February 18, 2021
By Jeanne Allen, Founder and CEO of CER

People rally to reopen the schools and put students back in the classroom during the coronavirus pandemic on a snowy day. (Photo by: Michael Siluk/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images) The media finally appear to be losing patience at the Administration’s waffling on the issue of school reopening. Joe Biden made school reopening and his ability to get it done quickly and safely a signature campaign promise. Many observers and fans were led to believe that given his extraordinary influence with the heads of the teachers unions, he’d be able to prevail on them to move out of the way, knowing that their nemesis Donald Trump was no longer calling the shots.

But then a funny thing happened. The unions moved the goal post. Again. And again. And suddenly President Biden has gone from promising to open schools to committing to open schools one day a week in the first hundred days, to deferring to the CDC guidance on opening, only to find that the CDC guidance is no more ambitious than it was three months ago – and that the unions still refuse to follow that guidance.

On national television this week, CNN anchor John Berman tried to get to the heart of how the president now feels about the issue, asking Symone Sanders, chief advisor and chief spokesperson for the Vice President, who refused to answer the question.Berman: “The question is ‘is it safe for teachers to go back to school?’ It’s a very specific question.  I don’t understand why it’s a hard question to answer.”

Sanders: “It is the Administration’s position that teachers should be prioritized for vaccinations. …”

Berman: “Does the president feel that teachers have to be vaccinated for schools to open, yes or no?”

Symone Sanders, the chief spokesperson for Vice President Kamala Harris, repeatedly dodged a question Wednesday from CNN host John Berman on whether or not need the coronavirus vaccine in order for schools to safely reopen. CNN / YOUTUBE And once again Sanders dodges him, and Berman gets no answer.

The Administration is bending to the unions, which despite colorful pictorial articles written about their willingness to find common ground, are refusing to negotiate.

Just yesterday, Philadelphia Federation of Teachers president Jerry T. Jordan, who has long complained about not enough resources or assurances of safety to open, announced that the schools still would not open.  Claiming it is the decision of the district (as if they don’t control when teachers show up and not), Jordan wrote, “the Federation’s position that we are unable to verify the safety of buildings for reoccupancy… remains unchanged.”

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, center left, speaks during a news conference outside Samuel Gompers Public School in Philadelphia, Monday, Feb. 8, 2021. A mediator will decide if Philadelphia school teachers must return to their classrooms despite safety concerns as the district plans to resume in-person instruction later this month. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) AFT president Randi Weingarten, who once infamously compared school choice options for kids to segregation, tweeted her approval of this decision, after pledging that she is working tirelessly on the issue of getting teachers and students back in school. Weingarten is confident schools will reopen, saying, “Take me at my word.” (Yet it’s common knowledge to union experts that Philly’s Jordan doesn’t make a move without her approval). And is the union’s involvement helping students? Years of research suggests otherwise: “Unions do not appear to help — and might actually hinder — student test scores and graduation rates. Early research suggests that students in unionized districts earn slightly higher achievement scores. But …the most rigorous studies, which were conducted in more recent years, indicate that students in unionized districts have slightly higher dropout rates and slightly lower rates of math and reading proficiency.”

Which begs the question as to why the politicians abide union behavior.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot says the unions are  “something akin to a political party…” and that “LA and San Francisco had to sue to force the conversation about reopening.”Meanwhile, the union she has supported for years accused her of racism (Lightfoot is Black) and said that school closures would not poorly affect student outcomes. The statement is irresponsible – and harmful.

Millions of parents are struggling just to keep up with learning, knowing that:

• Fewer than twenty percent of lower income fourth grade students alone are proficient in math and reading in a “normal” year, in a traditional public school. The average proficiency is only 40 percent.

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS – FEBRUARY 11: Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot visits William H. Brown School of Technology as student begin returning to in-person instruction on February 11, 2021 in Chicago, Illinois. The city recently reached an agreement with the teachers union to phase in in-person instruction beginning today with pre-kindergarten and special education students returning today. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

• That one in six students who do not read proficiently by third grade are four times more likely to not graduate high school (approximately 22%).
• Math proficiency is linked to college readiness.
• The median wage for high school dropouts is one and half times lower than high school graduates.

Which begs the question as to why the politicians abide union behavior.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot says the unions are  “something akin to a political party…” and that “LA and San Francisco had to sue to force the conversation about reopening.”

Detail of data from the Nation’s Report Card showing Math and Reading performance in Philadelphia schools. NAEP / NATION’S REPORT CARDYet, the unions are ignoring the educational purpose of schooling, and instead are demanding more resources to open, ignoring the science and acting as if they have no control over the situation.

Of the $68 billion allocated for school reopenings and safety through states, districts have drawn down only $4 billion of it, and the unions are demanding more, claiming they need more resources to open. It’s likely that this maneuvering is a big fat bargaining chip, and that when the nation’s kids are at their absolute worst, they will use this to secure a major federally subsidized pay raise that will magically result in them unlocking the gates.

It will be too late by then, and their miscalculations now and in the future will be met by not only fury, but a major rejection of their policies. Despite polls saying otherwise (and most who answer polls about education are unlikely to be parents on the front lines answering unknown callers or online surveys), unions will reap what they sow. And the children will suffer.Follow Jeanne on Twitter or LinkedIn or some of her other work here. 

Founded in 1993, the Center for Education Reform aims to expand educational opportunities that lead to improved economic outcomes for all Americans — particularly our youth — ensuring that conditions are ripe for innovation, freedom and flexibility throughout U.S. education.