Trying to digest this CPS framework, and our main takeaway is this: They're asking a school district that is more than 80 percent Black and Latinx - communities that have suffered the most harm RE: COVID-19 - to return to school communities that cannot guarantee safety. #thread
CPS has reached the conclusion to plan for hybrid learning, and we think full remote learning is more appropriate based on the situation throughout our country and rising rates locally. But remote learning isn't forever. And there are questions that still need to be answered.
Access to Internet and devices for remote learning is still an issue. Students and families need these resources now, not a month from now or whenever the district makes its final decision.
How does a family upload a health check without access to the Internet, or a device to log data on?
Thousands of students commute to school via the CTA, which would be a breeding ground for transmission of the virus. Not a word about that.
Nothing about additional staff beyond 400 additional custodians. The issues students had prior to COVID still remain, and then some. In person staffing remains insufficient to make people safe. We still need nurses, social workers, SPED/ELL teachers and to make SEL a priority.
Our parents and families need support. Politicians talk a lot about what parents don't do without giving them the resources to do it. Families need Universal Basic Income, expansion of food stamp benefits, extend unemployment, sick leave and the moratorium on evictions.
Speaking of politicians...Donald Trump? Pure buffoonery. Arguably the worst president in a long line of corruption, slaveholders, slavery defenders and segregationists. He wants our students in buildings that may not be safe. Chicago cannot start listening to Donald Trump now.
Nine out of 10 Black families find risk in sending their children back to U.S. schools. Eight out of 10 Latinx families find risk in sending their children back to U.S. schools. This is public ed. This is CPS.
So why are we sending them back to CPS? axios.com/axios-ipsos-co…
So why are we sending them back to CPS? axios.com/axios-ipsos-co…
Donald Trump can’t force us back into unsafe places without providing resources for families. If the president wants children back in schools, he needs to send a check to parents every month.
If Trump and Betsy DeVos' corporate cronies are pushing to reopen schools with in-person teaching this fall, they need to send a check to parents every month.
Bottom line: If parents are being pushed back into the work force because of the needs of the economy, then the corporations driving the economy need to step up.
We can't have any more empty rhetoric. Not now. Especially not now. We're dealing with two pandemics: COVID-19 and the rampant inequality that has existed for generations and leaves Black and Brown communities neglected and disenfranchised.
CPS may eventually go full remote depending on what happens to COVID-19 numbers. But the district needs to clearly state what that criteria is. Their framework also does not include procedures for testing; nor does it discuss contact tracing.
Teachers may rotate across a few pods, but in most schools, there is only one art teacher, for example, for the entire building, meaning that teacher sees all the students, not just a “few pods.”
So the risk is that the teacher who works with every student in the building becomes the vector, not to mention the actual risk to that teacher. We see no plan to address this shortcoming in the pod system, and no stated intention to hire extra teachers.
Taking all this into consideration, we strongly feel that there are operational and logistical challenges that make in-school learning a bad idea at this time.
We intend to fight for as safe a plan as possible, and will continue to use the power of solidarity and the power of our union to defend our members, our students and their families at all costs.
