Across the country, teachers unions and associated education groups, including those in Arizona, are calling for a two-week delay in a return to the classroom from the Christmas break. The demand is spreading despite the fact that children have virtually zero chance of serious harm from COVID-19 infection, and most classroom teachers have been both vaxxed and have received a booster shot.
Rebecca Garelli, founding member and organizer with Arizona’s chapter of National Educators United and a member of the Steering Committee of the Democratic Socialist Labor Commission, called on “allies” in a tweet to sign an “Open Letter to ALL federal and state decision makers,” for a pause in-person learning across the nation…”
#RedforEd educators & allies, please sign this Open Letter to ALL federal and state decision makers. We need to pause in-person learning across the nation for, at minimum, #2Weeks in order to #ProtectOurCommunity
Sign NOW- https://t.co/zuIA5cB0hg https://t.co/8lqW1vpv52— Rebecca Garelli (@RebeccaGarelli) December 31, 2021
After the Biden administration’s polling numbers began to drop, and a new Surgeon General’s report released in early December showed attempted suicides among teens have skyrocketed, progressive politicians and pundits quickly pivoted and called for a return to “normal.”
We collectively took action to protect the elderly from Covid. Now, shouldn’t we be doing more to protect children by letting them live normal lives? Or, to pose the Q another way, are we really going to close schools again and let kids suffer even more? pic.twitter.com/FO1AjzneGh
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) December 19, 2021
However, many see the unions using the increasing rates of positive omicron variant COVID-19 tests as an opportunity to stay in their pajamas at home and teach to increasingly disconnected children online.
“The prolonged pauses along with unpredictable stops and starts for in-person learning have been detrimental to our students and working families across our state and country,” said Arizona State Rep. Beverly Pingerelli, who also serves on the Peoria Unified School District Governing Board. “Scientists have indicated that the severity of the omicron virus poses minimal risk to young people, while we know reinstating remote learning will only contribute to and exacerbate academic deficiencies. Students need continuity and consistency to ensure the best learning outcomes. Of course, if the data gives us a different picture, additional precautions may be necessary, but at this point let’s keep our kids in schools and parents working.”
“It has been nearly two years of back and forth for our children,” said Charlotte Golla, a mother of children in the Chandler Unified School District. “Enough talk about resilience. COVID-19 learning loss is real and the fallout from it will be felt for the years to come. We must keep the kids in school.”
“After all we’ve been through the past two years, it’s upsetting to see a push to keep healthy kids home from school again. It makes absolutely no sense,” said Amy Carney, mother of 6 and candidate for Scottsdale Unified School Board. “Parents are completely capable of deciding if their child is well enough to go to school and be educated or not. What’s reckless is union leaders pretending to care about our kids while trying to wreak havoc on their education again.”
“First it was the “walkout” (i.e. illegal.strike) of 2018, next the 2020 panicdemic “shut down” extended much longer than necessary, to the detriment of our children, at the demand of teachers unwilling to return to their classrooms,” said former Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas in an email to the ADI. “Now they are conspiring to kick-off 2022 with a two-week “delay” in returning after the two week Christmas break?!? It seems that it is becoming a biennial “tradition” that Arizona teachers are walking off the job and leaving our children in the lurch. One is left to wonder how many times does it take until our elected governing board members or the State Board of Education are willing to impose some consequences for this dereliction of duties?”
National Educators United describes itself as an organization dedicated to “collective action in our different states and local contexts to meet our demands. The organization also hopes to “replace charter schools, education reform, standardized testing, scripted curriculum, and the corporatization of education with fully-funded, democratically operated neighborhood community schools with that center racial equity and social justice.”