Last month, the CTU laid out its basic objection in one short if repetitive sentence: "The push to reopen schools is rooted in sexism, racism and misogyny."
This non-sequitur of an argument-why would racists advocate on behalf of educating a school population that's 89 percent nonwhite?-has nonetheless been popular this past week among teachers unions and their supporters who oppose reopening schools on grounds of safety, even though the Centers for Disease Control has repeatedly stressed that schools are "One of the safest places [kids] can be."
"Will We Let 'Nice White Parents' Kill Black and Brown Families?" asked the Chicago Unheard headline over a Jan. 24 piece by public school teacher Mike Friedberg.
The Cambridge Education Association on Friday rejected school reopening plans while endorsing an Educators of Color Coalition letter that stated in part, "We have said repeatedly that the process the District has undergone, as well as the plans they have put forth for reopening, are rooted in white supremacy norms, values, and culture."
As are the New Jersey townships of Montclair, which this week saw unions pull the rug out from under school reopening, and nearby Maplewood, which last week finally reopened.
April Mason, a public-relations professional, told New York reporter Andrew Rice that she was hesitant to speak up about reopening schools: "I'm a liberal, and I didn't want to make a lot of noise about this issue. It was almost like this whisper campaign."
How many of them were outraged, she asked, at the disparities within the school system before COVID? Through her eyes, it looked as if many of the protesters were affluent suburban parents, demanding that the schools bend to serve their own needs, as usual, while wishing away the deadly reality of the pandemic.
https://reason.com/2021/01/27/teachers-unions-use-accusations-of-racism-to-oppose-school-reopening/
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