed nations.