“Well, the president said today, we just don’t want the guidance to be too tough,” Mr. Pence said. “That’s the reason why next week, the C.D.C. is going to be issuing a new set of tools, five different documents that will be giving even more clarity on the guidance going forward.”
Mr. Trump openly rebuffed the C.D.C. on Twitter Wednesday morning, assailing current guidelines issued by the agency recommending a slew of preventive measures necessary to bring the nation’s children back to class. And he threatened to cut off federal aid to schools that refuse to fully reopen this fall.
In overriding the CDC Guidelines [https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/schools-childcare/schools.html] for a safe opening of schools President Trump revealed that he cares more about his political and economic goals for the fall than for the welfare of school children. While this barely rises to the level of news about our President, it confirms that he is willing to put both public education and students in jeopardy in order to promote his agenda for a complete re-opening of business as soon as possible.
Since Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos was physically present when Vice President Pence made this press release, we have to assume that she fully supports the lowering of the CDC’s requirements. If anyone could have stood in the breach when the President announced he would undermine the precautions of his own public health experts, it should have been her.
Since the leaders of local schools in Missouri have pondered long about how best to re-open safely, they must be dismayed that the leadership in Washington has already prejudged the level of precaution necessary and was prepared to dismiss their plans as too restrictive. It confirms that both the President and his Education Secretary are tone-deaf about the priorities of actual teachers and principals and their professional discretion to set their own standards of safety. President Trump had the audacity to threaten to cut off aid aid to public schools if professional educators could not in conscience fully re-open schools in the fall. How sadly familiar these threats sound in the mouth of President Trump!
I think we have heard enough from this President when school children become the pawns of his economic strategy and victims of his electoral ambitions. It is bad enough that the children of immigrants have been threatened by the termination of DACA or that college students have been defrauded by Trump University, but now POTUS over-reaches his authority to place all children in preK-12 schools at risk for the Coronavirus.
I think we can rule out the likelihood of Donald Trump becoming the “Education President.”
I read a FB post today that put forth the idea that it isn’t up to educators to fix the economy, be the babysitters so parents could go to work, or get things “back to normal”. I agree. He is ready to sacrifice educators (and children) for his political goals. Sad human being indeed.
So true. For some the purpose of school is so parents can work. Unfortunately the five-day school week May be a thing of the past.
I was gratified that the CDC has refused to change its guidelines. I am confident that our local schools will adhere to the guidelines to keep students and faculty as safe as possible. Thank God that people are becoming tone-deaf to this POTUS and his thoughtless blather.