“If Disney World can be open, so can our schools,” an administration spokesperson said.
The American Academy of Pediatrics is joining teachers unions and school superintendents in blasting Trump administration threats to withhold federal funds from schools that do not fully reopen, splitting with the president even as he tweeted again on Friday that schools “must be open in the Fall.”
The alignment of the children’s doctors with unions and superintendents is significant, following a week in which the Trump administration widely touted an earlier report from pediatricians that “strongly advocates that all policy considerations for the coming school year should start with a goal of having students physically present in school.”
The doctors said Friday that a “one-size-fits-all approach is not appropriate” for decision making.
“Withholding funding from schools that do not open in person fulltime would be a misguided approach, putting already financially strapped schools in an impossible position that would threaten the health of students and teachers,” the pediatricians wrote in a statement with the American Federation of Teachers, National Education Association and AASA, The School Superintendents Association.
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White House spokesperson Judd Deere, responding to the groups’ statement, said, “If unions and misguided local leaders are going to hold schools hostage, putting our children’s mental and social development in jeopardy, President Trump is not going to waste taxpayer dollars.”
Highlighting Disney World’s phased reopening, beginning Saturday, amid the coronavirus surge in Florida, his statement continued, “If Disney World can be open so can our schools and this Administration will work in partnership to provide the resources and guidance needed for higher education institutions as well as local school districts to do that.”
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The Friday statement, led by the academy, says reopening schools in a way that maximizes safety, learning and the well-being of students and teachers “will clearly require substantial new investments in our schools and campuses.”
The groups called on Congress and the administration to provide the federal resources to ensure that “inadequate funding does not stand in the way of safely educating and caring for children in our schools.”
The groups stressed the importance of learning in a classroom, but said reopening should be pursued in a safe way and with public health experts, education leaders and parents at the center of decisions. Schools in areas with high levels of Covid-19 community spread, for example, “should not be compelled to reopen” against local experts’ judgment.
“Public health agencies must make recommendations based on evidence, not politics,” they said. “We should leave it to health experts to tell us when the time is best to open up school buildings, and listen to educators and administrators to shape how we do it.”
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The American Academy of Pediatrics is joining teachers unions and school superintendents in blasting Trump administration threats to withhold federal funds from schools that do not fully reopenhttps://t.co/ee1bH84TYV
— POLITICO (@politico) July 10, 2020Trump logic looks like this:
Coronavirus is so dangerous Paul Manafort is serving his prison time at home, but safe enough for our kids to go back to school.
— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) July 10, 2020
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