Teachers as Essential Workers

 President Trump has proudly declared teachers as "essential" workers.  President Trump has been in office since January, 2017, and he has left teachers out of his spotlight, until now.  Now, teachers are essential.  

What is an essential worker?   According to the U..S Department of Homeland Security, essential workers are those who conduct a range of operations and services that are typically essential to continue critical infrastructure operations. Critical infrastructure is a large, umbrella term encompassing sectors from energy to defense to agriculture.  (Link to original)  If you ask me, police officers, firefighters, military, doctors and nurses are essential workers.  People who need to show up every day to work.  Police stations have a staff 24/7, as do hospitals.  I didn't notice that teachers have a 24/7 station.

What else has President Trump done for education?  He named Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education.  Ms. DeVos doesn't believe in public schools.  According to Wikipedia, "She was Republican National Committeewoman for Michigan from 1992 to 1997 and served as chair of the Michigan Republican Party from 1996 to 2000."  She is part of the RNC.  She attended a private high school.  She attended a private college and earned a degree in business.  She didn't attend public high school or public college.  She doesn't have a degree in education.  But yet, Trump, who ran on draining the swamp, appointed a person with no experience in public education to Secretary of Education of the United States.  Has she advocated for more funding for public education?  NO.  Has she made community colleges more affordable?  No.  She hasn't advocated for the public schools or the teachers.  She hasn't provided funding to rebuild old public school buildings.  She hasn't provided funding to public schools, because according to President Trumps, are a local issue, but yet President Trump has declared public school teachers essential.

Has President Trump provided Covid19 tests to the public schools?  No.  He wants the doors open to public schools, but yet he won't provide the same kind of testing the White House to the public schools.  Public schools educate everyone - the poor, the wealthy, urban, suburban, rural, gifted children with high IQs, autistic students, students with asthma.  The public schools accept every student.  But yet, the teachers, students and staff can't get tested on a daily basis.  Imagine if every public school could test everyone that walks into the school for Covid19, similar to what the White House.  How would parents, students and staff feel about the safety of the schools?  President Trump hasn't and won't provide that testing for the public schools.  (I won't even get into the details that President Trump's child, Baron attends a school that is remote for the first month.)

President Trump hasn't stepped into a public school.  He doesn't know (or care) the daily issues public schools face.  President Trump wants schools to open so he can pretend Covid19 has disappeared.  However, by opening the schools, he will cause the death of many teachers and students.  But he doesn't care.  He hasn't led this country in mourning that 170,000 Americans have died of Covid19.  He hasn't provided PPE to nursing homes, hospitals, schools, cities and towns.  Instead, he had each of those entities try to purchase equipment in the open market, while also purchasing PPE for the Federal Government.  It was a giant mess.  He hasn't accepted responsibility of the PPE shortage.  

Please, teachers and students aren't firefighters with years of training of how to run into a burning building and fight a fire.  Students are still learning.  How do you keep a room full of 25 first graders six feet apart?  How do you keep a room of 25 second graders with their masks on all day?  President Trump can't answer these questions.  He doesn't care to answer them.  He just wants the schools open so on election day he can say that Trump beat Covid and opened the schools, but he won't tell you the expense - the death toll. 

PS:  Robert Redfield said on August 21, 2020 that teachers should self isolate and be out of the classroom if exposed to COVID19, which is not what other essential workers have to do.  Yesterday, it was expected that if teachers are exposed to COVID19, they should continue to be in the classroom.  Follow the science of Dr. Redfield.  Exposed teachers should not be in the classroom.

PSS:  “The wearing of masks is not an alternative to social distancing. It’s not an alternative to hand washing. It’s not an alternative to decompressing class sizes. It’s not an alternative to all of the other measures,” said Dr. Mike Ryan, from the WHO.